Revised my air intake setup

[CMF_Yom]

Hey all,

Decided to revise my air intake setup! Why? Well I decided I'd remove the extra factory aircon fan from charlotte (it hardly ever turns on and it is snatching up valuable space for extractors).

Fan removed quite nicely, 4 screws. An annoying electrical plug (as per usual), jack the car up and slip it out from underneath. Put screws back in so I don't misplace them and re-attach splash guards. Easy peasy.

But then I noticed something else. I had a heap more airflow and a direct path to one side of the grille. Had a look at it for a few moments and I knew what I had to do.

Removed one horn and doubled it up with the other one. Sweet. Plenty of room for an induction pipe.

Pushed my existing intake pipe up to the grille under the aircon pipes and flattened the end bit so it was more of an oval intake (whether or not this does anything positive...). Stretched out the pipe to make it as smooth as possible and zip tied it to aircon pipes.

Stood back and admired. Sweeeeet. Started it up and instantly the engine note was different, i could hear the intake noise much clearer and it sounded so good (despite my air filter being due for replacement).

Haven't take it for a spin yet but I'm planning to and I can't wait to feel the difference (if any).

So here are the pics.

Before:

 

[CMF_Yom]

and now:

 

[CMF_Yom]

Now:

(a bit dusty, but that happens when you live in the sticks)

 

[CMF_Yom]

What I removed

 

[CMF_Yom]

The extra room it gave me in the engine bay (kinda ruined by the air pipe, but that is easily fixed with a bit of careful thought.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Well apart from a weird new sound above 5500rpm, it sounds very raspy, there's not much difference.

Seems a little bit more responsive and the speedo definately moves faster but not by much. Might have to work on a more effective ram feed inlet. Mabye like a bell inlet or something.

 

[CMF_Snoopy]

Just a word of advice, if your a/c still works I would reinstall the fan, as it is there to lower the high side temp in the a/c system. It will work fine on the highway & in the cooler weather. But come summer, the a/c will hit the cut switch in traffic (i.e when there is no air flow)

 

[CMF_Yom]

Yeh I know, thats why I waited until now to pull it off (I'm just turning the AC on for 10 minutes every day while I'm driving to keep the oil circulating, havent actually had to use it because its been hot for about 2 months now).

I'll either modify the top half of the factory fan to suit the air intake I'm planning on building and reinstall the fan or I'll source a new aftermarket fan to strap directly onto the condensor.

I may have to remove the factory unit for good depending on the size and shape of the extractors I end up with as well.

We'll see how it pans out I guess.

 

[CMF_jamm'n]

yeah cool....
get those extractors sorted out and slap them on there tom, then she'll start to boogie!!!

 

[CMF_Yom]

Okay. Got bored and decided to spend a little bit more money on my air intake.

Now I have a bit of a scoop.

 

[CMF_Yom]

And another shot - you can see the dodgey heatsheild I whipped up.

 

[CMF_Yom]

And the winning shot... Very stealth.

 

[CMF_Toma]

I imagine that bit of aluminum foil wouldnt do a huge amount? plus theres already a heatshield over the stock exhaust

Also, black zip ties FTW.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Just went for a test flight. Still slow. lol

 

[CMF_Alex_B]

like i said, change the timing, made a world of difference with a std intake,



Alex

 

[CMF_Yom]

Toma WROTE:

"I imagine that bit of aluminum foil wouldnt do a huge amount? plus theres already a heatshield over the stock exhaust

Also, black zip ties FTW.

Zipties - not fussed. ITs just a dodgey mockup system which will be removed when i do the extractors EVENTUALLY. *sigh* stupid car costing me money just i'm about to upgrade something lol

That heatsheild is actually alot thicker than it looks. Its compressed and many layers, some quite tough alloy. It's doing better than it was before. The pipe doesnt get anywhere near as warm as it used to.

 

[CMF_Toma]

Bravo then

Might have to take my exhaust system off and wrap a couple dozen rolls of Aluminum Foil around it Heat sheilding and a fake chrome look!!! AWESOME! hehe

 

[CMF_Yom]

lol don't bother on the exhaust...

There's a proper exhaust wrap you should use for that. Its on ebay very cheap.

 

[CMF_jamm'n]

I think i'll do this now. i'm very "sus" about the filtration abilities of my pod filter, so i'm thinking of "plonking" on the old air box. I remember i did this when my car was defected once, and it ran so much smoother.

 

[CMF_rocket]

Yeah when i did my mod it was just the standard air box with a k&n filter and some pvc piping smooth with a bell mouth running down to underneath the front bumper and it was good, you could really notice it at high speed and going up hills, well worth it, but have to design a new one, as with abs get in the way of where it use to go on the lx.