Just thought I would share the final results of many many months of work. I kept seeing great ideas on here for a custom cold air intake, but never one that utilized the OEM snorkel/feed from in front of the radiator. Since my day job is designing components for a major construction equipment OEM, I went ahead and designed something myself.







This is designed for use with an HKS intake (as shown) but I did play around with some other options that were mentioned on here in other posts (specifically the AEM dryflow). The pieces were printed in ASA plastic due to that material's ability to handle high temps. I used coupling nuts and mostly stainless hardware from Menards to join the pieces together. The silver was painted with aluminum colored high heat paint from O'Reilly's.

I used cardboard to rough out the design and then created the 3d solid models to 3D print. I already had a custom intake pipe from the MAF to the turbo compressor which helped me set the location and orientation of the major components the box was designed around. Getting the exact fit to the snorkel took quite a bit of trial and error but eventually came together.




I then took measurements off the cardboard rough pieces to use in a solid modeling program.


I have 3 young kids so this was a long project that took me about a year from start to finish. I'm open to any questions or comments you may have. Hope you all have a great Christmas/Hollidays.

 

Nice.

 

Thats awesome!

I lovee the oem style aesthetic you designed into it without sacrificing any of the fuctionality.

My only suggestion is you should include a 3d printed screwdriver with decorative (rotor with text) handle that snaps onto airbox so its easy to fill the windshield washer fluid at the gas station.

 

I really struggled with the washer fluid situation. I kept trying to figure out a way to make it accessible without having to remove the cover but couldn't settle on a simple and easy solution. I looked into twist caps and hinged lids, but it all seemed way too complex. The closest I came was to make an access hole that the washer fluid stem poked through in the top surface. However sealing the air box with that setup (and keeping the cover easy to remove) became an issue. Since I personally only fill up the washer fluid every few months, I decided to shoot the engineer and get on with the project. I love the idea of a snap in screwdriver though. That may have to be included in version 2.

 

Really clean and cool. Ive never had anything advertised as heat resistant 3d printed last more than 6 months. Maybe im just being lied to on what im getting. Id be very curious on how it holds up to rotary temps and how the performance is. Would be cool to fab up an additional air intake Location from below since it seems you clearly have the skillset.

 

Very cool. I like the battery cover as well. Keep posting projects!

 

This looks great. I have an Apexi intake that just sits in there pulling in all the hot air. I hate even thinking about it.

As other have mentioned about the material and heat qualities. I started wondering about heat soak issues. like once that air box heats up in stop and go traffic, does that become a liability or is it no worse than my set up with intake just sitting in there...I'm assuming it's no worse.

 

Nice design!! I would love something like this

 

I like it. How much? 😂

 

This intake is so sick. I was considering doing something similar for mine

 

That's awesome!

How much did it all set you back in terms of time?

 

So I originally had the parts printed in PETG plastic, but I was concerned about the temperature capabilities and whether or not it could withstand the high under hood temperatures. After some research, I settled on using either ABS or ASA due to them being listed as high temp capable. There are other higher temp capable plastics (glass reinforced Nylon for example), but I don't have access to a printer that can make parts as big as what I need. I ran this by one of my coworkers who specializes in plastics, and he thought that I would be ok with the ASA material that I settled on. I showed him pictures of the engine bay, and he pointed out that the snorkel connected to the intake to is blow molded. The vast vast majority of blow molded parts used in the automotive industry are made out of High Density PolyEthylene (HDPE). This is because it is the cheapest to mass produce (in comparison to other materials). It is also used, almost exclusively, to make semi-transparent blow molded coolant reservoirs as well and ours sit in the general vicinity of the snorkel. ASA has a higher continuous service temperature than HDPE (100C vs 85C). Unlike HDPE, ASA doesn't melt but softens at its Glass Transition Temperature (up to 110C) while the melting temperature for HDPE is 120C.

I am not 100% certain of which materials would have been used for the snorkel and the coolant tank. They could have certainly been made out of something that is more heat resistant, but this is something I guess I will find out. I just wanted to provide some insight as to why I went with ASA for these parts. If anybody has better information I would be very grateful so that I can make any needed changes. While I am a mechanical engineer, I do not specialize in materials. I do trust my coworker who is acknowledged in our company as a expert and he provided me the information that I listed above.

 

It took me about a year to complete. There was ALOT of trial and error involved. I would typically print a set of parts and then have to modify them in order to get the proper fit. These parts would then be remeasured and the changes incorporated into new versions. This process probably repeated itself 3 to 4 times until I was ultimately satisfied. I really wanted to avoid having any parts in a sitting state of tension due to the previously mentioned concerns about heat (and also when it gets cold here in the midwest). I also had to completely reprint the entire set of parts when I made the decision to switch from the original PETG plastic to ASA (again due to the high temp concerns).

 

Pretty interesting. Cool part.

 

not sure how I missed this for this long, but nicely done!

I'f you're willing, I'd encourage you to share the STLs. The FC is getting a nice collection of printable parts on thingiverse and printables (among other sites).

 

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing!