Had the day off, so I started on my CAI on my Formula 350. I built the air damn in the pic for $11. I will paint it black and cut out my front spoiler so the mesh 2"x14" air dam sits in where I cut out, keeping it flush and semi hidden. I will have it braced on the back to keep it from moving in the wind. Also I will put a hole (6", size of top of damn) in the 2nd post pic, and have it sit flush there also.

I have drilled a few holes for water to drain out, but what else should I watch out for???

The top part will look exactly like This CAI. Within a few weeks I will build a box around the cone filter so it can only get air from my homemade air dam. Thinking of adding a see through top made of fiberglass maybe.

Anyways....Questions, comments, cunstructive criticism????

 

Here is where the top of the first pic will sit flush(under original air filter/charcoal canister)....I made the black part of the top pic 1.5" to high, so I can make slits in the metal and tap them till its flat, making it sit flat. Then riviting it and keeping it from falling out the bottom...


I stole the pic from antoher post, not mine, just showing where..

 

I'd like to see maybe some sketches of what you mean, but from what your decribing i think it would work out pretty good

 

Here is a really quick photoshop, I faded the pic of my air dam jsut to represent where it goes, the yellow is just so you can see where the air actually comes in at, the yellow represents the wire mesh. See how the air dam doesnt go below the spoiler, remembering the air dam and wire mesh will be painted black to make it harder to see. The red represents the actuall lines of the spoiler itself. This is what I meant by flush

I hope this helps, I had to steal someone elses car to get the right angle again....get it?

 

If you run a MAF car, watch out on directing air into the intake stream. To much direct air can stall a MAF car, when coasting off of an exit ramp for example, with to much direct air going into the MAF. If you build it, and it stalls, you either have to play with MAF placement closer to the TB, or DFCO settings in the chip. I know, i've got one built just about like it.

 

my car is a MAF, I will have to see if i get these symptoms, Thanks for the input, that is exaclty why I started this post!

anything else? Anyone...Anyone....Bueller? haha

 

what to watch for?

large, very large, deep puddles.

 

My car and puddles are oxymorons.... I get yelled at for parking WAY out anwhere we go in my car, and driving around the water on the road left by lawn sprinkler systems..lol

 

air intake isnt a problem with my car and i am running a maf also
, but my maf is closer to the tb as you can see in this pic

 

Where is a good place to pick up a piece of 3" pipe? I went to the local muffler shop and they wanted $10 for 12" of pipe!!!

"Oh, its aluminized" they said,

I could give a flying rats A$$, I just saw you pick it out of your scrap pile you POS! LOL I was expecting price to range from FREE-$5.

 

i got 2x9inch sections of 3 inch pipe at an exhaust shop for FREE!...



but then i got raped when they just welded my cat back... $130 just to weld 3 places... total crap.

 

if you mean like the metal pipe i have shown, i got it at autozone for like 5 bucks

 

I got my pipes from westcoastbending.com for around $10 each. Mandrel bent 3" mild steel. Seen them in JC Whitney too...

 

i had the ram air mod on my 89 iroc, and i got that stalling problem on the highway, push in the clutch to glide or slow shift and the car would either stall out or come damn near close to it. kinda anoying. but i guess i know the ram air was workin!

 

Hey bnoon, I like your idea even better for my top half. What did you get? (2) 90degree bends? or 180?

 

Two 90's. You have to buy ten or more to get them at the $10 each price though. I still have several left since I had originally planned to offer them for sale on a side business as a powder coated CAI kit. Just never got around to it...

 

cool, how much do you want for (2) 90s? Do you have them coated or are they just pipes right now? I have paypal ready at anytime. Let me know.....

 

that looks really nice bnoon, im thinking of making a ram air setup for my iroc, considering i got the ram air hood

 

Holy COW! another disadvantage to running a MAF
Two days in a row and I'm not feeling so good

Anyway, you might want to think about insulating the tubing as it's inside a hot engine compartment (especially around the radiator). Plastic isn't so bad, but metal conducts heat very well.
After insulating, my CAI keeps the intake air temp to within 2* of the outside air temp.

My CAI



Oh and yeah I know it's in my S10, not the 3rd gen, but I don't have pics of the camaro CAI.

 

Hehe nice setup. I work with that kind of crap all day but I've never seen it used as a CAI. One thing to think about though. All the stuff we use at work is galvinized and paint doesnt like to stick to galvinized so you may want to prep the metal a bit before you paint it...if you havent already done so.

Anyways, nice design

 

Well, Its done. Its works very nicely and I have only finished the bottom part of it. I now have to build a better top end (TB- air filter) I will post final pics when I get hometo the digi-cam. It ended up a little different than my inital plans, but what doesnt when your fabbing from nothing!!

On the highway it makes quite a difference, and the sound of the motor is better even jsut driving around town!

 

Here is the pic of what it looks like from the top..

 

I havent finished the top end of the CAI yet, but it already makes a difference on the highway. I took off the tube that drew air from the fender so it could catch cold air coming from the air dam.

I will add a K&N cone filter and setup the top like posted above...

 

If you run a MAF car, watch out on directing air into the intake stream. To much direct air can stall a MAF car, when coasting off of an exit ramp for example, with to much direct air going into the MAF. If you build it, and it stalls, you either have to play with MAF placement closer to the TB, or DFCO settings in the chip. I know, i've got one built just about like it. Bnoon, what you said makes no sense, the only thing that will make your car die out when decelerating, is if you have the minimum amount of air coming into the tb set improperly, and your IAC valve isn't adjusted properly, I just worked on someones car that died out when you decelerated, and his car was a speed density car, so what you just said, is a falsity. Too much cold air going into the maf, simply tells the maf that its feeding the engine more air, but when the computers watching the rpm from the coil module and pick up, and reading the air coming through the maf, it knows not to give it more timing, because its at too low of an rpm. Its simply a case of the minimum amount of air coming through the tb, and or IAC adjustments out of whack, not too much cold air.

 

Heres a few pics of my cold air Induction, in my formula 3 fitdee!

Some are before I replaced my catch can, factory fitting broke, and it looked like hell anyway, and I also built a cover out of plastic so the airfilter sucked only cool air from the fender well. I wasn't going to cut a whole in the battery tray, because I doubt you'll be able to find a replacement in the future if I ever decide to restore the car.

 

Its 3" through out.

 

this is with the plastic cover in place.

 

Maf cars will stall out with improper MAF placement, or to much direct air causing turbulence within the MAF. This turbulence in the MAF reports false information about more air that the engine is not actually using. This causes the engine to run rich at idle and can cause stalling in the worst cases.

MAF signal voltage has a direct impact on load rating, which absolutely DOES change idle timing and, more importantly, fuel pulse width. RPM vs. load in timing and fuel tables, or VE tables in the speed denisty cars. Check them out sometime if you get some bin editing software.

If you put a CAI on your MAF car and it stalls afterwards and had no problem before the modifications... you might want to get some scanning software and make an ALDL cable to see what the MAF is telling the ECU, or if you know the MAF tables in the bin, you can monitor the MAF voltage with a quick reading volt meter and compare them to stock airbox readings (extend some MAF leads via cables into the cabin, etc. etc. etc.).

 

If you need an idea for the top, all I did for mine was go to lowes and get some plumbing connectors and 3" pipe from autozone and clamped it all together with one of their autozone cheapo cone filters in their r i c e r section until I can get a K/N.

 

Is there anyway you can remove the metal peice by the hood latch on a firebird?

If so, you can do something like mine.

 

2

 

1bad91z, he has the setup for the bottom done and he is looking for a way to hook the bottom that hes already made to the throttle body

 

You could, but then what are you going to use to hold your hood down?

 

You could cut that area out to be more like the Camaros, but there isn't enough hood clearance to run the factory Camaro plastic pieces over the radiator support. I'm not sure if there's room for anything cutom to be made in that area either... Even if there was that much room, I'd rather build the factory T.A. vents into a ram air box if that were the case.

 

Has anyone ever made those vents into a Ram Air setup, I have never seen it but I have thought about it before.

 

where did ya get that mike

 

I did it but, you have too clearance the hood. I had pictures a very very long time ago posted

 

do you have those pictures of the Ram Air hood you made, could you post them

 

sorry I ment the camaro air box on the formula, there is a tbi one with the t/a hood setup as a working ram air.

 

heres a basic under hood idea.

 

thats only good if you have a ram air hood

 

obviously. I thought only a genious could have figured that out.

 

here

 

or this:

 

Here's mine. My filter is inside the air dam so it is protected from most water and such, no 'ram air'. Spend about $80 bucks for the supplies.

 

Well if you are trying to help us you should specify any special parts that would be needed. It helps us from wasting a lot of money. I do agree it is a nice setup for the ram air hoods. Do you know if is seals to the bottom of the hood?

 

With the rams air hoods, you have a lot more room than with the stock hoods. The aftermarket ram air pics aren't what we would need to see... That's not what the question was about. Any pics of what you said you built for the stock hood vents turned into ram air setup?

EDIT: O.K., I see where you posted that you mean that you made air boxes like the camaro pics posted. Do you have any pics of how you got the air boxes to the filters then? Still an interesting idea...

 

I was joking about the genious thing, sometimes people need to lighten up. I am sure that with some will, theres a way to modify a gta hood to get ram air out of it, I have seen some pictures of one before, but I can't find the link to it, or where I found them, I was at my college when I saw them. Do a search on google, for 82-92 fbodies, and then go to like ram air stuff from there. Eventually you can find something. I'm sure someone has modified one to work, but it would require some work, to make it functional, and not look like ***.

 

I designed my dimensions on a computer, and had a metal fab. shop tig weld them together. I'm making up several sets of my boxes out of ABS plastic. I have 6 pre-orders so far. Several people have been interested in getting a set. It really does make a difference that you can feel. Better throttle response, maybe a little better gas milage (if you keep your foot out of it), estimating a tenth or 2 in the 1/4 mile, maybe a few more ponies. You can definitely feel a difference (car pulls harder) from 55 mph on up. Under 55 mph, you really wont feel a difference.

 

how much ae you looking at getting for one, cause i would be interested.