CAI for triple mikuni's

madkaw · November 21, 2010

I am currently making a cold air intake for my triple Mikunis that will mounted sometime this winter. To help me with some ideas on size needed for the box I have studied the TWM box on the TEP web site. The box I am making is similiar in size, but slightly different in shape(to be devulged at a later time). My questionis about piping sixe and intake opening size. The TWM box has a 3.35" opening for the 6 cylinder box, that seems very big, but maybe in needs to be for an N/A application. I was thinking originally about a 2.5" piping , but after looking at that I thought I better bump up to 3" minimum. Since I am just running the L24 motor with 40 mikuni's I would think that piping size would be big enough---any opinions????

Doc Hawk · November 22, 2010

I've run a 3" CAI into a TWM for years and have been happy with my mix.

madkaw · November 22, 2010

So your running an adapter or reducer to get to 3" piping? Love to see some pics if you care to post them.

Along the lines of piping, I am guessing that the piping supplied for the CAI kits you buy is a very thin wall aluminum? I was going to order my own pipe as needed to match up my box with the radiator core hole. Are the silicon couplings sold made for "pipe" size piping? Like as in schedule 40 or something else. I don't know anything about intercooler piping so I am not sure of the thickness of the pipe and if the same grade is uded in a CAI set-up?

madkaw · November 22, 2011

Well this thread went no where

So after looking around for while for an air filter system for my Mikunis I have decided to make a cold air intake set-up instead. There seems to be very little choices for CAI for triples-make your own or pay 400$+ for a TMW fiberglass box. Being a cheapskate and a father with bills I have decided to take my time and make my own-with a twist--I'll elaborate later.

For now, I have been lurking around and seeing what else has been made by my fellow Z'ers. It seems that SS is the material of choice for a heat shield, I guess because it doesn't transmit heat as much as aluminum. For now I have made mine from aluminum, but plan on using a some kind of heat barrier material on top of the aluminum. I have been suprised to see a lot of set-ups that do NOT use any additional material-just the SS shield. IS that enough? For those of you that have used a heat barrier material-did any of you find some double foil sided stuff. Almost everything I have found has a sticky sided and a foil side. The way I understand it the foil side needs to be on the heat side-which doesn't work for my set up. So I have been looking for double sided that I can fasten down.

I have also noticed that a lot of heat shields are installed flat against the carbs-no air gap. Am I just too anal, but it seems to me that you would want a air gap to help with heat reduction.

I did find out that Mikuni's have a particular situation issue that you have to work around----Accelerator pumps. They have quite the throw on the linkage. I decided to punch holes thru my shield to allow the rods to go thru. I might put material over the holes with room for the linkage afterwards.

Anyway, here are some picks of what I have started with. The great part about this project is that most of material was given to me!! The backing plate your looking at is made from a railroad crossing sign that my motherlaw gave me. As a locomotive engineer my motherlaw thought it would be a cool gift to hang in the garage-all I thought was WOW-that's some nice aluminum, what can I make out of that. Well you can see what I decided on. Hell I have enough to make a couple more. That stuff is thick enough to make a pressurized box