Brad88GXL

Im sure this has been brought up before but I searched and only found stuff about putting boxes around a cone filter or whatever,so, could you somehow remove the pass. side FTP lense, and have a carbon fiber, plastic or aluminum intake runner custom fabbed to go from there-> under the headlight to a box around likea K&N drop in cone or something? it seems easy enough, and i wouldnt mind the missing FTP if it worked
I attached a bad drawing of my idea

Project84

there isn't a straight path from the inlet to the FTP lense, you'll have to cut through some part of the metal behind the headlight. Then, with the FTP lense missing, it makes the car look ghetto fabulous (aka, all broken and ****.) Most people don't want that. There are aftermarket headlight cover panels with an opening to allow air to flow into an intake like you speak of, but I read somewhere that the head light is in a low pressure area when air is flowing over the hood and not a lot of air goes into the opening. I think the best source of air is from the front opening where the air comes in to cool the oil cooler and radiator.

Mike86

I think it seems like a good idea,but i'm sure it's been done. i have seen many FCs with the FTP removed for that purpose. Or you could just remove the passenger side headlight,lol.

With the stock intake pipe though,you might want to change that to something as simple as PVC piping,since the stock one has baffles which restrict air flow.

Mike86

dp

Icemark

Your picture is not quite accurate. The headlight when down is directly in front of the FTP. You can see this by disconnecting the headlight motor, and turning on the headlights or having someone hold the highbeam in the FTP mode.

So if someone was going to actually use the FTP as an air intake:

#1 air would need to enter the FTP, and make a 90 degree down turn, then make a 90 degree rear turn, then a 90 back up turn.

#2 then you would have to cut a big hole in the structural member, and feed the air through that hole. Remember that if you cut too much, the whole front cross member will collapse in event of any front or front side impact in an accident. Its double thick and without holes for a reason.

#3 then you could feed the air into the area of the Air filter.

Maybe this cutaway/structural drawing will help people understand why the FTP is just plain stupid to consider for any sort of cold air intake:



Now, you can clearly see that the room between the headlight and FTP is probably less than 3 inchs. Far too little to be able to even route the air around without major obstructions and flow problems.

In fact the air tube would have to work like this:



Anyone that know anything about air flow could tell you that wouldn't work for squat to bring cold air in (and more than likely would result in a higher Cd anyway).

In fact it would be easier to route a line from the front grill than it would through the FTP:



But of course you still have to blast a hole through the cross member and pray that it is not too big to weaken the car during a front end accident.

rxhaven7

I did a little setup like this just for fun b/c my ftp lense is broke, i will have to get some pics. Its nothing big though.

Brad88GXL

I forgot the headlight pivoted like that, and didn't actually look under the hood when I thought of this. Thanks for explaining why it wouldnt work instead of just calling me an idiot though, much appreciated.
On the other hand though, the previous owner of my car put a drop in K&N cone and its probably hurting performance over any thing, I dont have the stock air box anymore and I'm wondering what i could do to improve what i have?

Bukwild

when will this cold air bullshit stop. You want a real cold air intake. Just drive around with no hood and be done with it.

Icemark

actually, a stock air box with drop in K&N filter and carefully made modifications to the stock air box results in near cone filter increases in both air flow and HP.

truespin88

He has the FIPK, Mark. No airbox.

Brad, here is my advice.
Take a piece of 3" pipe (PVC or aluminum, your choice) and direct the flow of the passenger side brake duct to the air filter, and build a metal box around the air filter to seperate it from the heat pattern of the engine bay. There will be a good bit of fabrication involved, and you do still have to cut a 3" hole, but this is a much more common method of getting cold air into the air filter.
Someone did it and posted pics... can't remember the guy's name though.

Icemark

Ahhh... Yeah I don't know if I would even use the FIPK. On my 3.4V6 Tacoma, At the Tacoma Territory forum, dyno testing shows a loss of 5-6 HP when using the FIPK and FIPKII on it instead of even the the stock air box.

truespin88

Heh, that's interesting to know.
The reason people choose the FIPK over a standard cone is that the FIPK has an opening on the back for the airpump, I believe. Plus everyone thinks K&N = HP because it comes with a sticker!

cwsttu

im building me a custom intake.... but im almost positive nobody has done it yet.... its using different materials than anybody else or at least anybody else that has posted has shown... the filter will be in the same place but nothing else will be.... gotcha wondering huh... ill post pics next week when im done though i will not have the box and all the routing done quite yet...

dreamnshadow

but does removing the FTP lenses provide any positives,ie: cooling, more cold air for intake, etc?
or are people doing that cause they "think" its good?

truespin88

I removed my FTPs because I feel it gives the car a more aggressive look. I put them back in today for no real reason.
and, cwsttu, if no one has done it before, there is probably a reason. However, you can do as you wish.

Icemark

No, there are no positive reasons for removing the FTP.

Removing them will not increase air flow, because the headlight is in the way, and the metal of the cross member behind that.

Therefore there is no air that can even make it to the air filter/intake.

It will also increase drag, as without them, the air can go in and get trapped at the headlight and cross member. It can not even flow over to the rad.

Plus aesthetically it looks like something is broken or missing on the car.

I guess the only positive thing would be that the head light would get extra cooling if the bulb was on, while the headlights themselves were down.

3isacharm

http://www.fc3s.org/how_tos/engine/cold_air_box.html
http://www.1300cc.com/howto/how2/frontend/phase4.htm
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/showth...threadid=15029

there are three links to three different types of cold air setups. for the first one, most people cut out the winshield washer fluid bottle, and cut a hole for their filter and encase it all in a metal box. personally, i've done the cone filter thing, and went back to a modified stock airbox with a drop-in K&N. it's not like a 30 hp gain, but it was a noticeable difference. however, i did not make a proper partition to capture only cold air, so i can only speculate as to the kinds of gains you will feel from that kind of setup. good luck on setting everything up, and let us know how it goes.

cwsttu

none of those are like mine

3isacharm

ok. i was posting those for brad. you gonna show us your setup?

SirCygnus

iTrader: (1)

simply take some exhaust ducting from home depot for driers, simple as that.

cwsttu

i would love to but i want to take pics of it when im finished and ill be done this weekend with it

3isacharm

sounds good.