93-97 CAI impossible without major mods?

[Piloter]

Right, so today I was feeling productive and attempted to rip out the rest of the stock airbox piping and fabricate my own CAI.

BIG MISTAKE.

Leaving out the part where I drove 11 miles to get a nut-cutter and wound up shredding the underskirts because they'd gotten tucked between the ground and the bumper...

I don't see how this would be possible. Stock, the piping for the under-chassis box comes up through the fender and then has to make SUCH a tight squeeze beween the battery and under the fusebox that it'd be impossible to keep a 2" pipe diameter without resorting to squishing it like Toyota had to. No luck with any combination of 45 degree and 90 degree elbows, and even if I got desperate and mounted the battery longitudinally there STILL wouldn't be room to clear that bend.

If anybody out there has pictures of the EL Prototypes intake, I can try to duplicate it, but I honestly don't see how there could be any improvement over stock while still leaving the battery in its current location...

[94_Rolla_Guy]

i made one out of 3" PVC that snaked down to the inside of the battery right beside almost underneath the distributor under the overflow and under the battery tray to the filter i stayed away from the old routing...

[Piloter]

There's a gap into the front fender underneath the battery tray? It looked like a solid block compartment to me...

[94_Rolla_Guy]

i wouldn't call it a gap but there are two ways i could see doing it beside the rad there is some space and opening for fresh air, the other way i could see is to go through the splash guard and into where the old resonator box was and do something in around there, once you get down under the battery theres a fair amount of space to mess with..

its hard to sorta understand take a look and i think you'll see what im getting at..

[Piloter]

I'll give it another try today and see if I can't exploit the area toward the radiator side of the overflow tank. I picked up enough 2" ABS and couplers to at least rough out a shape.

I could probably route it under and through into the location of the stock under-fender airbox if I could just get the ONE LAST BOLT that holds the airbox on off. It's rusted on there and I can't even get a nut cutter properly locked down onto it.

My eventual goal is to get the most efficient design so I can start selling an uprated version or at the very least disseminating the parts required and a detailed howto. THAT should keep me busy between jobsites until the engine swap.

[dakmor]

I heard that you shouldn't use PVC for anythign iny our engine compartment. Somethign about it melting.

Anyway, why not try to make it cowl induction? Would it be possible to modify the windsheild cowl(wiper blade section) to fit a filter there? Just an odd thought.

[Piloter]

As my latest efforts have again failed--94_Rolla_Guy, do you have any pictures pretty much straight down into your bay? I THINK I see where the end of that might be located for sanity, but it's an awfully tight fit and I don't see how I'd get to it to clamp on the filter, because I sure can't ram the filter through the space I have to work with--I'll just put the project on hold for now.

Come this spring/summer, one of the things I'll get done with the engine swap is ask the shop to fabricate a proper system and let them deal with the hassle.

Dakmor, yes, it might theoretically be feasible to do that. You'd probably have to take a chunk out of the backside of the hood, though. Another answer might be to do the old shim trick and put a couple washers underneath the hood hinges to shim up the back of the hood a little and pull in some cold air that way.

[94_Rolla_Guy]

at one point i wanted to add a rav4 hoodscoop and use that for induction

[darcsyde]

http://www..com/bizshop/yymmp/toyota/corolla/cold_air_intake/1990/1997.html?apwcid=P1135867996W43b3f85c7ab9e&apwkwd= 90-94+95+96+97+Toyota+Corolla+Cold+Air+Intake

[Piloter]

At best, that's a slightly longer short-ram. It looks like it's maybe got the length to do the funky around-battery loop, but that would put the filter squarely over the output of the under-fender box. Still, with a little patience and a little more piping, that could be made to work. Excellent find, thanks!

[darcsyde]

yea i was posting that so you could see how that was made and maybe it could help you out

[Piloter]

Every store that sells it appears to use that same image, although amusingly enough Vibrant's store has a default image...

I went ahead and ordered it, so we'll see how it works in a few days. One way or another, I think the benefits of the larger tube will be negated--the hole through the bumper is only ~2", not the three or four the piping seems to be.

[darcsyde]

I've seen one on ebay before, it went down below the overflow tank and then to the right a bit

[dakmor]

Would piping the filter square in front of the radiator be a problem?
Or basically anywhere near the front where it is exposed to the elements of air and rain?

I'm thinking maybe that a custom cut front end would help this type of modification with basically a box set around the filter ....

>.> None of the above is probably gonna make sense unless I draw a picture.

[TheOtherCarolla]

Mine runs up under the battery tray.