I was going to put this in the “forced induction” page but I dont think anyone ever looks at it lol. OK here it goes…
Before I started working for ford I was a designer for an aftermarket engineering company that specialized in research and design of unorthadox power-adders (not to be confused with unorthadoxracing ™)
Well since I started working for ford I dont make enough money to afford a turbo system for my zx2 so I started playin around with some numbers.
The number one reason car manufacturers dont produce cars with a fully functional “ram-air” systems, or at least very few, is
There not practical, there isnt a fully functional system that can effectivly drain water, (the customer would have to plug it every time it rained or snowed) That doesnt change the fact that they are VERY effective in bringing volumetric effeciency up at speed from around 60% where most engines in stock form hover.
Last few days I have been playin around with displacement numbers for the ztec engine. Once I had the required CFM numbers for the usable rpm band I started crunching numbers for various “ram-air” intake system designs that would come close to meeting that cfm number and at what speed they would do so.
Heres the exciting part, the maximum required CFM to run our engines at 100% volumetric effeciency is so low due to the size of the engine that its more than possible to make a ram system that is capable of producing more than a 100% V.E. and do so with a relativly small scoop.
Now these are rough numbers, I havent actually built a proto-type yet, but with the intake system I designed, CFM requirement of our engines at 6,000 rpm will be met at 47 mph, (no wind) and exceeded at 55 mph,
basically pending testing I will soon be able to build a cheap intake for everyone that will boost the engine at speeds over 55 mph, making 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear a lot more fun.
Rough estimates so far are producing numbers of 110-115% ve,
The only downside is, you would probably need to upgrade the injectors to 24lb’s and have the pcm re-programmed to accomadate it (possibly)
what do you all think. is that something you would be interested in?
well thats what I still have to iron out, it wont be very big, I have to do dynamic testing on the hood and front clip of the zx2 to find crush points, but from a glance and for the sake of simplicity it will probably be mounted on the drivers side fender right behind and left of the headlight. As to the form of the scoup it will most likley resemble a smaller version of that on a new t-bird
no pictures yet, but I am making headway. I got the test bench built finally and am testing different kinds of internal tube designes for spin and speed control of the air. The idea is to develope an intake with several “crunch” zones where the air speeds up and then slows down again afterwards each time building more momentum untill it reaches the manifold. Thanks to the engine bay of the zx2 its slow going but its going anyway
Sounds sort of like a “sling” effect. If I’m understanding him right anyway…
But don’t you have to have the ability to flow more air it won’t make a difference how fast the air goes INTO the engine, its how much air makes it into the engine isn’t it? Gah… I dunno… I’m not quite sure on the whole physics aspect of it because thats sort of a fluid dynamics sort of thing…
yeah he had it right with the “sling” effect, basically when air passes through a restriction it speeds up as long as the driving force stays constant. and when it goes into an expansion it slows down but it gains momentum because the higher speed air behind it “piles up”. Its basically thrust vectoring backwards, the same principal is used in scavenging and resonence tuning. Im also thinking about building custom manifolds designed to better use resonence and air velocity.
p.s. I recently baught and instealled a set of nology hotwires, and E3 plugs, wow there expensive but wow big difference, one thing tho the E3 plugs are taller ontop than the stockers so the plug wires wont fit all the way down into the valve cover, if you can live with that its worth the money, especially if you have some serious mods done to the engine!
The only problem I can see with this is that we have a suck through MAF. I’m not sure if it would meter right if you push air through it. The injectors are good up to about 160 whp, so they should be fine.
yeah the problem with the maf crossed my mind and I think I got it worked out with a relocation and a few tricks to make it run a bit richer if needed, but we’ll see
hey first of all dont you have anything better to do than come up here and act like an azz? Since you opened this up as a matter a fact I do build engines forced induction and cammer engines, I build rouch mustangs and f150s at a ford dealer and am the chief engine builder for two super-pro bracket drag teams on the weekend. You think you can pull 1200 and change out of a 410 na windsor then go ahead and then you can tell me what a lost cause is, If I were after 400 hp I wouldnt be dickin around with a 2.0 ztec to begin with, im just havina lil fun
yeah sorry im not much for arguing, especially for trivial stuff like that, the whole reason im workin on this is because a lot of people cant afford nor want the hassle of adapting a turbo setup let alone actually buildng and engine especially for forced induction. If I can get this to work it would add a decent bump and still be relativly cheap so why not?
