You could try sand casting it in aluminum. I was just thinking about this today.
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You could try sand casting it in aluminum. I was just thinking about this today.
Find a job shop/fab shop locally, try to find one with a tube laser. Give them a call, send that CAD drawing and ask for a quote.
If I had access to a tube laser I'd have that knocked together in 30 minutes. It would of course be metal, not plastic.
Actually...
Can you post a dimensioned drawing of that part? Especially the flange that the MAF sensor mounts to?
Kiwi wins!
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For a few months now I've been borrowing a buddy's 3d printer. I've been tinkering around with it, designing and making a few parts for a few different cars. This is the next part on my list of things to make.
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So, this weekend, after modeling up the MAF housing, I printed one out. It turned out pretty nice if I must say so.
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As you can see, its made in two pieces. The two pieces will be bonded together so it is one solid piece.
Fantastic crafting skills Daox,
I am assuming that it will hold up against the heat in the engine bay? I'm going to be watching this. :eagerness:
Hmmmm......... I like it!!!
It would not take much to look up the specs of the plastic used in the 3D printer to see what kind of temperature tolerance it has. This would be perfect for those of us wanting to build our own intake without hacking up our stock air box or spending more than we have to.
Thanks guys!
The plastic printed material is ABS. According to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylon...adiene_styrene
In normal operation I highly doubt it'll be an issue.Quote:
For the majority of applications, ABS can be used between −20 and 80 °C (−4 and 176 °F) as its mechanical properties vary with temperature.
The worst case scenario really is the hottest day in summer right when you turn the car off. There won't be any airflow through the housing to cool it, and the engine bay will be heat soaking. Still, I'm quite sure it'll be fine. 176F is very close to engine operating temps, and I can't see the engine bay getting that hot, especially away from the exhaust.
However, to be sure, I am going to test some ABS in the near future with a heat gun and IR thermometer and see how it reacts if it does indeed get up beyond 176F. I'll post those results.
Good question though!
I did some additional digging on the heat issue. I found a paper where they tested under hood temperatures. I snagged a pic of the worst vehicle and highest temps.
Short story, it won't be an issue unless you have the habit of idling your car at elevated rpms for almost an hour.
Here is the paper: http://www.mvfri.org/Contracts/Final...atures%201.pdf
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Not to mention that if you mount the MAF housing on the front side of the engine, even if you had the car at idle and raised rpm for an extended period, the cooling fans for the radiator would keep the temp low enough to not be an issue. Even after shutting the car down, there will still be a slight amount of air coming through the radiator just from the air trying to equalize temp from the difference in under hood temp to outside ambient air temp.
I would not however trust it if you mounted it over the exhaust manifold.
When its ready,and if you plan on producing it, i will buy atleast one!
Man, I thought I was the only one on this. I already have my blueprints and about to weld together a prototype out of aluminum to sell as part of an intake system. I figured a complete system makes things easier for the end buyer rather than sourcing all of the parts from all over. More interest is better though.