Changed turbo- help with intercooler...

[saturnvii7]

So I ended up biting the bullet and taking my car into a shop to finish the head gasket replacement. I also had the turbo replaced with a T3/T4 combo which leads to my current problem; the stock rubber intake tube is a 3" to 2" reduction. The new turbo has a 3" inlet; so I need to either modfiy the existing piece (probably via cutting and sleeving a new piece to it, find a replacement piece that happens to be 3" to 3", or completely replace the stock intake.

Three things I was hoping for some help with:

The flapping valve that comes right after the filter, what's it for and do I need it. The closest thing I can figure is that it's some precursor to a blowoff valve.

Does anyone know of a car that happens to have a 3" to 3" similar length transition? I was planning on hitting the junkyard tomorrow to get a new rear bumper anyways.

If the valve by the MAF sensor is unecessary, what would be the cheapest way to get the car running? A friend was mentioning some flexible intake piping (he implied rubber) that he'd actually heard good things about, but I can't seem to find any sellers of it.

I'm going to do an intercooler setup before the summer hits but I want to do it right, so I'm just looking for a stopgap solution for now. I won't be trying to up the power until I know what kind of overall condition the vehicle is in.

[evildky]

this is the problem with the crappy bosch L jetronic fuel injection system on the 280zxt, that little falpper thing is the mas aor flow meter (MAF) and yes you have to have it so long as you run the stock engine management, the air being sucked through it moves taht vane which is hooked to a sort of potentiometer which along with rpm and temp allows the ecu to decide how much fuel to let in, the problem with juet replacing that rubber pipe between the maf and the turbo inlet is that the your cold start depends on the metered air not used for idle to be placed back into the intake path with other metered air, so you're best bet is to cut it back or otherwise adapt the stock pipe to fit the turbo or use hard pipe with an extra nipple on the side for the idel air return circuit, or you can remove all the stock injection harness and run a stand alone like megasquirt which allows you to run a MAP sensor instead (this is what I did)

now the other problem you have is that the larger turbo flows more air then stock so you will now be lean, you need to flow extra fuel, with a stand alone you can program it to deliver more fuel or the easy fix is to use an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and up the fuel a couple lbs, you'll be rich at the bottome but at least you won't blow anything up from being lean up top

as for intercooler, there is a hks or greddy kti one available for the s130 chassis, the problem is it costs as much as the car, treadstone makes a good vertical flow intercooler which lends itself th the engine layout, and plan on dropping two or three hundred bucks on pipes , silicone hoses and clamps

back to the inlet piping, you can get piping and silicoln in the 3" that you need but remember to add a fitting for the idle air circuit if you plan to stick to stock injectioon, and the stock fuel pump and injectors will max out at about 250 whp

also what turbo did you use? there are lots of possible t3 t4 combo's and I don't trust offbrand turbo's

[saturnvii7]

Thanks for the response, I ended up just modifying the intake using a section of piping connecting the intake system to the throttle body on a old 3800 series GM motor, with sleeved with a coupler and sealed with "goop". Seems to have turned out pretty well. I was able to maintain all the stock functionality of the intake. It's a temporary solution but it'll hold me over until I'm ready to redo the injection system and build a good intercooler system. I did notice that there isn't a very wide gap for an intercooler to fit between the two mounting points for the horns, so it sounds like your suggestion for a vertical setup on the intercooler is the way to go.

As for the turbo, it's a custom build I decided to go with because it happened to match up perfectly with the stock exhaust portion of the turbo assembly. I don't know exact specs on it, I'll have to get back in touch with the company to verify. It's significantly larger than the stock T3 but smaller than the 50 trim I was originally planning on going with. I've been very impressed in my dealings with AGPturbo so I'm feeling fairly comfortable about the turbo. They've basically advised me to make sure the oil line is completely clear and to go easy on it for 500 miles or so until the metal of the compressor wheel has hardened up.

[evildky]

kinda scarry putting an unknown compressor side on!? if you have no idea of the lbs/min then you don't know how much additional fuel will be needed, or at what point with the unknown increase of flow that additional timing retard or even how many lbs is safe as the flow rate fo the turbo is unknown, I hope your turbo shop doesn't pop your motor