My line of work means i'm involved in plastic molding and rapid prototypes.....tbh it would be a pig prototyping due to the tube like shape SLS would probably be the best method in ABS but in two halves that would need welding......i reckon something of this size would be well over £500 and not as robust as a pukka tooled part..........best method would probably be a blow molding...........cheaper than an open shut cavitied tool as ypu would still need to weld the tube halves.

All tolled i think the proce you have obtained is bang on the money!!! Good job.....

 

Yes, I looked into printing a prototype to test. but as damienedwards mentioned something of this size is a fairly great expense to print, especially in a material that I would personally trust to hold up while running on my car. I personally have two printers at my disposal that i use on a regular basis for part test fitting, but neither of which are capable of producing a running prototype of this nature.

By design this part will provide a smoother airflow path than both the factory piece and the current aftermarket solutions so at the very least no performance will be lost compared to either of those products. I also toyed with the idea of a plastic rotationally molded piece at first but moved past this as I felt the material would cheapen the product below a level that I feel a Jaguar deserves. A piece such as an intake, without replacing a filter element with a larger and higher flowing media, will not a have a huge effect on the performance of an engine, so the carbon fiber is as much a choice for style and quality as it is a performance item.

 

So as it appears the interest is not anywhere near as high as it was previously. I am still working with the vendor on getting this made, and would really like to see the carbon tube made. Is the cost a hindrance to peoples interest or is it just that this is not a product that appeals to many.

I personally want the product enough that I can absorb the entire tooling cost and any parts that do not sell. The carbon tube and couplers piece price comes to somewhere between $300 and $325USD. I can make this happen but still would still need to sell the majority of my initial order at that price so I’m not sitting on a bunch of parts and money. Does this appeal to anyone else as much as myself, if not I’ll just have to find another way to make myself a one-off y-pipe at a lesser cost.

 

Will this work for the 13 model year?

 

Keeping it in the range of the twin cities intake would be better, the carbon fiber aspect does nothing for me especially if it was going to cost up to $200 more.

I have no need for one now but having options is never a bad thing.

 

Had I not just wasted $300 on the TCP version, I would've done it. I might still be interested, depending on the finished product.

 

Glad to see some could be interested, I'll keep pushing forward then. I am not sure yet if it will fit the 2013 model years that have the different sensor style. I'll try to cross check part numbers to see if the factory y-pipe is the same to confirm. I would assume that if the TCP fits all years this should as well.

Yes I can see how the extra cost could deter, as the TCP intake should perform fairly similarly, I personally just feel like those TCP parts are so half-assed with no attempt to match the elegance of a Jaguar with just mixing a puzzle of off the shelf pieces of aluminum and silicone along with a poor attempt at an aluminum "Y". If they had made a part similar to the 4.2 intake and created an smooth flowing y-pipe I would already have one on my car right now.

Thanks guys.

 

A aluminum Y pipe is a aluminum y pipe. I'm not sure how it can be poor if it does what it should. It's a Y pipe. What do you expect it to do, make you lunch? The same y pipe section on the 5L is used on the 4.2L intakes. Only the extensions after are different. The 4.2L has a ton of room. The 5L setup snakes around so you can't have a perfectly symmetric intake like you can on the 4.2L.

The other manufactures that have made intakes which were solid aluminum were $700-$1000. It's an intake pipe not a spaceship. It doesn't need to be over engineered. Make what you want. I wouldn't expect to sell a ton of anything for this car. The market is pretty small.

 

Quite happy with the look and performance of my TCP intake....and the price was right. Get a lot of compliments and has been a great addition to my mods.

 

I agree that it is just an assembly of off the shelf parts and that it isn't really "special", but it looks a lot better than stock and it changed the intake and exhaust sound enough to warrant the purchase.

I do wish the parts went together a little better so that it didn't take an extra hour or so of fiddling with it to get the hose clamps on somewhat straight. I asked my muffler guy and he said he could build me one from mandrel bent aluminum, but the cost would have doubled. So it was worth it to me to make $300 for the extra hour invested.

 

I still want one. Not sure how/if this affects anything.

 

I wasn't happy with my TCP intake for quite a few reasons:

1) There was no phone number for TCP. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I couldn't find one in his email signature, the product literature, online, etc. And, apparently, they don’t work (or even check emails) from lunchtime on Friday until Monday morning. So, when I started the installation process around 10 AM on Friday, and noticed a few significant fit/finish issues, there was nobody to chat with to help troubleshoot. Instead, my only option was to eventually send several emails, the first of which was sent on Friday, 11/6/2015, at 1:12 PM EST (12:12 PM, their time), for I which I didn’t receive a response until Monday, 11/9/2015, at 7:38 AM EST.
2) The unit was absolutely filthy, covered in crud on the outside and inside (see attached pix). It didn’t look like it had ever been cleaned at all. In the past, intakes I’ve received from other vendors have been very clean, and wrapped in a plastic bag to ensure nothing got inside the intake at any point. I had to completely disassemble every piece of the TCP intake to thoroughly wash it. While washing it, I noticed that the inside welds were extremely jagged and rough, and kept snagging the microfiber cloth I was using to clean it, leaving threads hanging from the welds. So, I had to sand them down, re-wash the aluminum pieces, and then dry the whole thing. In total, it took me about an hour for just that.
3) The silicone reducer they sent for the throttle body was 3.25" ID, not 3.5" (see attached pic), which meant that stretching it around the TB was a complete nightmare. Chris admitted fault for this issue on Monday.
4) The throttle body clamp they sent had a max size of 3.75" (see attached pic), which meant that I had to use the clamp from the OEM intake. Chris admitted fault for this issue on Monday.
5) Another question I had, as I was installing it on Friday afternoon, was how far the PCV nipple was supposed to be threaded into the welded bung. It wasn’t threaded down very far at all (see attached pic), and I didn’t know if that was another quality-control oversight, as the white thread-locking sealant was peeling off quite a bit, too, and hadn’t been trimmed off. I ended up threading it down the rest of the way because I never heard back from Chris, there were no notes about it in the instructions, and doing so didn’t create a situation where the PCV nipple intruded into the inside of the aluminum tube at all.
6) The overall fitment ended up being awkward in a few areas, as some of the silicone was forced to kink to keep the aluminum Y-section from hitting any belts (as diligently mentioned in TCP’s instructions), but it was acceptable. I loosened and tightened all of the pieces on several occasions to try to get everything to fit better, but I ultimately couldn’t get the engine cover to sit back flush after installation, so I left it off. Having to take the intake completely apart to sand and clean it could’ve meant that I didn’t re-assemble everything to the intended tolerances, but I didn’t really have a choice. In my case, having some kind of depth markings on the outside of the aluminum to show how far it should sit in the silicone couplers would’ve been very helpful.
7) Thankfully, I was able to make everything work with no help from TCP, because my XFR is my daily driver, and the only car I had at home until Sunday night. If I hadn't been able to make everything work, I would've had to completely re-install the OEM intake, so I could either drive to an auto parts store or wait until I received the correct parts from TCP. When Chris eventually responded on Monday to the emails I’d sent him on Friday, I followed-up with a very thorough, professional, polite, and confidential email, including several pictures which supported my previously unbiased opinions, while not asking for anything at all in return. I was basically just trying to help him understand a few areas in which he could improve his product and the overall experience, as a small business owner. His immediate response was to lash out, as seen here, “Jeff, You are obviously looking to find reasons to hate the intake. You are the one and only person to ever complain about condition. We hand polished that intake before it left. The coupler and clamp are 100% our fault but the rest is exactly as shown.” Clearly, beyond being a little hostile, he didn’t address a lot of what I’d mentioned in my email, but he did send another email almost immediately, probably recognizing his unprofessional tone in his first response, in which he then said, “Jeff, Sorry for the partial email it sent out before I could finish. Please return the intake and I will refund your money and shipping. You were obviously looking for something we can't offer. We have never had anything but happy customers. Sorry for all the trouble. Chris.” So, while a lot more polite, Chris still didn’t address what I’d considered to be very valid concerns.
8) Lastly, I haven’t felt or heard any difference with the TCP intake installed, even with my exhaust cutouts completely closed. I didn't really expect to feel any performance gains (throttle response, etc.), although I was open to being surprised, but I did expect significantly "better" sound, at the very least. Maybe it's there and I'm just not noticing it, but I'm usually very objective, and even tend to err on the side of thinking something good happened, even if it is just the placebo effect. I wasn’t disappointed enough to return the TCP intake, as I definitely don’t feel like going through the process of putting the stock intake tubes back on, especially after the hours of work I already put in just trying to get the TCP intake on, but I wouldn’t recommend the TCP intake, either. The extensive time and effort for installation, the lack of prompt communication and professionalism on the part of the vendor, and the lack of any audible difference, at least, just wouldn’t justify it.

I might try to go back to re-fit everything at a later date, when I’m less exhausted of dealing with it, so I can eliminate the kinks and get the engine cover back on, now that I know about those issues. But, for now, it seems to at least be working, and I haven’t experienced any trouble with it.

 

Thanks for the responses guys, I do plan on moving ahead with the project, I'll be printing a few pieces for test fitting this week and hopefully be able to finalize everything next week and get it on order soon after. I should have finalized pricing at that point and will let anyone interested know.

So If all goes well they should be coming in right around tax return season for us here in the states, which for me at least can be called new car part season as well.

I have not been able to verify yet if this tube will fit the cars will the newer style MAF sensors. At worst I can send a part to someone with a newer car and if it doesn't work I will refund the part and cover shipping costs.

 

Sorry for clogging up the thread OP but I have to respond to that rant. Good luck with your intake build. The more parts we have for the XF the better. FYI the 2013+ cars are different due to the intake boxes. The TCP intake will not fit.

I talked to TCP, I was one of their test cars because I'm local to them.

I'm not sure why this is posted here. The OP is asking if people are interested in his intake.

Your first complaint is that you didn't get super duper special weekend support? Some people don't work weekends so that complaint is a little over the top. That has nothing to do with a phone number. They don't say they have 24/7 support.

You took pictures 1 inch away from a black silicone coupler with the flash on. What do you expect? Back up and take a picture in sunlight. If it has dust on it wipe it off like a normal person. I'm not sure that warrants a rant.

As for the adapter threading, you don't know how NPT adapters work. They are tapered threads. They aren't supposed to be ratcheted down 100% into the port. You tighten until it's tight. If they were bottomed out they wouldn't seal and you'd get a check engine light.

The couplers on the 5L intakes do have a slight kink to them after install at first because the angle needs to be slightly more than 45 degrees. There isn't a 50 degree coupler. A few heat cycles and the kink goes away. Your after picture looks fine though. I don't see any major kinks from that angle.

TCP assembles the entire intake into about 2 pieces. They could have sent you a box of parts. They immediately offered to send you a larger clamp or cover the cost if you got one locally. It was a mistake which sucks. They also offered you a total refund plus shipping costs which you declined. It sounds like they did what they could to make you happy and yet you are still ranting about it. Wow, what do you do when you actually have a bad experience with a company?

 

Blackcoog – First off, let me state that I’m genuinely sorry if I offended you, or anyone else, with my post. I posted the information on this thread because it's about designing an intake for the supercharged XF, and it asks forum members if they'd be interested in purchasing one, so I'd hoped to help anyone interested make a more fully informed buying decision on intake options, especially given the current lack thereof. It wasn’t a rant, and certainly wasn’t a thread hijack, per your cute emoticon; it was an objective and factual account of my previously unbiased experience with the TCP intake, a would-be direct competitor of the intake which the OP is considering designing and selling, with minimal emotional intrusion on my part. I understand that you might feel somewhat obligated to defend TCP because you're close to them, and they did their prototype intake on your car, but my post wasn’t a personal attack, and shouldn’t be taken as such.

However, I’m happy to run through all of your assertions in order, even though I feel like I covered most of them in my original post…

“Your first complaint is that you didn't get super duper special weekend support? Some people don't work weekends so that complaint is a little over the top. That has nothing to do with a phone number. They don't say they have 24/7 support.” *** Actually, if you’ll look back, my first complaint was that they didn't have a phone number which I could find ANYWHERE. If they'd had a phone number listed anywhere, I wouldn't have needed "super duper special weekend support," as I was trying to contact them as early as 11 AM their time on that Friday, the point at which I began looking for their phone number. Further, as I mentioned in my post, I subsequently started sending them emails as early as noon their time on that Friday, and sent several other emails before 3 PM their time on Friday, none of which got a response until early Monday morning. So, had they at least been checking their emails on Friday, which I don't believe qualifies as the weekend, I still wouldn't have needed "super duper special weekend support."

“You took pictures 1 inch away from a black silicone coupler with the flash on. What do you expect? Back up and take a picture in sunlight. If it has dust on it wipe it off like a normal person. I'm not sure that warrants a rant.” *** Initially, I simply expected it to be clean, as any new product should be. The photos, in fact, don't show the true level of grit and grime that covered the inside (and outside) of the intake. It was a lot more than dust; there were chunks of rubber, some kind of gelatinous liquid in a few places, etc. I wouldn't want anything like that getting into my engine, but maybe that's just me. I guess I've just gotten a little spoiled over my 40 years - when I receive something from any vendor, from Amazon to Zappos, yes, I do expect it to be clean, and not covered in crud. Further, as I’d previously stated, just cleaning it wouldn't have been so bad, even if extremely annoying. It was the fact that having to clean it brought to my attention the rough welds on the inside, which have the potential to disrupt the smooth flow of air, albeit potentially minimally, which is pretty much the whole point of this intake, which then subsequently compelled me to sand down all of the inside welds to something resembling even remotely smooth, and then re-wash it, that was the big issue.

“As for the adapter threading, you don't know how NPT adapters work. They are tapered threads. They aren't supposed to be ratcheted down 100% into the port. You tighten until it's tight. If they were bottomed out they wouldn't seal and you'd get a check engine light.” *** You're 100% correct in your assessment of my knowledge of NPT adapters. Which is exactly one of the reasons I tried to reach TCP on Friday, to no avail. But, based on the other issues I'd already encountered (the filth covering the entire unit, the wrong sizes of the throttle body coupling and clamp, etc.), I was prone to believe it was hurriedly assembled and shipped, with little in the way of Quality Control. Ultimately, it was a non-issue, but it could've been handled very quickly and easily with either/both A) documentation in the instructions, and/or B) responsive communication.

“The couplers on the 5L intakes do have a slight kink to them after install at first because the angle needs to be slightly more than 45 degrees. There isn't a 50 degree coupler. A few heat cycles and the kink goes away. Your after picture looks fine though. I don't see any major kinks from that angle.” *** Thanks for that information. That would've been great to know prior to now. Again, it could've been handled very quickly and easily with either/both A) documentation in the instructions, and/or B) responsive communication.

“TCP assembles the entire intake into about 2 pieces. They could have sent you a box of parts. They immediately offered to send you a larger clamp or cover the cost if you got one locally. It was a mistake which sucks. They also offered you a total refund plus shipping costs which you declined. It sounds like they did what they could to make you happy and yet you are still ranting about it. Wow, what do you do when you actually have a bad experience with a company?” *** Am I still ranting about it now? Your comment implies that I started ranting about it at some previous point, which I didn’t, and I’m not now. I merely elaborated on my previous post, where I said that I wasted my money on the TCP intake. But, back on topic, I initially appreciated that TCP sent the entire unit pre-assembled. But, because I had to break it down to clean/sand/re-clean it, it became a moot point. Yes, they did offer to send me a new throttle body coupler and clamp. But, when I'd already taken off my OEM intake prior to discovering they’d sent me the wrong sizes, none of the following options made me feel any better about the situation: A) waiting days for delivery of those parts, B) taking Uber to various auto parts stores (five miles to the closest one from my house), hoping that one of them would have a coupler with the correct thickness/size, or C) re-installing my OEM intake, just to have to take it back off in a few hours or days, depending on whichever route I chose.

Even though I think I covered everything fairly thoroughly in my original post, I'll re-state for clarity; I sent Chris a very polite and professional email after I successfully got the TCP intake installed, which I'm happy to post in its entirety, if you'd like, and I didn't ask him for anything at all in response. For some background, I'm in leadership for a national consulting company which focuses on process management, including setting customer expectations, communicating and delivering on those expectations, etc., and I received my MBA with a focus on business intelligence and marketing analytics (customer loyalty, channel profitability), so I have a place in my heart for helping people make their businesses more efficient, effective, and profitable, in conjunction with raising customer satisfaction. The intent of my original email to Chris at TCP was merely to help him as a small business owner. In fact, my last email to Chris at TCP ended thusly; “I hope at some point you can think rationally and maturely enough to understand that my accurate and constructive criticism could actually benefit you and your business. Contrary to your comments, I don’t want anything else from you at all, ever, and, in spite of your attitude, actually wish you luck with your business.” I realize that people have bad days and make mistakes from time to time, but that doesn’t absolve Chris at TCP for the lack of product quality I encountered, his initially heated response to my email, or the fact that he didn’t want to hear an inconvenient truth. So, while it may conceivably be uncharacteristic of TCP, it doesn’t change the fact that it happened.

Lastly, yet most simply and importantly, because I wasn’t able to find a single benefit of the TCP intake over the OEM intake, taken in conjunction with the time, effort, and money associated with it, I was led to the conclusion that it was a very bad ROI for me, personally, which is more or less what I stated in my pre-elaboration post. However, it seems like others have been very happy with it, which I fully acknowledge. So, as always, interested parties are free to read the available information, weigh others' accounts with mine, and decide their best course of action. I harbor no animosity towards TCP, you, or anyone else associated in any way with the TCP intake, but I'm not going to stay hushed about a bad experience, just so I don't offend anyone. I have no reason to create baseless allegations against TCP, and actually put myself at risk of unfounded attacks by other forum members by being open and honest about my experience. I’m not interested in some kind of forum showdown, and don’t want to go back and forth about how stupid I am, but I stand by my assessment of the TCP intake, per my individual experience with it, which could be completely different than anyone else’s experience who purchases one. TCP might even consider the valid points I brought to the table and adjust accordingly, which should benefit everyone involved. Feel free to make additional comments, but I’ve already wasted enough time on the TCP intake, and will consider the matter closed on my end.

Thanks.

 

Can I make a polite request to get this thread back on topic? I'm very interested in following updates specifically on the OP's carbon fibre intake development.

 

updates?

 

I'm also after an update. I'd love to have this intake.

 

Not sure about the OP's intake, and maybe you guys are already aware, but Chris at Mina Gallery sent me an email on 9/29 with included picture, saying that he'd finally made one; "Finally approved the last prototype (see attached), and so should be ready to start shipping these in about 3 weeks."


Mina Gallery Intake

 

does anyone have any engineering or testing behind these aftermarket intakes? the op was stating how his was better performing, and yet it didnt even exist.... a " pipe dream" if you will....