I recently purchased an intake from Mina Gallery, which I didn't know was 3" until after I received it. I did a review, which can be seen here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ctures-148541/

The acceleration was good. A few things I didn't quite like about the intake, and felt necking down to 3 inch from the MAF and then back out at the throttle body was quite a restriction. So I decided to make a full 3.5" intake.

Of course this has already been done by several members using silicone couplers, which I didn't like the idea of. There are also a few others that have made / sell 3.5" intakes but cost effectiveness was a question.

My cost for this intake was less than $50. However, I reused a couple of things from the Mina Gallery intake (such as the throttle body coupler and a couple worm clamps. These are minimal costs, so you too can make this intake for less than $60 or so.

As mentioned, the intake is a bit different than others on here. It has one bend, and that is a 90*. Obviously there is another 90 into the throttle body, but as far as the pipe itself, it is straight through with one bend.

I used a 24" piece of 90* mandrel bent aluminum tube. The ends had beads on them, which are good to keep couplers from slipping off...however, the likelihood of that happening was slim. I cut the beads off of each end because I needed to shorten the length on each side of the tubing. After that, I cut a 4.5" section off from the throttle body side and kept that to use on the back end.

Connect the pipe to 90* throttle body coupler and swing the whole thing toward the firewall. The dipstick tube needs bent toward the firewall slightly, due to interference. After that, use the 4.5" section of tubing that was cut off and use that between the MAF and main pipe. Use 3.5" coupler on each side of the 4.5" tube....kind of self explanatory.

I used a 5/8" fitting in the middle of the 4.5" pipe. It was anodized blue, which I wasn't a fan of...so painted it silver with some engine enamel. Bored out a 3/4" hole into the tube, cut the threads on the fitting as short as possible...blue loctite and some silicone to ensure no air leaks. This connects to the valve cover breather.

Connect everything to MAF and air filter. I had the Mina Gallery air filter and heat shroud...everything fits fine and much better than the other tube, I think. Anywho....some pictures below of the old setup and the new setup...and the 4.5" piece with the breather fitting.


OLD SETUP





NEW SETUP

 

Hi ho Xjrjag,

Well done! Very clean install, great write-up, and very nice photo documentation too. A huge visual improvement from the original snorkel and a much cleaner install compared to the Mina offering.

You have given me the impetus to do this on my XJR. Thank you. In my case it would be purely a visual aesthetic and not performance enhancement. Although, it would be interesting to compare Dino tests of the stock snorkel, Mina's, and yours.

Thanks Xjrjag.

 

Fantastic job! Thanks for sharing. For such a small and relatively cheap mod it really makes a big difference. I did find sealing my filter shroud with lots of foam to be extremely helpful.

 

Nice looking job. Where did you source the mandrel bent aluminum tube - or did you bend it?

 

Yep, was just wondering the same. Looks great the way it is, and very smooth. Hell, make a bunch of them and sell em for $100+shipping, and you'd have followers I'm sure. Would love to do the same setup soon.

 

Thanks guys. There is a definite improvement in performance over the stock tubing. This was apparent with the Mina intake, and even more of an improvement with the 3.5" one here. Probably due to all of the restriction in the stock tubing...all of the ridges interrupting airflow, etc.

I probably wont churn these out...not enough interest I dont think. It is relatively simple to do if you have the necessary tools. I took the pipe down to a local muffler shop and had them zip through it with their pipe cutting saw. Otherwise you could use a die grinder or angle grinder with cutoff wheel, but you may not make a straight cut that way.

 

Is there a way to possibly use this setup but also utilize the stock bolt points for the air duct to the TB?

 

You'd be able to from what it looks like, just would have to make your own shield and find a filter to fit, to keep the original mounting position. Then have to make sure you measure the pipe and cut to fit so it meets the MAF and couple it there. Or if you want to use the stock air box, just pipe it to the MAF , since you wouldn't be using a shield.

 

Would this system be beneficial to a non SC system?
Also, with the air filter exposed like that, how would that work when cleaning the engine bay?

And I have read several articles that claim the conical air filter has no benefit, and in fact can hurt the power output rather than help it... Is there any truth to this do you think?



And my question to the OP is, would you be willing to fabricate another system like this to sell?

 

Nice job! Really looks good! How's she sound? I've got a plastic one I hate. I think it absorbs the sound. It's coming off soon.....





My cost for this intake was less than $50. However, I reused a couple of things from the Mina Gallery intake (such as the throttle body coupler and a couple worm clamps. These are minimal costs, so you too can make this intake for less than $60 or so.

As mentioned, the intake is a bit different than others on here. It has one bend, and that is a 90*. Obviously there is another 90 into the throttle body, but as far as the pipe itself, it is straight through with one bend.

I used a 24" piece of 90* mandrel bent aluminum tube. The ends had beads on them, which are good to keep couplers from slipping off...however, the likelihood of that happening was slim. I cut the beads off of each end because I needed to shorten the length on each side of the tubing. After that, I cut a 4.5" section off from the throttle body side and kept that to use on the back end.

Connect the pipe to 90* throttle body coupler and swing the whole thing toward the firewall. The dipstick tube needs bent toward the firewall slightly, due to interference. After that, use the 4.5" section of tubing that was cut off and use that between the MAF and main pipe. Use 3.5" coupler on each side of the 4.5" tube....kind of self explanatory.

I used a 5/8" fitting in the middle of the 4.5" pipe. It was anodized blue, which I wasn't a fan of...so painted it silver with some engine enamel. Bored out a 3/4" hole into the tube, cut the threads on the fitting as short as possible...blue loctite and some silicone to ensure no air leaks. This connects to the valve cover breather.

Connect everything to MAF and air filter. I had the Mina Gallery air filter and heat shroud...everything fits fine and much better than the other tube, I think. Anywho....some pictures below of the old setup and the new setup...and the 4.5" piece with the breather fitting.


OLD SETUP





NEW SETUP





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The two 8mm bolts on the stock snorkel are there only to hold the cobra head in place. If you look at the way the stock one is set up, the cobra head slips onto the throttle body with a rubber ring and the two bolts just hold it all in place. There would be no point to use those stock mounting points due to the fact that you are using hose clamps to secure everything in place. Furthermore, I took off the bracket held on by the two torx bit bolts because it interfered with the silicone coupler at the throttle body. It isn't needed anyways unless you are using the stock pipe.



The intake would definitely be beneficial to the NA motor. The plastic snorkel is still a restriction and so is the stock air box. Regarding the stock snorkel piece, all of the accordion ridges interrupt the air flow (aka restriction)...you want as smooth of airflow as possible to maximize power gains. The cone filter goes hand in hand with the tubing. The airbox has already been discussed and is probably the #1 restriction in the system. The filter is all about surface area. You have greater surface area on the cone filter to suck in more air than you do with the stock panel filter. This is one reason why Mina Gallery was originally just selling the cone filter and shroud by itself. One thing I will say is that the original 3 inch pipe will probably be sufficient for the NA motor, opposed to the 3.5 inch pipe. This is due to the fact that you just can't move as much air as the supercharged motor can, so you may "bog down" so to speak. I do suspect with a combo of the two, you will probably net in the range of 5-7 horsepower with greater throttle response and acceleration being NA. As far as making another 3.5" intake...I could do that, however as I mentioned, I would probably suggest the 3" intake instead over the 3.5" for the NA motor. I will be selling my Mina intake pipe, if you are interested.



Definitely a bit more growl under the hood and great improvement over the stock piece in terms of hearing the supercharger. The accordion ridges and silencer tubes on the stock intake pipe deaden the sound by interrupting air flow.

 

For the right price, would you fabricate a 3" version for the the NA motor?

I've been contemplating the Mina one but... It doesn't look as good as this.

 

Shoot me a PM and we can discuss it.

 

I think on a dyno you do not see the gain you do on the sees with a cone filter. I've been using them for years and it always gave a power increase that you can feel, not just hear. Yes, when you're at a stoplight the Temps climb but as soon as you start moving the temp drops down and drops down fast. My temp measurements were with the Torque App.

They're cheap. Buy one and try it for yourself. If you don't like it, take it off and sell it. It transformed my supercharged Vanden Plas, but also showed a positive difference in my non supercharged Jags. You can also shield it from the engine pretty easily.

The 90° intake over the throttle body is even a bigger gain. Plus it looks beautiful.

 

4" jumbo intake on my car.
One off prototype piece made from fibreglass, MAF and big cone filter are in casing sealed to inner fender.
Works well.

 

Wondering how you connected the 4" tube to the throttlebody, when it is only 3.25". Had to have an adapter ring around the throttlebody or the "silicone tape" as some have used here.

The only thing I wonder is if it is actually beneficial to have a 4" intake, as the MAF and throttlebody are only about 3.25" diameter, so the restriction lies there. I think 3.5" is plenty big, but I'd like to know of any benefit of the 4".

 

No silicone tape, its a rubber K & N filter adapter ring that was already here left over from another project.


The throttle body and MAF are different on my car (larger) , I modelled my intake tube after the 4" one Jaguar made for the XK 180 concept.


I wanted something that looked more OEM than available aftermarket ones, the 4" tube is a tight fit under the hood of the XJR, I don't think it would fit under a XKR hood at all.


May be better than 3.5" , may not be depending on other factors such as what other upgrades have been done to the powertrain.


Wayne

 

If anyone is interested, I can sell my 3.5" intake tube for $270.

 

Selling my Mina Gallery PIPE ONLY for $90 shipped in the US. PM if interested.