I've been trying to get my car finished for the past 3-4 months but have been let down a few times on price and delivery from some UK suppliers. So I took a gamble and ordered the cast alloy inlet plenum on Ebay.com from a guy in Thailand.

Needless to say I did what checks I could and noticed a lot of his customers seemed to be in the UK anyway. So I made use of the haggle option on the auction and got a decent discount on the asking price. Clicked the accept button and then prepared for a nervous wait for delivery. To my surprise the UPS courier tried to delivery it yesterday, I only ordered it last Wednesday! So I hung around earlier today and received the package.

As you can see its a simply engineered but robust plenum being both cast and welded. The velocity stacks are extended in to the plenum and the ports all line up. I don't expect it to blow apart on the rollers like some welded efforts I've seen in the past.

You'll notice it sticks out a bit which I was fully expecting but the inlet opening is definitely bigger than I thought. This is because it was designed for both NA and forced induction usage. As I'm using 50mm intercooler pipes I'll cut back and reduce the plenum neck which'll help a bit with room. I quite like the idea of some sort power bulge anyway just to give a hint of its potential!

PS The British made exhaust manifold however doesn't line up at the ports and angles too much away from the chassis. So that'll need some fettiling too plus the pipe after the collector is too small IMO but I knew that also but to get it altered to my design would have almost doubled the cost. My fault for not having the skills to make it myself.



Plenum & Exhaust - front



Plenum & Exhaust - side

[Edited on 4/4/07 by bimbleuk]

that's one v nice setup

covering it with a bonnet seems such a shame. If it is SVA'd I'd leave it off.

I'm hoping to have triple webbers on my v6 and once through the SVA will dress up the engine and run it exposed.



[Edited on 4/4/07 by Mr Whippy]

I know what you mean, the exhaust is barely covered anyway and I'm certainly going to consider leaving the plenum partially exposed!

Holy mother of god....that is a very sexy beast!!

Very nice looking installation, could eat your dinner of that

Was the plenum custom made to your design or is the port spacing fixed?

[Edited on 4/4/07 by MikeRJ]

Mike,

I initially thought I would have to buy a generic plenum and mod it to fit. So I was quite surprised to find someone doing one specific to the 4AGE 20V.

The guy trades as "NOZz HI-PËRFORMANCË PRODUCTS" on ebay.com. Mostly Skyline and Supra products from what I've seen.

As you can see the plenum stuck out a bit so I made a simple cover from ABS sheet heated and shaped over the silencer (heated by an hot air gun not the engine!)


Hood scoop added

Looking good justin, Have finally decided supercharged 20v is the way to go. Had a good look at 1.8t but it's just too tight. Which rotrex charger are you using now? I thought about converting it after sva but think I'm just going to get it right from the start. I don't suppose you took a template of the mounting plate for the charger did you?

The new chassis is now sat in the garage, I just need to find time to work on it!

Ben.

Ben,

My advice would be to go ahead and start building your 20V Striker if that's your final decision. Let me sort out the bugs in the Rotrex installation as I have easy access to the resources at RAW, OMEX and the tuning garage I use (Mech Repairs). We'll sort out any teething troubles and then Mel at RAW can finalise a kit based on my car.

At the moment I've used one bracket to mount the Rotrex where the alternator usually is. I then mount the small denso alternator on the exhaust side. This means I can simply change one belt and remove the Rotrex and bracket competely and the car will run norminally aspirated.

When assembling parts for your car if you use the small Denso alternator and the over chassis manifold (not essential but much easier to work with) this will help with any future Rotrex upgrade.

I haven't even turned a wheel yet and already I need to rotate the Rotrex mounting points 15-20 deg, maybe drop it 10-20mm. The brackets will be CNC'd and water jetted in the final version.

As for which Rotrex to use I'll tell you in a couple of weeks probably but the C30 84 is looking the more likely choice at the moment. So don't rush out and buy one yet as that may change.



Rotrex mounted - front

[Edited on 8/4/07 by bimbleuk]

[Edited on 8/4/07 by bimbleuk]