I wish I had the tools and the space to do work like this, oh yeah, and the talent, truly awesome!
Thanks Matt
I have a turbo car, (not an A body Mopar), and I found that moving the air filter outside of the engine bay greatly increased the power, (a noticeable difference when driving), as there is a huge amount of heat/hot air generated with all of the pipes. I put mine under the car, in front of the driver side tire/inner fender, it ended up right behind the fog light. Although technically it would be better farther away from the road, (hot asphalt), I did not want to cut up my hood.
It is completely separated from the engine bay, and to remove and clean the filter I have to climb under the car.
Heat really shouldn't be much of an issue. I am using Ceramic VHT paint on the entire hotside and the wrapping with DEI header wrap and their silicone spray.
I had added a fiberglass hood with a cowl scoop to try to get some of the heat out of the engine bay, but that did not seem to work very well, only when stopped, so I put the stocker back on.
I am going to fab up some type of front spoiler so more air is directed into the front.
I also see your air intake tube appears to be very close to the exhaust, which could easily heat that pipe up and the incoming air, decreasing the effectiveness of the intercooler.
I had a similar issue: the maf sensor was against the radiator hose, heating up the air and killing maf sensors. I ended up wrapping it it some heat resistant stuff, I do not recall what it is or where I got it, but it solved my problem. Now the air intake pipe stays cool, even on hot days, and on cold days the power is unreal!
All the hotside will be wrapped. The intake tube has since been directed toward the top of the intercooler so it is about 4"s from the crossover pipe now.
Last thing, and maybe you covered this already, with such a big intercooler you may need to add an electric fan, or two, to the radiator. Mine has 2 from the factory so I was all set. Some people even add liquid intercoolers, which are smaller and do not take away from the radiator- but are way expensive!
I had planned on using the stock fan but have decided to use electric.
Thought I would share my turbo experiences. Although your build is quite different from my factory turbo car, the concept and design are the same.
Hope this helps a little.
What do you have planned for the exhaust?
Mine has a single 3" pipe all the way out, and not only does it sound awesome, but it confuses many people- they either think it is some lame engine since it is not dual exhaust, or they realize right away there is something else going on under the hood.
5" downpipe into 2 3.5" split near the bellhousing. The left side will cross under the oilpan and 90 back into stock location. The right side will drop beside the bellhousing and 45 out to the stock location then 3.5" to Race Bullets and 3.5" out the back. Gonna try and find a pair of 3.5" SS square tips out the stock cutouts. Should be quiter than the 440 that was in it?? The 440 screamed "Potatoe Potatoe Potatoe" very loudly...
