I decided to write up a small article on how I put together the intake for my N/A 04' Coupe Autostick. Cold air intakes are upwards of $300, and while they may have a slight increase in performance over this intake, some may not justify paying double the price for a minimal difference. With this intake you will get smoother shifts if you have an automatic, increased throttle response/torque, and a bit better passing power. Of course it makes the car sound much sportier under heavy throttle... just overall deeper with more engine sound to compliment the exhaust. Although it still pulls hot air into the engine bay (the factory air box is more than likely just as bad), the less restrictive design over stock makes gains. Installation is much easier being up top, not needing to modify, remove, or move anything around, the filter is easy to get to and maintain, and no possible worries of hydro-locking your engine from water.

It's extremely easy to make yourself. After having all the parts, it will take no longer than an hour or two taking your time. I'll list the things you'll need and where I purchased my parts.

(1) 3.5" to 3" reducing elbow
(1) 3" 75 degree mandrel bent pipe
(1) 3" 45 degree mandrel bent pipe
(1) 3" Silicon hose
(2) 4" Clamps for throttle body inlet/reducing elbow

First, go to http://www.intakehoses.com/ and go to the 90 degree reducing elbows section and pick up a 3.5" to 3" rubber elbow. It will be roughly around $25 with ground shipping. This would also be a good time to get your worm gear clamps unless you already have some. 4" or more should be large enough. You can also pick these up at Lowes for a few cents cheaper. You can get two or five of them depending on if you want everything clamped down extra tight.

Next, head to Ebay and check out this sellers store http://stores.ebay.com/CXRacing . CXRacing offers 3" pipe and hose kits (listed for randoms cars as intercooler kits). I picked up the black powder coated ones with black hoses, but you can get polished, and choose from black, red, or blue hoses. Their auction also includes tons of T-Bolt clamps. You can use these instead of the worm gear clamps mentioned earlier but they are NOT big enough to use on the throttle body inlet or the reducing elbow so you'll need to buy something larger. Make sure you choose the auction that has the 90, 75, and 45 degree bends and 3" diameter piping.

Lastly, buy the 3" inlet filter of your choice. You have a tad bit of room to play with here, but nothing longer than 5". AEM has closeouts on Ebay on their older filters (comparable to K&N) and are a steal at about $25 shipped. Here is a link to their store http://stores.ebay.com/aem-outlet

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Alright, now the rest is pretty straight forward. All you have to do is cut about an inch off the bottom of the 3.5" to 3" rubber elbow (the 3.5" side thats connecting to the throttle body inlet) with either a sharp knife or some good scissors. This makes it shorter so it doesn't stick up too far off the engine, helping to clear the hood. Make sure you leave enough room so the clamp wraps around it.

Now insert the 75 degree pipe into the rubber elbow until the pipe clears the heatsheild in the engine bay.

Slip over the silicon hose to the 75 degree pipe.

Insert the 45 degree pipe into the silicon hose, and twist the pipe until it is facing the radiator fan. Mark this pipe just a little bit after the dipstick. It doesn't have to be perfect measurments. Now remove the pipe and cut it with a method of your choice and file and clean down the cut off area.

Baisically at this point your intake is complete. Clean all the piping inside and out, move and twist things around and attatch everything securely.

Test fit your filter and make sure nothing is resting on the a/c lines or near the engine belts. The piping will rest on the engine safely and not harshly rub or damage anything. If you are really handy, you could possibly make a bracket to holt it up attatching to the dipstick area.

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Here are more pictures of the completed product:







http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2780/05hm1.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9770/06bc0.jpg

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9807/07au4.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4831/08bd1.jpg

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/3875/09id8.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7006/10ju1.jpg

Notes about this tutorial:

Everything said is just my own opinion and personal experience. The filter in the pictures is NOT AEM (I ordered the same product I recommend but experimented with the wrong size filter, so I have to order another one) it's temperary and has a small inlet so it's inserted into the pipe and has no clamp.

 

Why would you go with a one sided pipe? Just wondering the differance from a double.

 

I don't think having two pipes going into one throttle body will improve much performance? Once again, I think the cost to build VS horsepower gains, if any, makes it not worth the trouble, atleast not for me. This tutorial is great for someone who wants to get the most for spending the least. It's kept simple.

 

Read this thread regarding 1 verses 2 pipes into the throttle body...
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=22624
Also, see TVT & Needswings air intake designs.

 

Hey, I was hoping if you could tell me if you noticed any increase in performance while driving with this intake.

Thx.

 

he said in his writeup, he has better passing power.

 

Well besides what I described in the article, the only thing else I have to go by is the quarter mile. I ran my car last Thursday for the first time (never ran a car at a track before either) and don't have anything else to compare it to, so it's probabaly a poor example to go by, but I'll still share it:

R/T .043
60' 2.304
1/4 15.028
MPH 93.21

It was VERY humid and pretty hot outside (Florida), and I have an autostick. With cooler weather I think I'd get much better times. I think the low end gains and sound make it worth it anyhow... I could never go back to the stock airbox.

 

I just want to keep this thread alive.

Still wondering about the 1 intake vs. 2 intake question. It seems like 2 intakes would allow an easier flow of air, especially as the filter gets dirtier, I would assume that would increasingly hinder the flow of air. I don't think I'd want to clean my filters every other week.

Next question is how important is air turbulence? A smooth round pipe with a mimimum of bends seems like it would allow a smoother air flow than just adding a filter to the stock setup with the whatever you want to call it plastic hood where the stock filters go. How relevant is air flow?

Last is just a couple of observations. First, I cleaned my filters after around 7k miles and what a difference! I won't let it go that long again. Next is after cleaning the filters, I checked under the hood a few days later and found one filter sitting on the bottom of the engine compartment. Don't know how long I drove without a filter, but that stinks. Got to be more careful.

 

Better question... Underhood temperature vs stock intake temps (from behind the grill).

I think you did yourself more harm than good.

 

Hey Justin, have you tried to run the filter behind the front grill in order to get cooler air? Honestly, I set mine up using your set up. The only thing I notice was how hot the temp was under the hood. Not that the the piping was the cause, it was hot with the regular OEM set up. I was going to run the piping out in front the grill to see if it made a difference. Just curious if you tried it before I start hacking and cutting plastic and metal.

 

I tried this out to see how the two intakes work. Who knows, if it feels different I will put the OEM cover back on.
Let's see how long it takes before someone starts with the criticism.

 

that looks like a very nice diy setup. i really like it. i've been thinking about doing one myself. i'm thinking of a single setup running down the passenger side with the filter at the lower grill and possibly a shroud(sp?) to possibly give a ram air effect at highway speeds. only problem is i don't want to block too much flow from the radiator with the shroud.

 

That looks impressive, did you notice a power difference over how mine was done? The reason I didn't put the filters behind the grill was I didn't see how people were squeezing the piping through there easily, the fact I'd have to spend more money on a tiny filter, and also if you would be able to see a filter behind the grill when looking at the front of the car, which I wouldn't like at all.

As far as the temperature thing goes, the OEM setup puts the entire thing right on top of the engine. It acts like a stove just sitting there cooking the air coming in. The stock airbox gets extremly hot. While you can't do anything to lower the under hood temps, you're still going with a way less restrictive setup, and the piping is away from the engine, so there must be gains. I don't believe anyone who says short rams on these cars don't have any gains at all...

 

Define "restriction". These cars don't have airflow problems if that's what you meant. The factory supplied more than enough CFM to keep the NA happy. And despite baking the airbox and filter (which you are still doing with your short ram) the OE pulls ambient air from behind the grill.

Get that filter out into cool air and insulate that intake piping. Then you will be gaining something (assuming there is room for adaptation in the Crossfire's VERY lean OE fuel setup).

 

I used 2 3/8 metal flex pipe to get around the ends of the Radiator. Had to take out the plastic that was there first and attached the piping to the inside end, the filter to the side behind the grill. I wanted my filters to get a little more air than it would in the engine compartment that's why I used two filters. they are about 5" in round, 8" long. Something like that. It feels like it has more pick up, but then again, it's probably just me. LOL.

 

I put an indoor/outdoor thermometer under the hood near where my air intake is. I'll update my temps as I drive more, but so far this car has excellent air flow into the engine compartment.

I have been driving to and from work which is 40 minutes each way at roughly 25-50 MPH. I hit maybe around 10 stop lights where the engine gets to sit and bake. The thermometer only updates every 5 minutes so it's impossible to get instant readings, but unless I'm stuck in stop and go traffic, the temp is only around 10-15 degrees above outside air. Not bad considering how hot the stock air cleaner gets. When I'm stuck in traffic, the temp goes up to 30-40 degrees higher than outside, but as soon as I move the temp goes down very quickly.

I removed the baffles near the grill where the stock air intake pipes went. That doubles the size of the opening for fresh air to go.

Considering that the stock air cleaner's placement is on top of an oven, maybe this could end the engine compartment temp issue? I'd like to hear from opposing views in case I missed something.

I want to see how cool it stays when I'm not stopping for red lights. I'll let you know.

 

I had an '04 autostick and I replaced my airbox with a V8 benz box it had bigger filters and air flow was designed for 5 liter V8, it felt smoother and excellerated better especially after 3,000 rpms, cost was only $150 for a used box including filters. I didn't change air inlets at all ! I put almost 60,000 miles on this airbox and never had any need for cooler air in engine bay or needed to did need to change inlets.

 

I was asked to put up the parts I used for my experiment. Here it goes;

1- Used Justin's idea on how to get the 3.5" to 3" elbow and followed his cut instructions.
2- went to autozone(yes autozone) and bought the Spectre 3" Y and 2 3" 45's and 6 3" rubber sleeves.
3- Also bought two 2 pieces of 2-3/8" flex pipe(muffle section) from auto zone to squeeze around the radiator where I removed the plastic baffles.
4- ordered the 3" aluminum piping from CXRacing.com
- four 3" Elbows and two straight pieces
5- last i order the two K&N filters from the K&N website. They are like 4" round, 7" long
Something like that.

Not sure exactly what it cost but wasn't that bad if can't remember.

I cut the elbow, connected the y and went from there.

Once again, I am not positive it works better, Just what I am trying. If it hasn't given anyone else problems with the single, why not try double.

 

I "mentally" Dyno'ed my car today. I think I am pushing at least 260 RWHP with my mod.

Hey! it could happen.

 

I'm in the process of building my own intake for my SRT6, while waiting for my filters to arrive I started playing with fitment and noticed that I have a breather hose connected to my stock intake from the valve cover. What do you guys recommend I do about this? Capping it off probably isn't the best idea... maybe a valve cover breather filter?