Well, if you have the time and materials, could you build it for the exhaust instead? Just an idea...
Exhaust brake is a very different animal, for one thing the materials I have are fine for use in clean cold air but may not be ideal for dirty hot exhaust gases. Then I gotta find a way to seal the shaft (so no exhaust leaks are present), and devise an actuator system, and some sort of backpressure monitoring/reference... If it's to be done right it's a lot of work, and quite frankly I ain't got that much patience. I know my limitations, I can modify an existing exhaust brake to fit my needs, but building a proper one from the ground up is beyond me.
How, dare say I ask, were you planning to build one? It's not as simple as one would think because you need a good valve seat and a bypass valve. Then the actuator and all the other auxiliary parts. And sealing the shaft, and.....
Well since I'm making the blade smaller than the housing opening anyway to provide enough airflow so the engine can idle even when blade is closed, perfect seals and bypass valves and all that are not needed... And remember this thing will go in front of the filter, so anything that passes by it will be stopped by the filter much like how it happens in factory form. It's really just a simple butterfly flapper to limit the amount of air the engine can pull thru the intake housing, a use very different from that of a gasser's throttle body where precise metering of air is crucial to proper engine operation.
LCAM- do you really think you'd need that big of one like off a Detroit? (I have no idea what one looks like though)
I mean have you seen the small opening for the turbo intake hats? That being said, I know for a n/a application you would need a bigger opening.
I dunno how big the DD valves are, I'm sure those installed on 8V92s or 12V71s are gonna be massive, but something from one of their smaller engines may be a good candidate... It will probably need some modifications so it don't close all the way (after all I don't want it killing my engine, just restricting airflow to what's needed for normal idle), but it's still a better start than devising something from the ground up. Again, all this is if it even exists in 4" size, I haven't looked that much into it yet.
Also, about the RDT - couldn't I still run a CDR, but relocate it so it connects to the intake before the butterfly valve? Kinda like how it's done on turbo engines, CDR on valve cover and from there a big hose to intake ducting. Then it won't be seeing any of the vacuum formed inside the housing, so no chance of sucking the crankcase dry of oil.