I decided to take some new digi pics last night.

Here they are:

 

nice nice nice

 

Oh yeah! I am not in the position to start making air-boxes for sale. I may decide to produce them in the future, but right now I am pressed for time as it is. Maybe this winter.

Some of you may have noticed that I did not proceed with my old air-box which I tried and failed at fiberglassing. It turned out to be a big mess. This new box is the result of a LONG sunday afternoon. It took about 6-7 hours of cardboard templates and slowly nipping away untill it fit just right. Total cost was about $15. $10 for the SS sheet, and $5 for the rubber door stripping.

 

Very nice and clean too!!

 

Drooling. Man I LOVE your car!! Hey, mind shooting 1 more pic of the port activation? When you start selling air boxes, put me down for 1. Mine sucks....

 

Do you now what would be awesome?? If you made copys of your cardboard templates and posted them here. That box kicks ***. It is one of the nicer looking ones I have seen.

 

Is that an aftermarket brace or did you make it?

Looks very well made!

Cool cold air box, nicely done! If I had seen this before I bought the K&N dropin I would have tried to emulate your effort...

 

The strut brace is a Mazdatrix triangulated one.
http://www.mazdatrix.com/h7.htm

 

I wish I could of made the stru brace and saved a lot of money, but I didn't. Rico posted the correct link. I wish I could produce the box for everyone, but right now I don't really have the time. And getting the template on here would be tricky. It is too big to scan and cutting it up would just be ludicrous.

And Rico, I don't owm the digi camera, it is barrowed from work so I can't get more pics until my turn for the camera comes up again, sorry. If you have any specific questions about the set-up just post it and I'll answer the best I can. But the pic, shows just about the whole deal. I'll make an illustration of the set-up in a minute.

 

samps,

how are you securing the box to the car? or is it just rattling around in there.

 

Very nice. However the hole coming out of the air box looks a bit restrictive to me. But that might just be me. How big is the exit hole anyway.

 

The box is VERY secure. It has the front lip pushed up against the steel behind the headlight, it is wrapped around the washer fluid neck thingy, is has the AFM to support it through the filter, and it is resting on the fender wall the whole way around the bottom. It only wiggles about an 1/8 inch and only if you really shake the hell out of it. You would be surprised how stable it is.

Here is the quick illustration of the port system:

 

Samps...

Is that blue pipe your air intake line?

Its too small dude!

Its just under HALF the diameter of the factory intake.
I bet your suffocating your engine just a wee bit.

Try running bigger one or two-three smaller ones.

How you you handle water?

 

The exit hole of the airbox, I'm guessing you mean the one the AFM goes through, is exactly 1/4 of an inch bigger than the outside diameter of the air filter's mounting tube. The box causes no restriction what-so-ever. If you could see under the box, it is just an open element cone filter attached to the AFM just as usual. The box just kind of wraps around everything. If you were talking about the little tube running from the front of the car, it is only to supply fresh air and in no way do I believe it is creating any type of ram-air. The size of the hose was determined by the size of the opening for which it had to pass through. I wish I could of used a huge 4 inch inlet hose, but that just wasn't happening. The little tube does bring in some air though. Take a shop-vac hose and make a small funnel on the end of it, now go out on the highway with a friend driving, and hold the funneled end out the window with the other end facing your hand or face. Get the car going about 60 and feel how much air is coming through that tube. On my car instead of that air just going to waste; I redirected it to a good usable area. It may not supply enough for the demand, but it sure as hell is better than nothing.

 

Sniper, and everyone else. THAT BLUE HOSE IS JUST FOR EXTRA FRESH AIR! The cone filter is under the box.

Sorry to be all CAPPED on ya.

 

Water is no issue. I do not drive the car in the rain. Even if it did rain while I was out. I can't see water making its way through that tube into the box and into the filter. It seems almost impossible. And since the blue tube running to the front is not actually attached to the intake system it has no vacuum present, so it can not suck in water even if submerged.

 

Okay, well my confusion is from wondering where else the air is coming in.

I only saw the blue air hose.

I didnt know that the box was open in the front, bottom and side.

(I assume thats right)

 

Hey samps, how well does your finger-chopper work (unshrouded) in hot weather? do you get any overheating issues?

 

Why do people have boxxes over their intake all the time?

 

To keep them from sucking in hot underhood air.

Samps, your car is one of my favorite colors. Nice

On a side note, is that strut bar worth the money? I've wanted the Mazdatrix one for about 5 years since I had my first TII.

 

To keep as much warm air out of the intake as possible. Colder air works best.

 

colder air helps keep intake charge temps down, and colder air is more dense than hot air.

 

Thanks for the pic of the set up!! I might just fool around with that a bit!!!

 

The box is open on the front and bottom and one side. It has three sides; all of which you can see. Although the open sides are closed in by sheet metal from the car itself, so there may be some restriction to air supply. The front has some openings to draw air from behind the headlight, but maybe not enough. I'll have to look into it. Maybe I need to cut out some material to let in some more air.

The strut brace was well worth the money. You can get a simple strut brace for half the price but you don't get the added support that this one gives. I say spend the extra cash and you will be happier in the long run.

The finger chopper works great. I have never had any cooling issues yet. It was 90 degrees the other day and I went out for a nice long drive and it never budged above half way on the guage. Now don't forget, I DO NOT drive this car everyday. This car is only driven for fun, so it never sits in traffic and not even to many red lights. So if you're sitting in traffic in your daily driver for an hour a day, you may not want the finger chopper. But for me it has done nothing but good things.

 

Can you somehow give us a patern, or even measurements, for the box? It can't be that hard, but I suck with building stuff!! Samps, you RULE!!!!!!