cheap alternative to cold air intake

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redsand71

Member
this may sound strange but I'll see what you guys think..
my brother in law was showing me a new mod (he owns a Toyo taco), that they are cutting a hole in the stock air box and putting a 'boat deck plate' on the hole if you run into rain, alot of dust etc...
the hole remains open if you do your normal driving...
for the P5 it looks like there is a opeing in the front where you don't have to cut a hole, you just have to remove the front air duct part, which is probably useless anyway, and looks like it's removed when you put a real cold air in anyway..
Tell me what you think...if you don't have 200 bucks for a cold air intake ,this might work..and if improve gas mileage and increases some horses why not...
keep an open mind...
 
It'll work fine. It'll suck hot air from the engine compartment instead of cooler air from in front of the car, and will eliminate the "hemholtz resonator" that adds a little bit of torque to the powerband but it should work fine.
As long as you keep the air flowing through the airfilter you won't have any problem with contaminants. Still get a K&N drop in filter though to releave some restriction.
 
Stock intake. Or just take of the scuba part of the intake. I did because I needed a 10mm nut to secure the battery after I dropped one into the abyss of the engine bay.
 
buttthrax said:
Stock intake. Or just take of the scuba part of the intake. I did because I needed a 10mm nut to secure the battery after I dropped one into the abyss of the engine bay.
Click to expand...

so you just took off that front 'scuba' part off..how does it run??
do you cover the hole if you get alot of rain...?
 
right now im seeing if i can fabricate some kind of scoop? to mount inside of one of those custom jdm grills, that will allow the air to ONLY go to the snorkel, just wondering what my best material would be? sheet metal? fiberglass?

I'll post some pics of what i plan as soon as i can photochop something.
 
This is what im thinking of creating, basically its a path for the air to go so you dont get any restrictions, or blockages on the way in... i dunno its an idea..
 

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sure, but your snorkel does have 3 drainage holes in it, as well as another in the lower elbow, those are there to prevent waterlogging. But when you think about it whats keeping the water from getting in right now?
 
I like the design, Gregrego. Honestly, I don't give that 2.0 engine enough credit to see it sucking what small volume of water droplets make its way close to the opening of the snorkel all the way through its twists and turns unless you submerge it. I might get laughed at for this, however I was personally considering plugging those drainage holes with some sort of poxy (something like modeling clay or something simple and temporary) to increase the suction power at the main entry area of the snorkel at the front of the car where the air is cooler. I also thought it might reduce air turbulance in the snorkel and therefore prove to be more efficient. Thoughts?
 
Plugging those drainage holes is useless. It won't make a significant increase in power or performance. More usefull would be a reroute of air into the stock box from outside or just getting cooler air to the box somehow. You don't want to INCREASE the suction it takes for the intake to get air to it, but you do want to DECREASE the effort it takes. This will help it breathe easier.

In relation to the scoop, idea is fine, water shouldn't be a big problem... BUT, you'll be eliminating 1/4 the air to the radiator. You'll need a good firm mount so that at 70mph+ the scoop doesn't get ripped off. You might look at making a smaller version, it'll scoop more air at speed than the engine can ingest.
 
Eh, hell, it's probably easier just to order an aftermarket CAI kit and be done with it, though it would be nice to go the economic route and just mold some sheetmetal into an air scoop/ramp.
 
good point nomad, But now im looking into building something on the right side of the grill to ram air into an SRI intake... but with little luck... i dont want a CAI because i live in a cold and wet climate, and only have maybe 2-3 months of snow free driving. The only option i can think of is modifying the hood like the one that DG sells with the ram port cut into the driver side.. But im wondering if cutting and refinishing the hood will end up costing the same as the C.F. hood wit the ram that DG sells..
 
The easiest thing to do (if you don't want to spend $50, including shipping, for an ebay intake) is just to by a cone filter and slap it on the front of the MAF sensor.

I just drilled a hole in the top of the filter to put in the air temp sensor and used a breather filter for the crank case. Cost about $25.

I'm using an ebay CAI now and I like it better, but doing that SRI mod was definitely better than stock.
 

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hmm, that still defeats the purpose of this thread, we want a way to force cold air into our stock snorkel, or sri the hot engine bay air is not what we want circulating through our engine... but good tip for a cheap sri! now if we can only ram some cold air into that.................

my buddy recommended i drill out my high beam and make a port for the intake.. but he's an idiot.. he thinks his 92 civic is fast.
 
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gregrego said:
This is what im thinking of creating, basically its a path for the air to go so you dont get any restrictions, or blockages on the way in... i dunno its an idea..
Click to expand...

Ive done that, I made a little scoop out of fiberglass. I mean it was kinda cool because it could actually suck air from in front of the grille. but there was no real gain I felt.

Id suggest that if you want to be cheap do what John said and attach a cone filter to the MAF. At least you get the intake sound.
 
Doesn't seem like you'd get any power increase. The stock intake system is already pulling in cold air. That RV hose will kill any air velocity with it's accordian-like shape.
 
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