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Intakes.

nihil

There really aren't too many good spots for a cup holder in this car, but it's better than spilling coffee on my ***** again.






This set of snap-in attachments is sized specifically for my regular small coffee cup from a cafe I frequent. Paracord tie-down to keep it snug.

odonnell

^ that's actually a really clever place to mount a cup holder. And good taste in beer

Another thing I was thinking could benefit from 3D printing reproduction is the oil pan 'baffle" in the oil pan. To clarify, the stock one, even NA cars have them... the PET calls them a sump insert and seems to be more or less NLA (some sources asking crazy money, if you can find one). Mine cracked as soon as I touched it. Maybe a new design with better baffling characteristics could be made? Happy to take measurements and do SW modeling if this is in demand at all besides my case.

KVDR

From my experience, intakes are beyond the capabilities of home printers. Could maybe print non-functional prototypes for fit-up.

I was trying to print a replacement (turbo) air-box assembly and I eventually had to accept that the printed ABS material is not strong enough between layers for thin sections, and it felt brittle.

I also had REALLY bad warping/layer separation issues despite using a heated bed and printer enclosure maintained at ~39°C ambient temp inside.

I purchased polycarbonate ABS filament in an attempt for higher strength, but I've yet to use it as I think the economics, performance, and practicality of a printed air-box is a few years away. A $40k commercial printer might have better luck, but it won't produce a part costing less than a new OEM one.

First part modeled and printed. You can see layer separation at the geometry change.


3D scanning air-box lid for future attempts.




I also spent quite a bit of time looking under the hood for ways to improve on the stock turbo air-box, remove restrictions, etc. In my opinion, that thing is fully optimized for the given space/geometry.

KVDR

I like! Much better location than the other ones I've seen. Clever use of existing hardware.

KVDR

Yeah, that'd be great! Can you do this immediately after getting the engine bay nice and hot?

I boiled the hose for about 15 minutes. It was unaffected by the heat - it seemed to maintain it's strength/elasticity/hardness at the elevated temp and appears unchanged afterwards. So that's about 212°F, which should be near the hottest temps experienced under the intake - right?

KVDR

I'll look into it. Would need to be UV resistant - not sure what filament (if any) has that property.

KVDR

Printing a functional button should be easy - but it won't look factory, and the graphic would have to be a sticker (or embossed).

There are printers that can use dual filaments simultaneously, and one of them could be a different colour/translucent, but I doubt we could get a decent 'resolution' for the fine detail.

Would you guys be interested in a printed button that wasn't factory looking? Could then be any colour (or material).

nihil

Danke. For a larger gent (6'3" around 230lbs) it's damn near the -only- place to put one.

Do you have a picture of the part with approximate dimensions?

nihil

The only other one I've seen was one that drapes over the center console and hangs your beverage to the side, but that's where my leg goes. I guess if you didn't carry passengers it could work on just the one side. The main body of this one is symmetric and works on either side of the car, and the attachments can be mirror()'d easily enough (I do 99% of my modeling in OpenSCAD).

I'll see if I can get out for a ride tomorrow evening. Where does this little hose go, just under the intake? I'll shoot the entire engine bay for context, but give particular attention to the area that part resides.

On an engine where the intake and exhaust are on different sides of the block, hitting 200°F+ under the intake would indicate you have bigger problems than melting a printed part. I'd be more concerned about longevity with exposure and heat cycling. I generally use ABS for engine bay parts since it's a known and tested industry material, haven't tried it with flex yet.

nihil

You'll need your build chamber at least twice that temp to manage the coefficient of thermal expansion of ABS on large surface area parts like that. This stuff drives me nuts. I like ABS as a material, but it can be a pain in the *** to work with at times.

yoramw

Can you do something like an "engraving" of the print? this way, it will be easy to paint it white after we receive it and I think it will look nice.

KVDR

Hotter would be better, but I'm limited to about 40°C because of the location of the servo motors (inside enclosure). If one could shield/cool the motors, the next limitation is that the printer itself has many ABS printed parts.

I like ABS for small, thick parts. I prefer HIPS (high-impact polystyrene) for general printing. It's cheap, safer to print with (particles), and feels similar to ABS.

My FAVOURITE filament is semi-flex. It's extremely strong and has just enough flex so that it doesn't feel 'plasticy'. It would be ideal for snap-fit parts. It feels like you could print very firm suspension bushings out of it.

..I also have some nGen Colorfabb sitting here that needs to be tested.

KVDR

....Maybe...but I think the resolution of most FDM (fused deposition modelling) printers might be the limiting factor.

I think a stereolithography printer such as the Form 2 would be better suited to such detail. I'd like to get one of these (or similar) next year if prices go down by half.

KVDR

I actually have no idea if this hose is visible, I just know it's a popular request.

Oh I agree that it shouldn't get hot there on an NA.... maybe I'm just paranoid because my Turbo which makes EVERYTHING HOT.

I expect the ninjaflex to perform just fine for heat cycling... *should* be better than rubber. I have several parts installed in my car now (bellhousing plugs, p-clamp liners, and evap lines), so I'll keep a close eye on these over the summer and will post updates periodically.