Has anyone gotten a drop in filter (TRD or K&N type) AND made some kind of a home-made ram air kit? I live in California and I don't want to pay fines for having an intake. I've seen several makeshift check points around the city where all they do is stop cars and check for mods.

Anyways, the filter alone doesn't seem to do much for increasing power, but what if I took off the small plastic cover on the bumper (where some of you have installed fog lights) and attached a hose that would connect directly to the opening where the air gets sucked in to the filter box.
I did this on my mustang and it worked like a charm, ESPECIALLY at higher speeds. What you end up doing is forcing the coldest possible air (OUTSIDE the car) right into the filter box. In my mustang, I felt a better response with my home-made ram air and K&N filter than when I had an intake.

I remember seeing a post or two from people who made their own ram air kits. I can't find the posts but I wonder what kind of results they had. Does anyone know? I might be wrong, but I think this type of setup which FORCES the coldest possible air into the filter box would be just as good
or even better than a CAI which just sucks in air that is sitting around the fender well.

Anyone care to debate this?

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i think it'll work. i would have gotten a CAI months ago if I wasnt so afraid of getting popped.

 

I have this setup on my tC and on my Legend, It works well. after you take the cover off from the bumper, you can see the stock air box. I just got some dryer hose from ace, and all done... go with k/n filter..

Keith.

 

K&N drop'in in the box. Replaced the short plastic pipe with 2.5" aluminum mandrel bent:



which is connected by 3.0" plastic piping (this pic is taken looking through the hole where the OEM intake and any CAI actually draw their air-- inside the engine compartment, under the battery)



to the 2.5" opening in the front bumper.



Which means it's actually a CAI, as it draws air from outside the engine bay. Any of the off-the-shelf variants just move the intake opening forward and down about a foot. They still draw air from the opening under the battery tray, which faces the exhaust manifold.

Mine is cheap, and lowered intake temps by an average of 12-15º, and dramatically helped reduce heatsoak (as the intake is not sucking in heated underhood air). Still gradually working on insulating the rest of the piping and airbox.

To hook up mine, you only need to loosen the lower splashguard on the driver's side. You can do everything from there.

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Nice Setup

 

Dr. Isotope : What type of flexible tubing did you use? Also, much of difference in power?

 

It's 3" Fresh Air Hose, about $11 for a 6 foot section from JCWhitney.

Power gains are of course dependent on temperature for this-- when it's 105º outside, the increase is marginal at best. But any other time... you can really feel the pull. It's most effective at combatting heatsoak-- you know, when you've been idling in a drive-thru for ten minutes, and when you take off, the underhood (and therefore intake temp) is about 150º, and you feel like a slug driving off.

With my cheapo mod, that doesn't happen anymore. Even with what's left of underhood heatsoak, it's still drawing in ambient air, all the time. Even folks with CAIs can benfit from drawing air from outside the car.

 

Nice set up.

What about running a CAI and disguising it with the stock box just having the pipe run right through it and thru the rubber hose too.

Do you think that inspector swine would notice?

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i took out that insert when i installed my injen CAI, its a hug diff from stock and even short ram. but yours is alittle more cost effective. nice job

 

Just watch out for puddles...

 

Looks good if you live in a dry enviroment, but in the NE that kind of rig leadds to disaster.

If you can incorperate a functional baffle that eliminates the submerged snorkle problem and you're on to something.

 

If I can manage to pull enough vacuum to get water up 40" of 3" corrugated hose, through the airbox and the K&N filter-- then I'll basically have acheived magic. The opening on my setup is about 300% the size of the OEM plastic, and the non-smooth piping all but eliminates the motor's ability to inhale water.

That's why I don't like CAIs-- the most restrictive part is at the end-- once water makes it past the filter, it's just smooth tubing straight into the TB. Like an upside-down waterslide.

 

sweet pics! that's exactly what i was talking about. the 2.5" aluminum mandrel bent piece, is that something that can be picked up at home depot or did you have it custom made? how did you attach the other end of the hose to the bumper opening? did you just squeeze it through the opening and duct tape it down?

 

Parts were cannibalized from an old CAI-- a model for the '90-93 Accord, I think. The upper elbow is about 14" long. Behind the bumper is a 5" piece of the 2.5" diameter tubing; it's sole purpose it to give the front piece (which is the silicone coupler you would use to attach the CAI to the throttle body) and flexible hose somethign to attach to. the whole thing is held in place by a single #6, 3/4" long self tapping screw. Just to keep the coupler from slipping out of the opening in the bumper.

If you had to buy everything, and start from scratch, you'd be well under 50 bucks.

 

Doc, you got a engine shot so I can see that better?

 

i made something of the sort for my xb. i cut slits into the grill and made a ram air box out of fiberglass. i hooked up my intake to it and added a k&n drop in. works like a charm.

 

here are some pics

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...e/f2905b60.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/f2905b55.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...e/f2905b49.jpg

if the pics dont work then imgaestation is crapping out. you can also see the pics on the link in my sig. they are the last 4 pics in my album.

 

An overall engine pic? Like this?


The only part visible is the silver elbow-- which will be semi-flat black as soon as the weather agrees to let me do it.

 

And I'm guessing the sound it stock?

 

The combination of the air extension and the K&N drop-in gives a nice growl above 4k, but anywhere below that is as quiet as stock.

I live in So Cali-- stock looking and stock sounding are both good aspects.