[orsest170]

Hi,

I have posted some pics of my car in the gallery. Quality isn't great coz my old 1.2 megapixel digi cam is on it's last legs. I have used my 5 photo limit for today so I will upload some pics of the engine mods tomorrow.

As for the Typhoon air intake, well it is quite simply awesome. I deliberated for ages over the decision between a short ram or a CAI. There are pos and cons of both, most notably the tendency for the SR to suck in engine heat, and for the CAI (which is mounted in the wheel well) to suck up water and dirt off the road and all but destroy your engine!

I'm not being dramatic either, a couple of guys in the US have reported grinding to a halt in wet weather and then paying for very costly engine repairs. You can get valves that supposedly eliminate the potential for water to be sucked into your engine, but I wouldn't put my faith in them.

The business of sucking in hot air from the engine is easily overcome. I have made a custom heat shield that completely sections off the air intake. The K&N filter sits almost directly over where the factory snorkel would normally deliver air to the factory air box, meaning that your intake is constantly taking in 'cold' air.

The performance gain (when combined with a 65mm TB at least) is immediately noticeable, but the best part about it is the sound. Now I absolutely hate the sound a your average 4 cylinder rice burner and was worried my car might sound like an overgrown mosquito as well, but this sound is completely different. Under light throttle it is very quiet and you can hear it sucking the air so it sounds a bit like a turbo. Put your foot into it and it roars. It really growls like you would expect a big modified 6 cylinder to sound - very deep throaty sound. The guy at W.A suspensions said he couldn't believe how good it sounded "nothing like those rice burners".

I tried to get a typhoon in Perth but was told that K&N wouldn't bring them into Australia - not sure how true this is but I ordered one from the US instead. The US version of the ST170 is called the SVT, and so far I have found all mods to be compatible. If you have a Zetec then you would need to order the parts made for the ZX3.

I’ll post pics of the intake tomorrow and you will be able to see the custom heat shield.

catch ya.