Sportivo Air Intake Mod

[georgec]

Hi Guys,

First post....so be gentle.

I purchased a new Sportivo for my wife and whilst it's a fun car for her, I couldn't come to terms with the stock air intake arrangement. To me it seemed like a lot of effort had gone into keeping the air intake quiet (ADR 28 Driveby noise test) with little regard to air intake performance.

Straight away I turfed the stock air entry duct and whilst that improved the top end, the hot air (from the heat in the engine bay) hurt overall perfromance everywhere else. On the ECU data logger I saw temperatures of 40 - 50 deg C registered which is certainly not desirable.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I fished around in the garage and found a 60mm diameter cuffed hose of about the right length and replaced the stock intake duct with it. The new hose draws air fom the hole in the chassis rail and fits there and into the air cleaner assembly snugly (Looks and fits like a factory part - you get lucky every now and then) :D

The net result is no discernable increase in noise (from inside the cabin) and a crisp improvement in the car. Unfortunately it's wet out there and 1st and 2nd gears result in wheel spin - haven't driven it in the wet before.

Below are some pictures:

Stock air entry

Air entry detail showing how the stock duct necks down from 60mm to something a lot smaller (haven't measured it).

Air cleaner end of the cuffed hose

From the air cleaner, the cuffed hose sits under the fuse box and draws air from the hole in the chassis rail.

If anyone's interested I can pull the hose off again and get some dimensions if you want to see if you can grab one. No idea where I got the hose from originally - it was stuffed in a box in the back of my garage...

Cheers

gc

[xTiGeRx]

what filter element are you using?

[georgec]

what filter element are you using?

←

Totally and utterly stock. In fact the whole car is totally and utterly stock other than the cuffed hose and window tinting :o

Cheers

gc

[Danthuyer]

hey george,

Glad to see you finally posting :) welcome also :D

So this is what you ended up doing hey!? good to see some more people getting in there and trying new things. As did TRD_141 and a few otehrs a while ago ;)

There is a big area for cost efective improvment on the factory airbox B)

[georgec]

hey george,

Glad to see you finally posting :) welcome also :D

So this is what you ended up doing hey!? good to see some more people getting in there and trying new things. As did TRD_141 and a few otehrs a while ago ;)

There is a big area for cost efective improvment on the factory airbox B)

←

Ha! I ordered the TRD air intake but couldn't live with the stock intake duct for the time being. I did a search in intake mods but drew a blank. If you get the chance, point me in the right direction ;)

Cheers

gc

[kcorro]

that hose you found in your garage looks perfect! is it soft rubber or hard pvc? i am interested in hearing how the hose is secured to the air box (air cleaner assembly). did you just stick the hose in or did you saw off and adapt the original air box connection? :)

[georgec]

that hose you found in your garage looks perfect! is it soft rubber or hard pvc? i am interested in hearing how the hose is secured to the air box (air cleaner assembly). did you just stick the hose in or did you saw off and adapt the original air box connection? :)

←

The cuffed hose is a specialist high temperature highly flexible hose that is internally reinforced to prevent it from collapsing under negative pressure. The cuffs on both ends are stepped up to form a collar that fits snugly through the holes and the collar pops out (the collar is a larger external diameter) to prevent the hose from slipping out again. When i get the chance I'll take pictures of the collared ends. They're designed for this application - ie slip it in and it won't come out.

The air box is unchanged - the factory intake duct is basically the same idea as the cuffed hose. ie instead of a collar, the duct uses a couple of raised pads.

Cheers

gc

[ZEEROLLA]

I just cut off the hard plastic end bit and stuffed the rest of the flexible intake duct down into the area above the foggy. I think the narrowing of pipe serves a purpose such as increasing velocity of air as well as sound deadening?

Welcome to the forum!

Zee

[kcorro]

The cuffs on both ends are stepped up to form a collar that fits snugly through the holes and the collar pops out (the collar is a larger external diameter) to prevent the hose from slipping out again.

a picture of this would be great. when you have the time thanks :)

[Sport1vo]

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Edited May 8, 2005 by sport1vo

[georgec]

Hi Guys,

First post....so be gentle.

I purchased a new Sportivo for my wife and whilst it's a fun car for her, I couldn't come to terms with the stock air intake arrangement. To me it seemed like a lot of effort had gone into keeping the air intake quiet (ADR 28 Driveby noise test) with little regard to air intake performance.

Cheers

gc

←

Welcome GC to thr forum.

You will enjoy our various meets that we have, and discuss the benefits of owning a Stivo.

When did you get the car and when, new or second hand dude.

←

Thanks for the welcome guys. This sounds like a friendly goup.

Zee, yes the necking down in diameter will certainly speed the air up but at the expense of a reduction in the mass of air entering the engine. The mass of air makes power (along with the appropriate mass of fuel...). I have no doubt that the restriction is to limit external driveby noise - and due to the high rev limit of the Sportivo engine, the driveby test is conducted at an abnormally high engine RPM point. The several small holes drilled into the standard air duct (you can see them in the 2nd picture) are a hint that the intake diameter was reduced significantly and another source of air entry down stream from the reduction in diameter was required to up the mass flow rate of air.

Can anyone tell me if this air entry duct was the same in the earlier model (changed on the recall)?

sport1vo, yes purchased new a week or so ago. My wife wanted something smaller than her 12 month old Prado and my daughter just got her licence so I purchased an auto Ascent for her. They each needed 4 doors and neither is old enough to desire a Camry so the Corollas were it. We hadn't looked at Corollas before (in fact I had no idea what a Sportivo was). Just rolled up and bought them.

The Sportivo was a pleasant surprise in that to get leather you get the rest.

Cheers

gc

[Sport1vo]

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Edited May 8, 2005 by sport1vo

[georgec]

Well done dude, just out of curiosity, what is the build and compliance of the vehicle and which dealer did you pick it up from?

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From memory, Jan'04 build on the Sportivo and the Ascent is being built this month. Got them from Nunawading Toyota who have over the years lightened my wallet considerably a number of times. I couldn't be bothered chasing up a later build as they had the colour my wife wanted in their stock holding yard. They had a couple of blue ones but those vehicles had the predelivery done on them and each about 30 km on the odometer. I figured they were test thrashers but the silver one we purchased was a virgin so to speak.

Cheers

gc

[Sport1vo]

<POST REMOVED>

Edited May 8, 2005 by sport1vo

[ZEEROLLA]

Zee, yes the necking down in diameter will certainly speed the air up but at the expense of a reduction in the mass of air entering the engine. The mass of air makes power (along with the appropriate mass of fuel...). I have no doubt that the restriction is to limit external driveby noise - and due to the high rev limit of the Sportivo engine, the driveby test is conducted at an abnormally high engine RPM point. The several small holes drilled into the standard air duct (you can see them in the 2nd picture) are a hint that the intake diameter was reduced significantly and another source of air entry down stream from the reduction in diameter was required to up the mass flow rate of air.

Can anyone tell me if this air entry duct was the same in the earlier model (changed on the recall)?

Cheers

gc

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GC, nope the air duct remains the same only the "air cap" was modified to replace a piece of plastic that was restricting air flow. If you look into your airbox, you can see a white piece of plastic attached to the induction pipe, that was what they changed apparently. Don't know why they left the stock ducting though which i thought would have made more sense if they replaced it.

Zee

[oz_viking]

Welcome!

I too was going to mention the holes in the intake in your 2nd photo - I noticed them when I installed my CAI. It must undo some of the good done by insulating and sound-deadening the rest of the pipe if you just drill some random holes in after the restriction, right?

One other avenue I thought of is to leave the stock pipe, but to attach a hose to the flat circular part that sits above the hole in the rail. of course, you'd need to cut into the plastic first, but it would be an almost free way of increasing the air flow. Although, it would still be limited by the restriction further down the pipe.

Maybe the CAI is the only way to fly!

[rollagrl]

i have the same holes drilled in mine, and it wasnt me????

[oz_viking]

heheh. just noticed your sports muff.

[rollagrl]

heheheheheehehe :P

[Kevsta]

Just wondering is this the right stuff and in the 63mm diameter ?

http://www.eximo.com.au/flexibleducting/SFS-UV.html