After much trouble trying to work out how to go about making this air box i have made the first carbon mould. As i have never used carbon fibre there are a few problems with the finish. But nothing that cant be fixed. You can't see it anyway.
The fit is good as first moulding was fibre glass to see if everything works.
I still have to make the filter, was thinking of a similar system to a dirt bike with a metal frame and oiled foam covering this. Any other ideas??
Sorry about photo quality as taken with the phone.
Next is to clean up and put on the bike, will post some photo's.
Interesting for sure, not sure how your going to do the filter either, having the air inlet on the bottom side changes things for sure. One of the drawbacks of the OEM design is the filter sits flat and so dirt just settles right in - a vertical design or upside down will surely let particulates fall out.
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 18 January 2010 - 02:19 AM, said:
I'm not trying to discourage, I'm just curious. Why make a carbon fiber airbox?
A friend has a rc-30 with a thursten air box. Thats where the idea can from. Similar system to what i have done. Also the stock air filter holder is pretty useless as air is taken from the top of a hot engine. Just want cure the asmatic old girl.
How do you intend on attaching the top and bottom? My first thought is to cut a piece of aluminum sheet metal to the overall shape, then cut the hole, for the filter area. A good epoxy, on the roughed-up aluminum surface should hold the filter well. Under the filter, you should have a rigid aluminum mesh, to keep a foam or cloth filter, from getting sucked into the throttle bodies, in case of epoxy failure.
[image: View Post]azboy, on 18 January 2010 - 03:05 AM, said:
How did you determine the size and shape of the airbox and the inlet snorkle?
The size was made by the alowable area above the injectors. Had to make up a plug that went into this area which. I tryed to make as much room as posible because the air box for the rc-51 gives an extra 10ltrs and improves the bike midrange quite a lot. I'm hoping i will get a similar effect with my vfr. better air flow could only help. The snorkle might be to large, but i wont know till i get it on the dyno. I figured i can control the air flow by adding more filter to slow the air down
[image: View Post]Rivcyko, on 18 January 2010 - 05:41 AM, said:
How do you intend on attaching the top and bottom? My first thought is to cut a piece of aluminum sheet metal to the overall shape, then cut the hole, for the filter area. A good epoxy, on the roughed-up aluminum surface should hold the filter well. Under the filter, you should have a rigid aluminum mesh, to keep a foam or cloth filter, from getting sucked into the throttle bodies, in case of epoxy failure.
The top has a rubber seal that goes between the two parts. I have rubber gromets with a thread inside same as what is used to attach the fairings which pull the top into the rubber. It seals really well.
The standard honda filter has a mesh on the under side. I was thinking of taking this off and moulding it to the shape of the snorkle facing forward. Then i could wrap the foam around this piece. I will get uni filter to make the foam in a double configeration to ensure water dosent pass through under pressure.
Not sure if you if you mean a flat piece of aluminium??. I don't think this will work as nothing is flat anywhere. I think if curved to fit inside the snorkle might work.
Thanks
[image: View Post]Adammac, on 17 January 2010 - 02:33 PM, said:
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 18 January 2010 - 02:19 AM, said:
I'm not trying to discourage, I'm just curious. Why make a carbon fiber airbox?
A friend has a rc-30 with a thursten air box. Thats where the idea can from. Similar system to what i have done. Also the stock air filter holder is pretty useless as air is taken from the top of a hot engine. Just want cure the asmatic old girl.
Cool! :biggrin: I like what you're doing. Just making sure your idea was to reshape the airbox, not add structural stiffness to an airbox, or subtract the massive weight of the plastic part. You never know, there's all kinds of people....
But why carbon, wouldn't fiberglass or something more conventional be a lot cheaper and potentially easier to mold? Is this kind of an excuse to learn to how mold carbon fiber?
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 18 January 2010 - 03:58 PM, said:
[image: View Post]Adammac, on 17 January 2010 - 02:33 PM, said:
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 18 January 2010 - 02:19 AM, said:
I'm not trying to discourage, I'm just curious. Why make a carbon fiber airbox?
A friend has a rc-30 with a thursten air box. Thats where the idea can from. Similar system to what i have done. Also the stock air filter holder is pretty useless as air is taken from the top of a hot engine. Just want cure the asmatic old girl.
Cool! :biggrin: I like what you're doing. Just making sure your idea was to reshape the airbox, not add structural stiffness to an airbox, or subtract the massive weight of the plastic part. You never know, there's all kinds of people....
But why carbon, wouldn't fiberglass or something more conventional be a lot cheaper and potentially easier to mold? Is this kind of an excuse to learn to how mold carbon fiber?
I need the bottom of the box to be as thin as possible, I also wanted to have a go and i hate using glass. But the main thing is weight. The whole thing weighs less than the standard lid.
[image: View Post]Adammac, on 17 January 2010 - 03:11 PM, said:
[image: View Post]Rivcyko, on 18 January 2010 - 05:41 AM, said:
How do you intend on attaching the top and bottom? My first thought is to cut a piece of aluminum sheet metal to the overall shape, then cut the hole, for the filter area. A good epoxy, on the roughed-up aluminum surface should hold the filter well. Under the filter, you should have a rigid aluminum mesh, to keep a foam or cloth filter, from getting sucked into the throttle bodies, in case of epoxy failure.
The top has a rubber seal that goes between the two parts. I have rubber gromets with a thread inside same as what is used to attach the fairings which pull the top into the rubber. It seals really well.
The standard honda filter has a mesh on the under side. I was thinking of taking this off and moulding it to the shape of the snorkle facing forward. Then i could wrap the foam around this piece. I will get uni filter to make the foam in a double configeration to ensure water dosent pass through under pressure.
Not sure if you if you mean a flat piece of aluminium??. I don't think this will work as nothing is flat anywhere. I think if curved to fit inside the snorkle might work.
Thanks
K. I see it now. Sorry bout the aluminum. I was thinking of a stock basis. He!!, dude, Hook it up as a filter cartridge, that locks into the snorkel. You'll have the sleeve,.... you could experiment with different filtration, without perm. damage to the box. Schweet!
It looks like that snorkel is going to poke forward between the frame and front cylinder head. Are you worried at all about water getting in there via rain/fling off from front tire?
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on 18 January 2010 - 09:25 PM, said:
It looks like that snorkel is going to poke forward between the frame and front cylinder head. Are you worried at all about water getting in there via rain/fling off from front tire?
Yeh, I was thinking that a oiled filter should repell the water. Water vapour is sucked in on a standard box. The only problem i might have is the air pressure forcing water through the filter. I will use a double filter which i have run on trails bike for years and never got water in the engine.
It will be trial and error.
[image: View Post]Adammac, on 18 January 2010 - 03:35 PM, said:
Yeh, I was thinking that a oiled filter should repell the water. Water vapour is sucked in on a standard box. The only problem i might have is the air pressure forcing water through the filter. I will use a double filter which i have run on trails bike for years and never got water in the engine.
It will be trial and error.
Trial and error concerning water getting into an engine doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Also, wouldn't a double filter eliminate any air-flow benefits? As far as weight goes, you're saving, what, 2 ounces on a 500+ pound bike?
Not trying to be a negative nancy...
[image: View Post]Adammac, on 17 January 2010 - 02:45 PM, said:
[image: View Post]azboy, on 18 January 2010 - 03:05 AM, said:
How did you determine the size and shape of the airbox and the inlet snorkle?
The size was made by the alowable area above the injectors. Had to make up a plug that went into this area which. I tryed to make as much room as posible because the air box for the rc-51 gives an extra 10ltrs and improves the bike midrange quite a lot. I'm hoping i will get a similar effect with my vfr. better air flow could only help. The snorkle might be to large, but i wont know till i get it on the dyno. I figured i can control the air flow by adding more filter to slow the air down
The Thorsten air box is 10 liters bigger, and good for 11hp in the mid range. :biggrin: Here's the difference between the stock air box and Thorsten's. Thorsten's air box uses the bottom of the fuel tank as the top of the air box. So there is no lid. It has a good seal around it. For an air filter. I use a lighty oiled filtering media I got from work. Never had a problem with it. :fing02: The throttle bodies now sit inside the air box.