Cold Air Intake

[Jakecallun20]

Is there anyway that I can build a cold air intake kit out of just metal tubing? and put a filter on the end, because I really don't want to spend 250 bucks on a cold air intake kit from K&N or Injen. Has anyone done this or would it be effective or what? Thanks Jake

[unbalancedwood]

Some one did have a GB that made a batch of them but he stopped and supposedly is a little shady now working for another company...

Use the search, I do remember someone else making his own...

[Jakecallun20]

is something like this worth the time and money?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... :middle:us

[Sebas007]

Like all Toyota model...your battery must be in the corner near the driver headlight isn't it ?? Is the battery do not restrict the access you may copy Injen extension by buying some aluminum tubing with bedned silicone couplers. I was about do so...I just need to make some temp measurement before...there is where I was about to buy.

Aluminum pipe

http://www.treadstoneperformance.com/vi ... inum+Pipes

Silicone hose and elbow

http://www.treadstoneperformance.com/vi ... icone+Hose

[tacti]

I made one for Gen2 I4.
if you can find a local welding shop to put pipes together, here is what i did.
go to auto zone and buy some plastic bend tube for "custom intake for ricers" ^^
go to home depot and buy those sheet metal tube that you can find at clothes drier's vent pipe section (don't know how to explain...

use duck tape and create a pipe it will run from the SRI to behind the fog.
you can put up to 3" pipe thru behind the head light.

Good luck with your project!

Tact

[dominoSLEV6]

There was a guy a while ago who basicly designed his own, I think his name was danny. It was an extension setup from the Injen intake. Anyway he got a place called Under Pressure Fabrication and Distribution to produce them. From there an employee, brother of the owner IIRC named JR sold them and dealt with the Solara community. He did help a lot of people out with decent prices and service. As you mentione dthe shady dealings he disappeared and stole some peoples money at the same time. UPFD no longer makes the extension but they pop up here and there on the FS section still. It is entirely possible to fabe the whole thing yourself, no injen pipe needed. In fact it's rather easy if you have the resources, just remember you're going to have to have a location for the MAF. The Injen is an overpriced piece of metal with the MAF location already welded, as is any short RAM intake. I now understand why I should have learned more about cars before spending money on that thing. CPE's system however is worth the money. I have one sitting around from my old car that I was going to sell, but have seen considering putting it back on my car as a daily because it's just sitting there and it made a difference in the car, the most you'll get with a short ram is next to nothing, and even with the extension down to where there's better airflow it's still not anywhere close to something proven on the dyno like CPE's, it even passes the seat of your pants dyno albeit by a small enough margin but yes it does. It's the best if you're looking for power. If you're trying not to spend money and you have the knowhow, make your own, it will be satifying to know you're making more power through somethign you designed and created.

Good luck

-chris

[Chinky420]

i attempted fabricating a custom cai for my gen 1...as you can note in my sig, i wasn't able to get the extension measurements right, so i had to settle for a sri instead. it's not that hard, but it is time consuming.

3" pipe is feasible, but the angling is going to be kinda tough (as far as making the extension go into the fender). 3" is what i used myself in my project.

you can order aluminized tubing from JC whitney (under the exhaust piping/shop section on their website). make sure you get the mandrel bent tubing though, otherwise you may as well not even try it, and just buy a system that's already been made/tested (recommendations to cpe, in that case), since the gain's will be little other than noise. for me, it took about a week of working on it (as far as cutting the pipe, cutting and jbwelding the MAF port, and drilling the holes for the crankcase vent, and other hoses).

as for my seat of the pants dyno is concerned...i can't tell if there really is a difference in performance (since i cleaned my throttle body for the 1st time while i had the air intake off), BUT after taking a road trip this weekend, i noticed that i was able to get ~400mi to my tank (hwy) rather than the usual ~340 mi (which calculates to about an extra 4 mpg).


i wouldn't recommend doing it the way that tacti did (no offense), but that's just cuz i'm not a fan of duct taping 'performance parts' together in order to get minimal gains

....if you decide to undertake this project, i recommend getting aluminized mandrel bent steel tubing, many can's of ceramic engine enamel, 3" couplers for PVC piping (which will have to be cut to fit), and a metal blade for a hacksaw/reciprocating saw.

oh, and if you want to save your old airbox stuff, then i also recommend getting a used airbox (for the MAF sensor mount) from a junkyard/salvage yard, since it's easiest to mount the MAF sensor into it's original bracket (which i hacksawed off of my OEM airbox, for conveinence sake).

the end result, an ~8" SRI with a 7" AFE cone on it. it's kinda ghetto (IMO), and i only used aluminum tape in one spot that can't be seen...if you really want to do the CAI, be prepared to either make mistakes, or make presice measurements (which is really hard, i found out). in order to fit the extension through the fender.

pm me if you have any questions about my process

[Jakecallun20]

Thanks guys, all been very helpful. I am still debating weather or not to take er' on my self but it is possible. Either way I do it, Will keep you updated!

[AznDragonV]

looks like this

[tacti]

>Chinky420
well, I used the duct tape stuff just to get the stuff i can take it to the welding shop
I don't know why i forgot that most important part..... lol
I put the duct taped pipe together and once i find the measurement, i took it to the local shop and ask them to make the exact same thing with actual pipe.
of course nobody likes the ghetto performance pipe.

Tact

[Kenz]

I was going to ask this same thing b4 I saw this thread. Who makes a good aftermarket CAI for a 2003 I4?

Is there someplace I can order a namebrand one??? I don't mine spending a few 100 dolla.

-Mack

[Chinky420]

word up tacti...i wasnt trying to poke fun or talk trash, i was just expressing my point of view.

dont worry man, i even bash my own creation of an intake further down in my own post (above).

when i commented, i was just thinking about it in the long term risk mentality, as the potential problem is having melted adhesive slowly getting sucked into the intake manifold....which was almost a problem i had, since i originally used electrical tape to widen the next of the throttle body to accomidate the 3" coupler from the SRI pipe. drove with it like that for about a week (pretty light driving), and when i went back to do some follow up maintenance (install a 'heat sheild'), i pulled off the sri and noticed that if i left the electrical on there any longer, it would have totally effed my engine by melted adhesive getting sucked in (probably as well as some tape too, i'm willing to bet).

so now i have a spectre brand intake coupler (designed for throttle body connections), with a skinny piece of rubber as the space maker on the throttle body...a little LESS ghetto than the original setup i had, but still some homebrew modding.



>Jakecallun20
I would recommend using no bigger than 2.75" piping if you plan on doing it yourself. it's a really tight squeeze if you plan on making the cold air extension w/ 3" piping ... i.e. be prepared to hammer out part of the fender firewall to make a 3" pipe fit (half the reason i gave up on a custom CAI)...

the other half of the reason? i didn't make prudent cuts in the piping, which left me with one good pipe for the SRI, and two other sections of pipe that would not fit under the splash guard, even with all the different angling i tried.

i would honestly just check out the wanted/for sale section on here, there's actually a couple injen SRI's on sale (if i'm not mistaken), as well as an extension (i think). the price they're offering is comprable to the cost it would be to fabricate it, plus you're buying name brand products (meaning that it has undergone SOME R&D, and shows some gains)...whereas my product has no R&D, and all i have to go by right now is how it feels and sounds.

my $0.02....plus a buck fiddy

[Dawgz]

this is how my cai is

[woa_its_j3ff]

I'm looking to make my sri into a cai this summer. do you need to take off front bumper to do it? or just get on a lift and do it?

[Dawgz]

I'm looking to make my sri into a cai this summer. do you need to take off front bumper to do it? or just get on a lift and do it?

all i need to do was to remove the fuse box a bit (two bolts) and just nudge that a bit so u have room to work with (it bolts back on afterwards)

Remove the splash gaurd on the bottom, and then work with that.


Taking the Stock intake ports inside there was a bitch and a half, i had to cut the plastic into pieces to remove it. Otherwise id have to take the bumper off.