hi there guys, well im trying to make the intake mod in my Xtrail(rogue 2015). I really hate to see too many noise reducer on this engine which means air turbulence and sometimes less mpg/power. At least on my last car i removed almost everything and the difference was good, i got more mpg and better engine noise(S80 V8 awd).

Here is what i plan to remove and of course seal the holes.


part 14. I can remove it and block the hole on the hose.
part. 13,12 too

The point is avoid all the air traveling to those parts and try to make it easy to get in faster and better. Maybe im crazy but it worth to try lol

Here is some pics of the duct and all the air trap to reduce noise on this engine. The 2 sections of the intake before the air box has enough holes to produce too much turbulence and make the air speed much lower than we desire on these engines.
This is the air box above the engine, it has 2 hoses, one for the engine valve cover and other one goes to the intake hose.






Here is the air ducts before the air filter box.

I still don't see what you are going to do here? What are you showing us with those last 3 pictures?

What does your final assembly look like?

no problem, let me explain it. the parts 13 and 12 are parts that most of the cars use in different designs to reduce the engine noise, Honda, for example, use a lot of this to make their engines less noise. those parts also affect how the air is traveling on the air duct-to air filter box-intake manifold, remember less restrictions means more air, more air/fuel in the combustion chamber as a result more efficient engine which give you more mpg/power.


Here is an idea of whats going on:


here is what i did on my S80 V8 so you can understand what my goal is.
stock air box.




you can see the air trap on this picture which helps to reduce the engine noise. Those flexible hoses make a lot of turbulence and the air travels slower
.

this is what i did.






that mod makes the air coming from the front grill pass all the way from the air box to the throttle body/intake manifold much faster and easier, so the throttle response on my car was amazing with a simple mod. I will check if this work on the Rogue due all the trap used by the factory.
BTW, I have a performance shop lol, so I always try different things on my cars. Sorry for my bad grammar, English is not my first language

here is the finall result, i made a block shield for the front grill duct and also a tap to install the valve cover hose and remove the huge air box that goes above the engine, really good results. The mpg monitor shows about 2-3mpg increase and the throttle response is a lot better!!!.









final result




Installed with the new hose





Stock vs mod.

here is the front duct from the grill. The small holes are for any reason water pass there,it will drop under the car and not pass to the air box. I did the same with the other holes on the duct but blocked complelty because there is no reason to make holes there.

If I understand correctly, you bypassed the big airbox and send the incoming airflow straight to the engine?
How much improvement do you feel, and if this box is for noise reduction, how is the new noise level?

That's correct, the air flow coming from the air filter box goes directly to the throttle body because it doesn't pass thru the air box located above the engine. Right now I see much better throttle response, at least on my screen my mpg went up 2 mpg and the noise level seems to be a bit more under wet, in normal acceleration seems to be exactly the same.
I will trarck on fuelly my mpg and see short/long term difference.

That's a cool trick.
Keep us posted to see the long term benefits. I already find this engine a little loud at WOT. On the other hand, normal cruising is really quiet so I would hate adding more decibels.
Also machining that part was neat. Would you have the specs so if some of us decide to pull the trigger, we can go to a machine shop and have it done?

will do, really simple mod with great results. For my mpg is really important cause i drive a lot of miles a week. This is my wife suv, i drive a jetta mk6 TDI.
I think you will not see huge noise difference on the engine at wot, so its fine, i notice just a bit more, my wife didnt notice the difference lol.

LOL, am I the only one who quickly glanced through the pictures wondering:
a) Who would swap a V8 into a Rogue?
b) Who would swap a V8 into a Rogue and THEN put a stock engine back in?

Nice writeup, it seems like an idea that is definitely worth exploring. Not to try to peer pressure you, but if you have access to the lathe and that I am sure you could help out a couple members here buy selling the metal fittings because, at least in my area, it is very difficult to find a machine shop willing to do one-off work for you without charging an arm and a leg. You make a little money doing something you like, members get the parts they like, seems like a win-win.

no bad Idea, i can do that, it depends of how many wants to do something like this. Also i contacted AFEpower R&D to figure out if they can start to do the air filter and maybe later an intake. Im AFE dealer so hope they can do something for us. I cant believe the filters on this cars are so bad at 7500-10000 miles(check yours). I dont live in a dusty environment at all. I check mine and also a few other Rogue at the dealer with less miles than mine and the filters were nasty!. I bought a new one at $22 usd cause of course this parts is not under warranty.

TrevorK is absolutely right.
That would be a great idea if you accepted to do this. I would be willing to fire the first shot and order one from you. How much would you value this little part? Including the price of the aluminium and the time you spend?

Meynardo wrote:TrevorK is absolutely right.
That would be a great idea if you accepted to do this. I would be willing to fire the first shot and order one from you. How much would you value this little part? Including the price of the aluminium and the time you spend?

Ok, before this goes any further, I'd like to point out that this would probably fall under house rules for the Fabricators' Market.

Im on the middle of the tank. The throttle response is a way better than stock. At least at this point my mpg is confirmed about 2mpg more. We will see after fuelly logs compare.

You are absolutely right Rogue One. Thanks for the reminder.
In any cases, this is a good mod that I will definitely try as soon as I get the chance.

xtrailmty wrote:Im on the middle of the tank. The throttle response is a way better than stock. At least at this point my mpg is confirmed about 2mpg more. We will see after fuelly logs compare.

xtrailmty, I will have time thhis Sunday to try this. Is removing the big airbox on top of the engine the only modification you did? I will find a way to connect the hose without the machined part you created.
You also talked about plugging holes in the grille intake duct and remove part 12 and 13.
Can you list exactly what you did? In the meantime, thanks for sharing your find.

Meynardo, if you remove the ducts you will see a few holes inside, i put some duct tape there and apply epoxy with a brush to avoid the tape fall off after time. Here is a few pics of what i did. Believe me this mod is a huge improvement on this car with the air duct removed.

Hey xtrailmty what kind of hose did you use? Also, what is the diameter of that hose?

Thanks

dont remember i think is 5/8", i got it from my local autozone. Its fuel hose.

xtrailmty wrote:dont remember i think is 5/8", i got it from my local autozone. Its fuel hose.

Thanks

xtrailmty wrote:Meynardo, if you remove the ducts you will see a few holes inside, i put some duct tape there and apply epoxy with a brush to avoid the tape fall off after time. Here is a few pics of what i did. Believe me this mod is a huge improvement on this car with the air duct removed.

So basically, remove the big airbox on top of the engine and plug any hole that exist in the air duct, from the front of the engine to the filter box?

yes thats correct. Remove the duct 8 and 7, block the holes inside with duct tape and apply epoxy or any method you want. then remove the box assembly 14 and replace with the hose and adapter.

OK. Let me tell you that your trick is awesome. Right away I noticed a big improvement in responsiveness. I haven't noticed a difference with the noise level so I am super happy with this mod.
Thanks to a friend's 3D printer, I was able to get that reducer done and I just love the way the car behaves now. You are right, this air duct is full of holes and your pictures make so much more sense once you remove the parts from the engine and see what is going on.
If you have any other tricks up your sleeve, please share.

Once again, a big thank you for sharing this find.

Great! I'm glad it works for you too. I know the picture doesn't seem to be easy to understand, if you haven't remove the ducts before. Enjoy and report back with the mpg!

Meynardo, let us know your mpg, after a full tank my mpg increase about 2mpg, not bad.

this thread is very intriguing.....please keep the discussion open.... and someone tell me how to get/make the reducer since it all hinges on that part

I just put a Banks Ram Air air filter on my 06 Wrangler. At WOT sounds like a sports car. Combined with using premium, it's a whole different car.

Never thought (yet) to tinker with this on my 2014 Rogue :-)

Great stuff. Subscribed for any developments and MPG results

Second, tank with this and seems the mpg is now 2.5mpg more(compared without this mod). Will report back with more results. It seems that the engine feels smoother and the power increase is noticeable from a stop. On the highway is really impressive how the engine performance feel.