My Home Made CAI (Part 1)
Several forum members asked if I'd do a little show and tell on my home made Cold Air Intake (CAI) system. I'll do this in two parts due to the length of the explanations and steps. The first will be fabricating of the CAI portion and the second will be the fabricating of a new double wall, double insulated intake tube from the airbox to the plenum.
I built this CAI at a mere cost of about $10, and utilized the stock airbox with a K & N drop-in filter. It draws air from behind the top of the grill on the driver's side. Air is routed via a 3 inch aluminum flex duct through the plastic "do nothing" panel behind the grill through the opening next to the headlight and into the front side of the airbox. The coupling going into the airbox is sealed with one inch soft foam stick-on weatherstripping. There is little or no increase in noise level, which is OK with me. At this point I was unsure if I would see any mileage and/or performance increases. I figured it couldn't hurt since it is now getting maybe twice the amount of air into the airbox than before, most of which is probably now coming from the new, shorter inlet (path of least resistance). Additionally, on the highway there is a slight ram effect. At this time I also removed and checked the stock bottom intake where the ear drum is located. Some people have removed or modified this part in an effort to get more air flow or noise. It draws relatively cool air from in front of the fender well. I found that there is no restriction in this ear drum, and it is just a silencer. You can stick your arm completely through it. Needless to say I reinstalled it, without modification.
After driving it with this configuration for a while I decided to stick a remote reading thermometer in the intake duct, right near the bend in the elbow, to see what the actual intake temp. was compared to ambient, under various driving conditions. I wasn't happy with what I saw. This led me to make further modifications to the intake in an attempt to bring intake air temp. closer to ambient. Part 2 will explain this mod.
I built this CAI at a mere cost of about $10, and utilized the stock airbox with a K & N drop-in filter. It draws air from behind the top of the grill on the driver's side. Air is routed via a 3 inch aluminum flex duct through the plastic "do nothing" panel behind the grill through the opening next to the headlight and into the front side of the airbox. The coupling going into the airbox is sealed with one inch soft foam stick-on weatherstripping. There is little or no increase in noise level, which is OK with me. At this point I was unsure if I would see any mileage and/or performance increases. I figured it couldn't hurt since it is now getting maybe twice the amount of air into the airbox than before, most of which is probably now coming from the new, shorter inlet (path of least resistance). Additionally, on the highway there is a slight ram effect. At this time I also removed and checked the stock bottom intake where the ear drum is located. Some people have removed or modified this part in an effort to get more air flow or noise. It draws relatively cool air from in front of the fender well. I found that there is no restriction in this ear drum, and it is just a silencer. You can stick your arm completely through it. Needless to say I reinstalled it, without modification.
After driving it with this configuration for a while I decided to stick a remote reading thermometer in the intake duct, right near the bend in the elbow, to see what the actual intake temp. was compared to ambient, under various driving conditions. I wasn't happy with what I saw. This led me to make further modifications to the intake in an attempt to bring intake air temp. closer to ambient. Part 2 will explain this mod.
