Making an Automotive MAF Sensor Relocation Part

This little part gives someone the ability to relocate the MAF (mass air flow) sensor in their Mitsubishi Evolution. Since the factory part is plastic and integrated into the air box of the car, it is impossible to add an aftermarket intake to the engine.

This is a useful aluminum part that can be welded to the intake pipe wherever the user needs it to be. The CAD file for this part can also be modified to support any size intake pipe, the current design is for a 3” intake pipe.

BILL OF MATERIALS

2 in. x 1 in. 6061 aluminum bar stock

TOOLS

3/8 in. 2-Flute End Mill
3/8 in. Ball Nose End Mill
Spot Drill
Large Drill (anything around 1/2 in.)
11/64 in. Drill for Tapped Hole
M5 x .8 Bottoming Tap
Chamfer Tool
1.5 in. Parallels

STEP BY STEP

The part was conceptualized out of the need for this type of part. There are similar parts for sale by manufacturers, but the cost was motivation to make our own one-off part.

I took simple measurements of an OEM Mitsubishi MAF, like the o-ring bore, and the bolt spacing. The rest was just packaging dimensions and were less critical.

I designed the part to be easily flipped and held in the vise for the second operation to make things more efficient. The CAM for this part was very straightforward except for the 3D chamfer on the bottom side, this required a Trace toolpath in Fusion 360. The Trace toolpath in Fusion lets you set and offset in the radial and vertical dimensions to use a chamfer tool to trace a 3D curve, and therefore provide a 3D chamfer. The run time for this part, including both ops, was about one hour.

After the first operation, it is important to flip the part on the correct axis, otherwise the adaptive tool paths will not match for the center bore.

It is also important to check the vise jaw to tool clearance before running the part as some vise jaws are a little different, mine is metric for example.

Jacob Shields is the Product Engineer at Jacks Transmissions. They specialize in the Nissan GTR, Mitsubishi Evolution, and Toyota Supra platforms. Check out some of their products at JacksTransmissions.com.

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