Titanium Intake for the Murcielago

The factory air induction components are a mixture of: performance, sound deadening, ease of packaging/manufacturing and cost. The Murcielago airboxes use the same filters as the Diablo and Countach. On the Murcielago, each intake hose (4) has different routing and rather than spend the time and money to develop a specific hose for each throttle body, Lambo used a universal flexible rubber hose, which also reduced intake noise and made the manufacturing process quicker than with individual pipes. The intake system on the Murcielago was created around a cost-savings basis over a performance basis, this is very noticeable on the roadsters.

The cone filters are not ingesting hot air while in motion. The factory cold air ducts, which feed the factory airboxes, dump directly on the cone filters. The cone filters are isolated from the engine via the factory carbon engine bay panels (same ones that cover the factory airboxes.)

Again, radiating heat being ingested by the cone filters is only present when the car is not in motion, which has minimal effects compared to the factory system since the engine bay heat soaks the intake, no matter if it's stock or aftermarket, when the car is at a stop/crawling speeds. When the car is at speed (i.e. when you want power) fresh, cool air is being fed into the inner fenders where the cone filters are able to ingest more air for the engine than the factory airboxes can and hot air is extracted from the engine bay.

As far as the titanium failing from rigidity, the silicone tubes offer enough flex to alleviate any stress from the airbox or intake tubes and the way the intakes mount to the air box allows them to rotate in the event the engine has severe movement.

 

Yeah, I could make one for the Diablo. I think it would make a significant difference in power, throttle response and sound.

 

A little update.
I made an intake for the pre-LP Gallardo and the results are substantial. The intake has instant throttle response; reduced weight; reduced heat soak; greatly amplifies the engine's intake acoustics and power gains from 3500rpm to redline with peak gains of 23 wheel horsepower & 13 wheel torque gain. At 7000rpm gains are 25 wheel horsepower and 15 wheel torque.

2008 Gallardo on 91 octane, 75 fahrenheit ambient temperature on an AWD Mustang dynamometer.

Pictured is pie cut stainless steel:

 

A little update on the intake. Last week I tested the intake on a dyno and was able to get some before/after information.

The dyno was inside a wind tunnel which is capable of replicating 80mph ground speed. The car spun the dyno to 150mph, so while this isn't perfect, it's much closer than with stagnant air like most dyno's have. We also hooked up a computer to the OBDII and a stand alone o2 sensor at the exhaust tip to gather more information from the car. What we found is the car runs RICH with a factory tune and the ECU just keeps adding timing as the revs go up. All Murci's have a dip towards the top of the power band and I always thought it was the car pulling timing on the dyno, but, in-fact, the car is dumping fuel. I think this dip is not as noticeable on the road as the car is being fed more air, but none-the-less it explains why the Murci will kill the primary cats and shoot massive fireballs.



Peak power gains are only about 4 wheel horsepower and 12 wheel torque, but the mid-range power is consistently more with bumps of 20 wheel horsepower and torque, which explains why the car feels so much faster, but wasn't impressive on the peak power comparisons. This was with the coupe, so the roadster should expect greater gains.

This comparison is a stock intake with BMC filters vs. RP intake with K&N cone filters. Cars running OEM air filters should expect greater gains.





I put the stock intake on my car for the two hour drive up to the dyno and the car felt strangled. Maybe because I'm used to the intake being on my car, but it really felt hindered driving compared to the intake. I frequently dropped to 5th gear to accelerate vs. leaving it in 6th. I have changed my description of throttle response being "much better" to "immediate". The intake noise with the windows up and radio on was minimal compared to stock. More pops, crackles and fireballs with the intake over stock.