RE Amemiya used to sell these heat shields to work with their old-school intake kits. I ran one on my car for a while. Your mechanic may have been familiar with them. They appear in the classifieds every so often for $70 or so.

 

Here's the stock BOV. its circled.. but i guess he should've only made one circle to save you the confusion. :P


Stock BOV is loud already when you change your intake. If you don't know exactly how a turbo works, that's the last thing you have to worry about.

your mechanic is awsome. i wish i knew mechanics that'll make heatshields for u on the spot. That heat shield is designed to block out hot air coming from the radiator being sucked into the intake. yes, RE-Amemiya and Blitz intake kits for FD3S all comes with that style of heat shield that blocks entirely under the intake.

 

Damn, ive got mixed opinions. I was going to try and take it off.

I just went for a quick drive to test it out again. It works well when im actually moving but it seems to heat up quickly while standing still.

I think its an easy removal, he had made a few custom mounts for it which i might leave in. But its just being held in by 3 screws from what i can see. I might experiment with it off and on.

Its touching the bottom of the filter so its probably stopping a bit of airflow.
I think its made the BOV quieter.

 

it shouldn't affect the BOV noise at all. recirculating it into the intake pipes helps with the noise, though.

How are you measuring your AITs? Or are you basing this off of your coolant temps? Your coolant temps have almost nothing to do with your intake temps.

If you are going off your coolant temps, are you using the stock gauge or an aftermarket gauge? It's normal for the temps to go up when there's no air being pushed through the rad. that's what the fans are for.(but if you have a stock ECU and a stock thermoswitch, this can be a problem as the fans come on kind of late)

 

Is it possible that its blocking hot air down under it?

I have an aftermarket gauge, i get about 90c coolant temps when driving but it goes up to around 100c before the fans come on. I always drive with lights on because this brings the fans on 5c earlier, plus Japanese drivers never see me in their high vans.

 

100c before the fans kick in isn't too bad. Not ideal, but not engine threatening. Stock the fans don't kick in until 104.5c

And it's very possible that it's blocking hot air under it. These cars weren't designed like your run of the mill car. Basically just about every square inch was used for something, and the airflow technology was way ahead of its time(as was just about everything else).

 

Well i might just watch over it for a few weeks and maybe take it out when i put some new filters in next.

One last question while im getting so much support here, the mechanic also put this blue piping connector on? Is that just because the old one would have been getting old or is it related?

 

^^ that's the cuppling for the stock cross over pipe. the stock cross over pipe is that black plastic thing above it connecting to your intercooler.

those cupplings/connectors are known to harden and crack overtime. possibly poping off the crossover pipe, causes boost leak. The mechanic probably replaced it cuz it was old.. ? just make sure he's got clamps on there. u can't really see them from this picture angle.

 

that was very smart of him the stock coupler tends to go bad. in turn, causing a boost leak. silicone couplers tend to last much longer.

 

shouldnt most of the mechs in japan know what to do and fix with a rotary?

 

The stock BOV is black IIRC, I believe everyone has been circling the CRV which will not sound good vented to the atmosphere.

 

Thats a generalization that i wish was true. But then again even local gas stations have rotary oil in stock. There are lots RX7 specialist shops locally, im just trying to find a good one.

 

nope they are both brownish

 

My old stock BOV was sometimes louder than the Blitz Dual Drive BOV I have right now. The old stock was definately louder at low RPMs. One reason why the other FD you drove didn't have a noisy BOV could be because his car was stock, and the BOV was being recirculated back into the stock intake box.

 

yeah the other car i drove had a stock airbox

 

Ok well i was on Yahoo auctions checking out a few cars and found this setup, looks pretty similar too mine, except i looks a bit ghetto-ish. Maybe i will leave it. Im confused now! If its all blocked off where do they get some air flow from?

 

I'd suggest you leave the heat sheild and replace those crappy sponge type filters with a better cone filter. I had the sponge ones on my car when I bought it(in fact, I had the exact same HKS intake you have), but I replaced them with 2 K&Ns and I'm really happy. Just looking at the sponge type filter next to a cone filter, you can see how the sponge might flow slightly better but does dick **** to filter air.

 

Yeah, i don't think not taking a rx7 mechanic's advise in Japan would be a bad idea I'm sure he was trying to help you!

EDIT: And +1 on the cone K&N style air filters!

 

Do i have to buy a whole new intake setup if i want to use different cones? Or will any pod fit on the end of the intake pipes? A couple of apexi filters would look nice.

 

You'd have to be careful with fitment. It looks like the filter for the secondary turbo is pretty close to the front of the engine bay...maybe with shorter filters?

I had the pipes and all replaced on mine by IRP. Here's what it looks like now...

 

why does my HKS have ceramic piping and not the stainless like your gorgeous engine bay

 

My HKS intakes look the same as yours. They replaced the pipes(stock rubber pipes and the HKS pieces on the ends) with polished pieces. My HKS intakes are completely gone(and will be up for sale sooner or later).

And thanks for calling my engine bay gorgeous The guys at IRP did a bang up job, I think.

 

i might just stick with the HKS items for a while and just get some new clean filters. i cant be stuffed changed and paying for a completey new intake system.

 

you could sell those for $150+. thats enough to get intakes of your liking. i bought 2 universal filters off ebay for $15 each plus shipping and i got the intake pipings from ebay also for $20 plus shipping. i am cutting and welding my own fittings for the air pump and secondary turbo bov. thats only $50 for my own custom made intakes. a little work can save you alot of money, rx7 intakes can get pretty steep...

 

yeah, i would like to do that at some stage. But for the time being im just going to stick with the HKS items. I will probably import the car back to Aus at somestage in the next year and to get it registered i need to install the stock box in so i might do it then. Im trying to be conservative with mods, until i atleast export it. As it has to be near stock.