Quote:
Originally Posted by GOCATS
2. I am very intrigued by the Cold Air Intakes I have read about on here, Any tips on how to do it or Materials and Kits I could buy would be appreciated.
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I'd highly suggest making your own cold air intake from scratch. It's incredibly simple and gives you the choice of what size piping to use etc. I made mine out of two 600mm 3" 45-degree intercooler pipes, a couple of joiners and some hose clamps. All you have to do beforehand is remove the factory air box and intake snorkel, remove the large plastic resonator box that sits in the fender, remove the battery for easy access, grind the hole in the metal bigger to accommodate your piping size (where the hole for the resonator box used to be) and you'll be ready to start.
To grind the hole bigger, I'd recommend using either a Dremel or a metal file. The Dremel with a grinding stone is the easiest, just wear earmuffs as it can get pretty noise while you're grinding. Drawing the hole size with a marker pen before grinding is a good idea too, so you know exactly where to stop and so that the hole remains round.
Once the hole is made bigger, you can now begin to route your piping. Put one of the 45-degree intercooler pipes into the hole so that it goes down where the resonator box used to be. You want the bend of the pipe to just be where the hole is. Now put your second 45-degree intercooler pipe to the throttle body, leaving a bit of room for the silicone joiner to attach. Put one pipe over the top of the other one and put a mark on it so that you know where to make the cut (again, leaving some room for the silicone joiner to attach). Take the pipes out and cut them with a hacksaw. The easiest way to make sure the cut is straight is to use a hose clamp. Just clamp it to the pipe and you'll be guaranteed to get the cut as straight as possible. You can get rid of any sharp edges with a metal file afterwards.
You will also need to cut some of the pipe that goes into the space where the resonator box used to be (unless you want your pod filter touching the ground, lol). You only need to cut a little bit of the pipe off, depending on how low you want the pod filter sitting. Once everything is cut, the best thing is to put the pod filter on the piping first, and then slide the pipe in from underneath the car. You'll need to remove your splash tray to do this. You can put the pod filter on afterwards if you like but it's quite fiddly due to the lack of space.
One of the last things you need to do is drill the hole in the pipe for the air intake temperature sensor. Put a dot where it will go (near the throttle body where it will reach), and drill the hole. I strongly suggest putting a piece of masking tape on the part of the pipe that you're going to drill. This will stop the drill piece from slipping and scratching your shiny looking pipe. The smaller the drill piece the better. Once you've made a small hole, begin to make it bigger with the drill piece until it's big enough to fit the grinding stone of the Dremel in. Grind the hole gradually until it's big enough for the rubber bung (you can use the old rubber bung from your factory airbox if you like). Make sure you keep checking that the hole is big enough as you'd hate to make the hole too large.
Finally, join all of the pipes and silicone joiners together and clamp everything in place. Be sure to cut a hole in the plastic splash tray underneath the car so that air can get to the pod filter. Last but not least, plug the air intake temperature sensor, put the battery back in and you'll be good to go.
The supplies and tools I used were as follows.
Supplies:
* 2x 45-degree 3" intercooler pipes
* 1x 3"-2.5" silicone reducer (for the throttle body)
* 1x 3"-3" silicone joiner (to connect the pipes together)
* 3" Simota pod filter
* 5x 3" hose clamps
Tools:
* Hacksaw (to cut the pipes)
* Marker pen (to mark the cuts)
* Dremel with grinding stone
* Masking tape (so the drill piece didn't slip on the pipe)
* Power drill
* Metal file (to smooth out any rough edges after cutting)
* Screwdriver (to tighten the hose clamps)
I know it sounds like a lot to do but it really isn't. It shouldn't take you any longer than two hours and it will look like a million bucks afterwards. If you have any questions whatsoever just send me a PM. I'd be more than happy to help
Here are some photos I took after the install (forgot to wipe the fingermarks off the piping as I was anxious to take photos, lol). It made a noticeable difference in terms of performance and the temperature levels of the piping were drastically reduced compared to the short ram intake I had previously. The piping now remains cold to touch, even after a long drive.
New 94 Corolla 1.6 Owner Questions
1993 Toyota Corolla
kiwi"s explaination of the CAI intake is spot on
as you can see instead of goin down through the hole as kiwi mentioned i positioned it right behind the headlight. i did this by shifting the battery a bit and making a custom bracket to keep the battery stationary also had to twist the coolant overflow bottle stand to gave the battery a lil room for the space to shift to gave the filter room reason why i choose to do this is because the battery blocks off all hot air being extracted from the radiator fan, and the filter catches all the cold air that come from directly behind the head light i also removed the rubber lining the hood above the headlight to let more airflow over the headlight to the filter and in my case where at rainy season some roads tend to flood here am safer from suffering hydrolocking ( when water enters the intake system and causes some disturbing destruction to the rods and pistons). just another method of doin a CAI system...... as in wanting more efficiency as speedy said checking the health of your engine is one good factor as well as all other aspects to your engines health as with me i waisted no time as i got mine fully overhauled but if you do a leak down test you will know whats up with ur engine before you do anything else and work from ther. but your in a great place to learn more about your car and other performance mods you can do for your ride and one tip that helps is read read read this site is full of info and ppl that are willing to help.
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