3VZ-FE intake tube replacement (pics)

[urusai]

Alright people, thanks for waiting. Here are the intake pics for the 3VZ-FE I made as promised.

http://home.hawaii.rr.com/urusai/intake1.jpg
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/urusai/intake2.jpg
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/urusai/intake3.jpg
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/urusai/intake4.jpg
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/urusai/intake5.jpg

And now for the write-up.

Materials used for intake pipe:

180 degree U-Bend aluminized tubing from JCWhitney
12 and 15mm Injen silicone hose
1 can of Duplicolor ceramic based engine paint (http://www.duplicolor.com/products/engine.html)
1 2.5"-3" rubber reducer
1 3"-3" rubber pipe connector
1 5/8" x 1/2" barbed to threaded copper adapter
1 1/2" x 1/2" barbed to threaded copper adapter
(The barbed to threaded copper adapters can be gotten from any home improvement store in the plumbing section. The brand I used was Watts AB (Anderson Barrows). A general pic of it can be seen here: http://media.doitbest.com/products/477591.gif )
Various size hose clamps.

Materials I used to get the job done:
Drill w/ 3/4" holesaw bit attachment (http://www.gfii.com/it/brand/blumol/blumolhome.htm)
Dremel
Various other assorted tools

Ok, so the first thing I did was I cut about 5.5 inches off one of the ends of the U-Bend pipes. I think you can make the pipe as long as 7 inches if you want to, but I kept mine short to give myself lots of room to work with. However, I think it would be more beneficial to keep the pipe longer if you're planning on making a cold air extension some time in the future, so keep this in mind.

Next, I got my drill with a 3/4 inch holesaw attachment (made by Blue-Mol I think) and drilled two holes in opposite sides for the crankcase breather hose and the other thicker hose to the right of the tube.

Then, I did the painting. This is pretty self explanitory, so I won't waste time going over this.

Finally came the part of installing the two copper adapter bits. Now let me tell you, this was no easy task. The copper adapter bits mentioned above measure a little bigger than 3/4" OD on the threaded side, so you can imagine my frustration when I was trying to screw in th adapter. So what I did was I got my Dremel with a grinding bit and started grinding away at the circle. Eventually I got the adapters to fit, but screwing them in all the way wasn't very easy, so I used a wrench. Also, if you look closely in one of the pics, you can see that one of the copper adapters is not in all the way. Then I got some high heat glue type sealant and sealed the edges of the adapters.

So there you have it.

[Phi]

Great job man

But I'm alittle confused. Why did you get 180 degree U-bend pipe if you only need 5" of a straight piece :-? You didn't relocate the filter down to the bottom of the car correct?

[Zeek321]

nice man, hey about how much did u spend?

[Luc]

Although it looks pretty nice, but may I ask what's the point of replacing it? Was the OEM leaking?

Luc

[urusai]

Originally Posted by Phi

Great job man

But I'm alittle confused. Why did you get 180 degree U-bend pipe if you only need 5" of a straight piece :-? You didn't relocate the filter down to the bottom of the car correct?

Well, I got the 180 degree U-bend because at first I intended to make it cold air after seeing 88LE's intake. Then, after I ordered the pipe I found out that I didn't really know what to do about the crankcase hose and the other, so I got kind of demoralized and gave up for a while (approx 8 months or so, heh). So yeah, I still intend to make it cold air, I just wanted to replace the intake tube.

Originally Posted by Zeek321

nice man, hey about how much did u spend?

Not too sure on that. I think maybe 50 bucks total for just the materials?

Originally Posted by Luc

Although it looks pretty nice, but may I ask what's the point of replacing it? Was the OEM leaking?

Luc

Nah, I just wasn't satisfied with the way the stock intake tube looked. Also, it was kind of sagging because of the weight of the air-flow meter and the filter, so that kinda made me want to change the intake tube.

[wontonjohnny]

dude your supposed to support the filter with a bracket....