Hello guys!
So I've decided to make a post showing you how to assemble (or rather how I assembled) the kit! It will be slightly different for everyone depending on the level of work you do for your engine.
To begin with, I have my 3D printed small volume airbox. I had this printed at Shapeways out of ABS. In order to prevent any debris getting sucked into the engine I thoroughly cleaned it, sanded it, cleaned it sprayed with fill-primer, sanded it, primed it, sanded it and then eventually coated it with engine enamel. The airbox reaches about 60 degrees during heavy driving from radiated heat and ABS will remain rigid up until 180 degrees.
The bosses that you see on the part are mounting points for vacuum lines. These will not be on the product from Rama, these were something I did for myself personally because I wanted the kit to fit a certain way.
My only concern is the longevity of the product as it goes through heat cycling, but I made a very thick design to try to mitigate this. Only time will tell. The below photos show the unusual shape of the trumpets, placement relative to the inlet and significant change in volume from ~8 liters to ~2.9 litres.
There was a noticeable change in torque and power which I will get onto later (short version is you may be interested in doing this if it's on the street, but not if its on the track). I have a bunch of sim results as well as animation regarding it.
Actually getting started with the install:
I will assume for the sake of this that you can remove your existing manifold or find a tutorial regarding that yourself. Just a tip for the E36 guys, getting the wiring off the alternator can be a pain. In this case we'll actually be removing and disposing of the little wiring box that sits in the manifold, so if you want to make it easier on yourself you can fully remove that part as part of uninstalling the original manifold.
Once it is all apart you will need to start by thoroughly cleaning the surface of the ports. Any garbage left on them from an old gasket or silicone will risk a vacuum leak. You can see the crud left on mine.
In this photo you can see that I've exposed some wiring that runs to the ICV, Crank Sensor and Cam Sensor. I also have a lot of hoses to deal with. One of the particularly odd hoses is the hose that runs coolant into the PCV valve. The purpose of this hose is to prevent the valve from gunking up. It will no go unused, so I cut the hose to an appropriate length then joined both ends with a hose joiner.
You can see the join made between cylinders 2 and 3.
I covered the wiring in split tubing then electrical tape to prevent water ingress.
One of the more fun parts was tapping a fitting for my brake booster. Originally we tapped this on the front side of the engine due to ease, but I didn't like how it looked so I moved it. There is no need to do this step, you could achieve the same thing by mounting the booster line very close to any cylinder (it won't work if you go into the vacuum block). This won't be tapped by from Rama unless you specifically request it - but its easy enough to do yourself with a hand drill and a NPT/BSP tap (depending on the hose fitting you use). I used an L-shaped fitting so that I could get the hose super snug in the back of the engine bay. In the photos below you can see how I ran the hose, and where I blocked off the old tap at the front of the engine.
Putting the manifold on itself is easy. The hardest part is getting the fuel hoses through the gap between cylinder 3-4. You will need to place stand-offs on for your fuel rails (some hollow pipe cut to size). Their length may vary depending on your purpose. The manifold fits both the OEM air-shroud injectors and standard injectors.
Be patient installing your injectors, and use some WD40 to help get everything in. This is probably the 'hardest' part of the install.
I removed all the original injector hoses because I wanted to run the air shroud to the other side of the engine bay. This was done to stay tidy, no other reason.
Getting your ITBs ready is a bit of a trick when you're using the vacuum bypass for the ICV. Here you will need to get a non-hardening silicone sealant and apply it around the edge of the butterfly. You will need to open and close it a few times to make sure you've covered the entire edge, which you can see from the marks where the edge hits the surface. You will also need to spray the surface with WD40 once the sealant is applied so that the throttle doesn't 'stick'.
This is important, try and drive the car normally for a few days because the silicone will 'set' a bit over time with heat. While it's at its softest, you can actually ruin your seal from the high velocity air at high RPM. This will make your idle strange.
Getting the throttle bodies in is a fun game. There are all the levers and connectors which you can read about on Rama's site. In the below pictures you can see that I moved all the hoses so that I could neatly place the throttle cable (unlike with the prototype fitment). I've also place the TPS and attached hoses to the throttle bypass under the manifold into a vacuum block. I've also hooked up the FPR into the vacuum block. Rama has a few different designs of block, I liked this one purely for neatness.
I hooked up the crank vent to a catch can, and then I placed an in line PCV valve between the catch can and the vacuum block. Unfortunately this doesn't generate enough vacuum and my oil cover started leaking from the pressure. If you want to run your oil fumes back into the intake (you should because it prevents water getting into your oil, plus its illegal in a lot of areas) you will need to run the PCV valve directly into a cylinder like I did the brake booster.
You can also see the adapter block with the ICV in the bottom right. This is only relevant to the M44 guys since the M42 uses an inline ICV. My ICV adapter is different to the one Rama made since I had to get mine done before he started manufacturing the parts.
Getting all the spacers on is easy.
I measured the resistance of the DISA when I removed it and purchased a resistor which I placed in the DISA plug to make the computer think it is still there. You can see it wrapped in electrical tape in the above photo. You can see where I tapped the air fittings into my 3D printed parts, and ran the hoses to the ICV and the injector shrouds. You can also see a piece of rubber between my two plenum halves which I bought and cut to size as a gasket.
I tied the temp sensor around my air filter.
That is pretty much it. I've changed a few ways the hoses have run since then to make it neater, but otherwise its the same as this!
Ask questions if you have any, and I'll start working on my next post.
