Custom Air Box
 

Hello all my name is Jeremy I live in sacramento,CA. I am building a custom cold air box for my 86 n/a base.I searched the forums for ideas and pictures of cold air boxes.Found alot of helpful information.Most of wich I saw were mainly heat shields, not a box. As well as alot of pictures of these I was unable to see(didn't display for some reason).So I decided to go out and just make one.I decided to start and make a box out of cardboard for a template, which I will remake out of sheet metal. Here is what I have so far. I Just wanted to share it with some people and maybe get some feedback or tips. Either or is appreciated. Thank you for looking. I will also bve cutting a hole in the bottom of the box to get air from the bumper, Wich I will duct later

Well, I think you get the "Most intelligent 1st post" award. Looks good so far! What are you doing for an air-source? Some fancy ducting or just pulling air from the headlight area?

miss that part? ;)

D'oh!!!! :pat:

Edit:

I win the "Stupidest 1,496th post" award.

this is cool i was thinkin of doin something similiar.

looks good. show pics when finished

just on a side note, would there be any benifite over running a duct all the way through rather than ducting to a box?

Im not sure how much better it will work, or how much the benifit will be. I know that a sealed box that is getting a fresh air supply, is better than a big open filter that is sucking hot engine air. I would imagine that the air under the hood is pretty hot. The air that flows throught the front bumper to the brakes has got to be cooler.(thats where I am going to duct it to). The colder the air the better right?
Any ideas on what material might be the best to use.( I have no welding skills)And I will add pics of the process on here as soon as possible.

I don't if know it can be done but if i were to make this cold air box, I'd definatly find a way to insulate the box. I work as an electrician and am currently working in an Eco House. This house is all built by Styrafoam(spelling right?) which is later filled by concrete. Its designed to deter heat transfer. A good idea might be to make your sheetmetal box and then make a sleeve to fit inside of it made of foam. I dont really know how it would react to the engine heat but im sure itll bring the air tempeture way down.

here check this out. my thread might not have had the pictures.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3.../intake001.jpg

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the question lax-rotor was asking was this:


Why not just run your intake piping down to the bumper -- and place the filter there? It seems the more logical thing to do.

First off, you can heat wrap whatever pipe you use, very effectively. A box..will be much more difficult to stop from heat soaking.

Aside from that, the straight piping with minimal bends will have much lower restriction than a box, which will be sealed, and pulling from a small pipe of air. With a sealed box, you will have the filter in this box, which will be heat soaking..this would also, in theory, be getting the filter heat soaked, along with the piping contained inside the box.

It just seems to me that, a pipe from the throttle body, to a filter in a sealed box, now sucking from a 3 or 4" pipe..would quite limit the flow. What makes a cone filter better than a flat filter is it's surface area -- the amount of area it has to be pulling in air. If you have a giant, open area for a filter to be sucking air from -- like say, in the bumper, which has no "walls", the amount of air you can suck in is now only limited by how much your engine is gulping down.

With a sealing box and a pipe put in front of it, it is now battling with the amount of air the pipe can flow.

Oh and i forgot to mention. You might be able to find a box at your local electrical supply house or even home depot. Seal the corners and your good:) They come in various sizes from 4x4x2 to even 12x12x6 and bigger.

thats not a bad idea running it out like that with no box.My only concern is water. I drive this car everyday, rain or not.What did you do about the water threat?

Water is not a threat, unless you go off roading and into 1+ foot high *puddles* of water. Even then, as you are not turbo, I doubt you will be able to get more than a few drops from that flood up into your actual engine. And if you do, the most it will do is sputter for a second or two.

Rotaries can not physically hydro-lock -- it is impossible. No worries there.

well air flow through the least restrictive path.. in other words im sure water wont get in unless it is completely submerged in water. On top of that some people actually pour water into their intake to clean carbon out(wont recommend it), so a lil water wont hurt.

so I would be just as good running the filter out like that? Would there be any advantage To having a box?

Like the previous poster said. all it does is retrict air, why make a little box for restriction when u can suck all the air you want behind the bumper... it'll still be the same tempeture

One advantage would be possibly keeping your washer fluid bottle..

JonesFromIndia.. did you relocate yours or do you live in an area where you don't need it.

^^^ That wouldn't work. He is doing a sealed box, which would require him to run a pipe down that hole for air, anyways.


Get the driver-side washer bottle that came on JP cars and some NA models.

There's gotta be another way to get air other than the wiper-fluid bottle area.

Well, the head light duct works well - except at night.

The stock location, where the hood meets the bumper...but that will not be efficient for moving lots of air.

It's the only "reasonable" way.

What about cutting a hood scoop in directly over the box area? :) Wouldn't "ram-air" at all. but it would atleast be cool air... only partial heat-soak from the hood.

Well, if you are skilled enough to cut / mold a proper scoop into the hood, I think you'd be able to fabricate yourself a new windshield washer fluid tank area. :)

i fucken ditched that bitch. weight redux son.


it didnt work. so i took it out. my filter was also too big to fit there. so i ended up not using that whole idear.

I have a turbo and was wondering if it is safe to run a cai into the bumper ; to me it seems like I never see it done on turbos?