240Z: JDM L6 Aftermarket Intake Manifolds & Turbo Surge tanks

Ok, i started this post about intake Manifolds a while ago when i was looking for one. Meanwhile i got a nice, oldschool FET intake sitting in my shelve and waiting to be refurbished and installed. Well however since then i found more and more other options and thought i make Post about all classic and Modern Intake manifold Options from the Land of the rising sun. Im a JDMjunky after all 🙂 I know there are plenty of other (mainly US) options but this is about the japanese only.

1) Triple-carb Intakes manifolds / kits:
Sanyo Kiki / SK / S-三
Japanese brand which still exists, but has been splitted into different groups and doesn’t produce intakes under that brand name anymore (See below). I so far found three different designs:
The Very first one was marked with “S-三” only:

The second version is marked with “SK” and “SANYO”, while the overall functional design seems to remain the same.

SK Sports kit
The third version was a complete Kit sold with a later Sanyo Kiki intake cast-design but also came with the carbs and everything. Quite a popular choice and i like it:

Recently i found this version with the blue “SK” sign. Seems also to be an original item:

By the way. Importbible sells nice repdocution plates for the SK kits as shown above. since thoes tend to be scratched or have colour fades after many years. check it out here:
https://importbible.com/shop/spare-parts/sk-intake-plate
Here’s a photo from their website, with a full SK Sport kit (inclunding intake manifold, linkage and carbs) with their reproduction plate. More photos in the Link above.

I recently found this other SK sports kit complete with dofferent “SK” carbs, installed on the early cast type manifold: 

The seller also showed a closer photo of those red-top cover carbs shown above, and tells us that those seem to be Mikuni / Solex 40PHH Type S carbs built in license or relabelled for SK.

Thanks to duffy, who sent me the pictures of his slightly different SK-intake Manifold with what appear to be bearings at the Linkage? Also the SK-casting on the manifold itself (left side) seems slightly thinner). Maybe the bearings where there for better and smoother throotle feel. It seems like there are a few different versions with some small changes, probably improved designs over the years…

OER Corporation
In 1983 Sanyo-Kiki was splitted into different branches and their Carb-business got renamed to OER Corporation. Since then the old SK-kits have ben redesigned and sold under their new brandname either as Intake only or complete OER Sports injection kit (Still available new through OER Japan):

Tomei powered
Was available new until around late 2014, not anymore sadly. If you compare the pictures it seems like this is an almost 1:1 copy of the datsun Competition or ohtsuka Intake (See below)

Update March 2024: Regular reader Duffy mahony pointed me towards an older and rare Intake manifold on Yahoo actions with a TOMEI casting on it:

Datsun Competition
Datsun USA / Nissan Japan sold this intake Manifold as an optional “sports” Intake for the Mikuni / Solex PHH44 Intakes (Picture from the 1978 Competition catalogue):

Ohtsuka / Otsuka / 大塚 :
I don’t know if Ohtsuka / Otsuka / 大塚 is a Brand name or just some other description. But well known Alan Thomas of 240Z Fame identified this one as an “Ohtsuka” Intake manifold. The previous Owner Ray A. allowed me to use his pictures. Kudos Ray!
If you look close you can see it looks very similar to the datsun competition Manifold, but the fin in the center of the competition item is at the edge in the Ohtsuka type manifold. Also the funnels appear to be a bit shorter in this one. If anybody has more information about this, please let me know! BTW. i don’t think it was blue when it was new, someone must have painted it over the years 😉

FET / Far east trading / Kyoku-To / 極東
Here we have an early Kyoku-To Design Intake manifold (極東 = Kyoku-To = Far east)

If you look close, you can see the 極東 cast between cylinders 2 and 3:

It appears that the company still exists but now mainly produces boss kits and racing gear:
https://www.fet-japan.co.jp/

F.E.T.
Later versions came branded as F.E.T. (Far East Trading) and had the additional Balancer tube on top. This is what i got for my car. I heard the balancer tube makes idling adjustment a bit tricky but i got it mainly because of the finned design will fit my Kakimoto valve cover excellently.
Compared to some other brands this one has very short funnels which is great if you don’t have much space.

Here’s another one. thanks again to Duffy for your Input and Picture! It seems to be a later design of the FET intake, with the Brand casting in the center.

EXCEL / Solexcel
A reader of the European DPAN Facebook group emailed me a picture of his “Excel” Intake manifold kit:

I first wasn’t sure if it was a japanese brand at all, but a bit of googling and i found some adverts and pictures of similar Kits for the A14 Engine (Pictures courtesy of datsun1000.com). Unfortunately, i wasn’t able to find more Information or Pictures from an L-series Setup or Kit.

It seems like they were among the first companies to use dyno’s to tune their stuff. Their kits are sometimes also dubbed “Solexcel” Kit which is a complete kit with Solex Carbs and Excel manifolds, etc…

Mikuni / Solex
Mikuni is mainly known for their Famous Carbs (actually they built Solex carbs in license), but they also had their own intake manifolds for the L6 Engines (picture shows a repainted one)

Like most others Mikuni sold a complete Kit Including carbs and all the bits for the  L6 Motor:

Here is another shot of a “Solex” branded compelte Car / Intake setup from the Japanese L型 Tuning Magazine book:

Harada Shokai
Looks pretty similar to many other designs but is still available and probably the technically most advanced, modern and best engineered design. aside from all the annodize bits i think it looks very oldschool 😉

Kameari Racing
Intake Manifolds are still availabe new from kameari Japan for various carb sizes and applications. UPDATE: I got noticed that Kameari just re-sells Harada Shokai intakes. and comparing the pictures this might be very true. Unfortunately i cannot understand the japanese text in the kameari catalogue to confirm this. but most probably this is true as the Pictures, partnumbers and kits look very similar and still both are available 😉 Unfortunately often referred to as “Kameari Intake” which is wrong since it’s a Harada 😉

Here’s a closer look at one of them:

Hayashi racing
So far only got this single picture showing a Hayshi racing L28 Intake manifold and i’m not sure if it will fit the other L6 heads but it looks beautiful:

UPDATE: Found another picture on ebay:

UPDATE: It seems Hayashi also oonce made an “L20” labelled version. The photos is a bit blurry in that area but it’s clearly different from the “L28” print in the previous version and the seller also mentioned the rare “L20” print. Otherwise i can’t see any big differences, but it might be that the individual tubes have a different diameter inside.

HKS
This one was advertized by HKS in 1986. It seems again a pretty similar unit as the ones shown above previously:

In one corner of the same HKS ad, you can see the same Intake manifold zoomed in, and there is clearly a “TKW” cast into the manifold. Whatever that means (maybe the original casting company?)

2) Individual Carbs / intake manifold kits:
SS-works Individual carbs system:
Instead of using 3 carbs for 6 cylinders, SS-works Japan is using 6 small Keihin FCR 41 Carbs, designed for motorcycle application, for the L20 / L24 / L28 Engines together with a custom-made Aluminum intake manifold.
They promise a unique sound coming from it and individual throttle-body like response, as well as easy handling, compared to the more dated carbs often used.
I wasn’t able to find a better picture than the one on their website:

3) Turbo kits / intake manifold kits:
HKS Pre-Surge Tank versions
Worlds first ever off-the-shelve Turbo kit was developed by HKS in July 1974 for the JDM Kenmeri GC100 Skyline’s L20 Engine with single-carb. It was called the “FET” Turbo kit (According to some japanese source, because it was developed in a partnership with the Company Far-east-trading (FET, mentioned above)). But it was not marketed under the HKS brand first. It improved Power by 40% from 115 to 160 PS and Torque from 16,5 kg/m to 23,0 kg/m.

However it appears that later version was Sold onder the HKS Brand. This one which i found and bought lately. Read more Details about it HERE:

Update 30.08.2017: Got some pictures of the full kit, see also more detailed pictures and the history about it HERE: https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2017-06-21/ive-got-worlds-first-turbo-kit-hks-c100-skyline-l20-street-turbo/
It appears that this later version was built in a similar way, but for the 4cylinder L-series Engine (L16 / L18)

Due to the huge success, HKS wanted to Improve the design. They Bought a Turbocharger made in the USA, reverse-engineered it, improved it and created a new Turbo kit, used in the Toyota 18RG engines and the Skyline Japan’s L20 with twin SU Carbs:

Read more about the HKS Kits on the official HKS Website:
https://www.hks-global.com/en/history/index.html
and here:
https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/hiroyuki-hasegawa-1945-2016/

HKS Surge Tank version 1
The rare (and sold expensively nowadays) HKS Surge tank Version 1 was an early design. Not sure what L6 Engine (L20, L24, L26, etc) it was built for. most probably the L24. I first thought it was just some kind of an airbox to put on the carbs and then add a Turbo on the front. But my buddy Krisztian explained that these have a pretty smart design so that the venturi principle also works under turbo-pressure and it has an almost perfect airflow to the carbs. pretty crazy for that age. These kind of setups are also known as “Blow-through-Turbo-Setup”
:

HKS Surge Tank version 2
Used a more modern Cast design and was made for the L28 Engine according to the Catalogue picture below.

HKS Twin Turbo Setup
If you compare the pictures above and below, the little “Add-on” part on the surge tank looks different. but the one in the catalogue below is stated as a Twin Turbo kit in an official HKS Ad, and i guess it was used mainly for the popular drag-racing back in the days then, on the late L28 engines 🙂

Same surge tank in an old Carboy Magazine, provided by Jeremy Wilbur – Thanks a lot!

HKS St. Turbo Kit
Aside from the mainly Z-based kits shown above and below, HKS Also offered a Turbo “Upgrade” kit for the C210 Skyline “Japan” which already came with a low-pressure L20ET turbo-Engine from the  Factory. This Upgrade kit with a bigger turbo and the Piping would improve power. I guess this one will also fit other L-series engines but not sure about that (and probably needs extra parts from a factory-turbo L-series to fit the non-turbo engines)

Tomita Auto Turbo “Hayate” Kit:
A Company called Tomita Auto (By Race Driver Yoshikazu Tomita, later part of famous Tommy Kaira tuning company and car builder) made a very similar Turbo Kit (part No TT-NS53) for the Fuel Injected L-Series Motors called the “Hayate” (Storm / Gale) Turbo Kit (See also here)

Here is an old ad for the kit, where it’s also installed:

Here’s the same kit shown complete (and below installed) in the 1982 Carboy Magazine:

Equip (Work)
A very similar kit was also offered by “Equip” which is today better known as “Work wheels” in japan, but the same company:

R.S. Turbo
Another very similar kit was offered by a company called R.S. Turbo in Japan Listed for the fuel injected L20 engine:

Here’s a slightly better picture of the same kit with all parts from the 1984 Carboy magazine:

SK Compo Turbo Kit version 1
Since Big power-figures was all the rage back then, not only HKS came up with a turbo / Twinturbo kit but also Sanyo Kiki. There was the SK Compo Turbo Kit which was more or less an Blowthrough-Airbox for their SK Sports kit mentioned at the beginning of this post, similar to the HKS System. here are some picture of my SK surge tank:

The picture below shows a similar SK Compo kit used with the SK Sports kit for a twin-turbo setup (See turbo manifold at the bottom), but i’m not sure if Sanyo-Kiki ever officially sold this kit or if it was just custom-made out of the normal Compo Turbo Kit:

Found another picture of the full kit installed on the engine:

SK Compo Turbo Kit version 2
In the Carboy Magazine from May 1983, a slightly more “Square” shaped (with sharper edges) version was advertized for the L-series engine:

SK Compo Turbo Kit version 3
in the May 1986 Carboy magazine, again a different (more round) design was advertized for the L20 engine:

SK Compo Turbo Kit version 4
Here’s an ad showing what i guess is another design full kit, similar to the HKS / Hayate kits, shown above (with a less crazy surge tank) at the left and on the right side the “Standard” SK sports kit with Solex carbs and SK Filters 😉

TRC by Kawahara Car Shop
This one was also shown to my by Krisztian and it is a “TRC” turbo kit for the L20 engined Z’s. I have no other pictures from it than this old 1982 Carboy ad. But i try to get better pictures of it.
It was from a shop called “Kawahara car shop” aka ” Kawahara Spercial performance”.

Kakimoto Racing
I’m not sure if they ever sold this, or if it was a one-off for their famous Kakimoto drag racing machine, but i since it’s quite different to all the other (twin?) turbo surge tanks, i thought i’d add it here for completeness sake:

Daytona
In the late 80ies the Turbo craze was full on and so every shop came up with their a turbo kit, or two. And since the L-series was a widely used engine, found in many “sporty” cars, it was one of the engines where it was really worth to develop a kit for. That’s why also less known tuner shops like Daytona in Nagoya (most probably still the same shop that exists today) came up with a special kit, like below shown twin-turbo kit and the left one as an upgrade for the L28, which already came with a soft turbo:

Blitz
The japanese Tuner Blitz, which still specializes in turbo kits, also offered a special Kit in Japan for various L-series engined cars, based on a german KKK turbocharger. From the pictures, it seems like it’s the closest to what is a normal turbo intake manifold with modern design…

Here’s a closer look at a (different?)  Blitz KKK Turbocharger kit for the L28 engine

And one of the ads for it (thanks Kris for sharing!)

ZYL Racing Turbo
Seems pretty close to the HKS (here shown with PHH44 Mikuni carbs). the only difference i can see is the location of the “Blow off valve”:

Infini Racing
The Drag racing shop “Infini Racing” advertized this unit, which seems to be based on a Tubular design:

ABR Hosoki Engineering
Another Surge tank from a company called ABR (shown here opened).
According to an input from Kris it is the Company ABR Hosoki engineering, which once uilt a crazy S130 for a Team midnight member and still offers the bodykit for it for sale (click link for their website).

Hayashi Racing
Hayashi racing (these days mainly known for their Wheels), once also built other parts for the L28, like this pretty “square” surge tank (as shown an 2018 G-works magazine), additional to the L28 intake manifold (see above), offered at the same time:

Here’s another picture i found of the same kit, from an 1983 Carboy magazine:

 

JKC King charger
This one looks very similar to the HKS type 1 Surge tank. but it was sold for the L6 engines with a supercharger. The company who made it was the “Japan King Corporation” (JKC). Here are some pictures of my JKC surge tank:

They also sold the kit for various other enginges of the time, as the ad below states (picture from an August 1982 Carboy ad – thanks Kris!)

Here’s a closer look at the 1985 RS Yamamoto DR30 Skylines built L20 engine bay with the supercharger on the left and the surge tank on the right.
What you can’t see here is that the RS Yamamoto car also had a turbocharger hidden under the surge tank, so it twin-charged with both super and turbo charger,
as also the text in the advertizing above says….

TBO
Here’s a very similar looking turbo surge tank, but the advertizing says the brand is TBO, The only di fference i can see from the picture is the length of the attached pipe:

I think this is the same surge tank shown in an 1991 Carboy magazine on a race car beeing prepared. As you can see there are no Fins and “JKC” Lettering on the upper side, compared to the JKC unit shown above:

Update 20.03.2023: I got some photos from a slightly different TBO version from Chris Livi (thanks for your great support, sir!):

Others
Well there are/were other Japanese Manufacturers but sadly wasn’t able to find any pictures or informations of these. if you have some Pictures, Data or Ads, i would be very interrested!! Get in contact if you have some pics or information or know anything about another Japanese manufacturer i missed here, or if you have more details on one of the ones liste above. i’m pretty sure there are more out there and i’m sure the datsun community will like to know about them 🙂

Others (Non Japanese)
As mentioned above, this is about Japanese manifolds / turbokits. However, readers like to point out others all the time, so for completenes sake i’ll mention some others too 🙂
– Cartech
– Janspeed
– Bell Engineering
– Mangoletsi
– Clifford Performance 4-barrel intake
– Arizona Z Car 4-Barrel intake
– Cannon induction systems (Torrance California) Intake manifold
– TWM Intake manifolds
– …

Disclaimer
I’m sorry to say that some of these Pictures are not mine. I collected them over many years from the Internet and unfortunately i was often not able to track down the the original source anymore.
The sources i know are
– RHDjapan.com
– Kameari engine works Catalogue
– Harada Shokai Website
– Various Ebay sales
– artisanexcite.blogspot.com
– https://www5.plala.or.jp/power_planning/history.htm lots of old SK ads!
– HKS Website

If any of these Pictures are yours i will happily add your credits or remove them upon request. I tought it’s ok to post it here since it’s about General interest and knowledge to every Z-owner to learn some history and sadly too much of this Information already disappeared in some bookshelves.