Cowl induction for cold, ram air for the Si? - Page 20

mike_si_29 · 03-08-2008, 01:59 PM

I will measure all the demensions tomorrow.. if we can find something to fit Xintake then we can fit any other short ram there. I will just skip work and go to junkyard on tuesday. I have huge junkyard 20-30 mins away from my work. I think location of the inlet and outlet is not really important as long as it utilizes most of the avalable space in our car. If i wont find anything, then it will be time to build one.

Metzaballa · 03-08-2008, 02:18 PM

To fabricate a part, a friend of mind made a CAI scoop out of fiberglass. He first made a Styrofoam mock up, shaped it with a heated knife, and then wrapped it in fiberglass. To get the Styrofoam out, he used gasoline. It dissolves the Styrofoam. But be careful, it will make a gel of Styrofoam and gasoline (napalm) that is highly flammable. I would highly suggest trying a different method of getting the Styrofoam out as making napalm is a very bad suggestion!!!! Do this at your own risk.

Si Speed 317 · 03-08-2008, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20strong

Dont make it with any curved areas if you cant caculate the volume of a sphere. But here is the equation if you would like to use a sphere shape. 4/3 Pi r3

Did anyone but this guy read this. It isnt expensive to do this, in fact coming up with the box itself should be super easy. Especially if your interested in acrylic. Once the box is initially assembled with acrylis it is a simple matter of removing the screws and placing a little apoxy between the pieces. Leaving one side to open for filter changes. Use a piece of foam sealant tape in say 1/4 width to seal the opening side of the box. I wish I was at home cause I really want to construct this box now.

Where are you that you cannot be home?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_si_29

I just talked to my dad and i asked him about what would be the best way to build airbox. He said one of his co-workers actually makes any plastic forms in his garage and he has a little company on a side of his primary job. Maybe i can talk to him and give him an idea what we are looking for. All he is woring is plastic so he must know what it would cost. Plus we can give him location of air intake and Xintake intake outlets... hahha. Might be cheap...but you never know. Its his side job, so it cant be too expansive. My dad said he can mold pretty much anything, I will just have to talk to him.... and let you know

Nice, this is getting better and better. Keep us updated!!

Side note, here's a link from the Miata website: Browser Warning

This is definitely getting closer. We just need more and more people to chime in!!

melomood · 03-08-2008, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Si Speed 317

Where are you that you cannot be home?

Nice, this is getting better and better. Keep us updated!!

Side note, here's a link from the Miata website: Browser Warning

This is definitely getting closer. We just need more and more people to chime in!!

good info.

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Si Speed 317

Where are you that you cannot be home?

Nice, this is getting better and better. Keep us updated!!

Side note, here's a link from the Miata website: Browser Warning

This is definitely getting closer. We just need more and more people to chime in!!

Double kisses to you too. Both you and mike_si_29 have earned your place in my pantheon of heros. I am going to quote why they wanted to do this. You will see that it is exactly what I have been saying all along. Sometimes being older exposes you to things that often have been forgotten. Yes, I have been vindicated! Reading all those car magazines back in the day has finally paid off as well! Woot, woot....

One popular aftermarket intake available in Australia for MX5s is the Loch Stewart airbox. (Pics of this design can be found at http://www.miata.net.au/loch.htm). Replacing the entire airbox up to the airflow meter, it picks up cold air from the cowl below the windshield through a large 3-inch tube, and feeds it in a straight path through a (stock size) flat panel filter to the airflow meter. The cowl is a known high-pressure area - notice how air is pushed through your cabin vents when driving at speed, even when the HVAC fan is switched off.
Browser Warning

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 04:33 PM

Here is the article that is being discussed. It is worth reading IMHO:

The Plan of Action
One popular aftermarket intake available in Australia for MX5s is the Loch Stewart airbox. (Pics of this design can be found at http://www.miata.net.au/loch.htm). Replacing the entire airbox up to the airflow meter, it picks up cold air from the cowl below the windshield through a large 3-inch tube, and feeds it in a straight path through a (stock size) flat panel filter to the airflow meter. The cowl is a known high-pressure area - notice how air is pushed through your cabin vents when driving at speed, even when the HVAC fan is switched off.

The theory behind these particular intakes is sound, though in my opinion they suffer two problems. Firstly, by being constructed from fibreglass over a mandrel, the raw external appearance is well below what one would expect from a product costing hundreds of dollars (the inside is however beautifully smooth). Secondly is of course the price - if something could be built just as effectively for less, then it would be worth doing.

Other aftermarket cold-air intake systems available from the US (eg Jackson Racing, Racing Beat) draw cold air from over the top of the radiator, but given the current value of the Aussie dollar, these are prohibitively expensive. The LHD Miata, it should also be noted, does not have the ability to be fitted with as simple a cowl-induction intake as the Loch Stewart, as the brake master cylinder and booster are located where the intake would go.

I decided to follow the same principle as the Loch Stewart system, which of course involves the painful decision to cut a big hole in the sheetmetal of your car. This panel is however non-structural, so not likely to cause any weakening of the chassis, nor cause possible rust as might a hole through the wheel guard. By keeping the end of the intake above the bottom of the cowl channel, there should also be minimal chance of sucking water into the intake.

Gathering the Parts
I also wanted to incorporate a larger airflow meter. Wreckers were searched for a cheap RX7 airflow meter, but the cheapest source turned out to be a fellow AutoSpeed member who answered the call when a Wanted notice was posted on the For Sale forum.

Working out how to fully enclose the filter (so that cold air could be ducted to it) was a dilemma, and about the only easy choice I found was a Simota Super Power unit that incorporates a plastic heat shield around a cone filter. Analysing and measuring photos from the web showed that the intake hole to this filter was approximately 100mm - coincidentally a popular plumbing size. The filter (with a carbon fibre finish) was ordered from the Autospeed Shop for $81.

From a large hardware barn, a neat PVC 100-to-65mm adaptor was found at a mere $2.50. A (minimum order) one metre length of 65mm PVC plumbing tubing was bought for another $10, the idea being to use a short length of this to go back through into the cowl. 75mm tube would have been nice, but I couldn't find any 75-to-100 mm adaptors. Given that the length of tube required was about 100mm, I figured this was a minimal compromise. When the filter arrived, it was found that the plumbing adaptor slid straight on like it was custom-made to fit! I was expecting to have a slight tolerance error that could be corrected by softening the PVC, but this was extra-good fortune.

The Simota filter uses the ubiquitous 3-inch outlet duct size. While adaptors can be bought cheaply (for about $25) to fit such a filter, I had the materials available to build my own. By notching and pressing a short piece of 3-inch aluminium tube in a vice, the end could be squashed into a match for the RX7 airflow meter's rectangular intake (the inner circumference of both pieces being almost identical). This provided a very smooth transition with no square edges. This tube was bonded to a flat plate that had suitable mounting holes for the airflow meter, and the adaptor was complete.

Installation
At last, it was time for assembly. With the stock airbox removed, a 2½-inch holesaw was borrowed and used to cut a hole through the cowl wall. This hole required enlarging, using grinding tools on an electric drill, until the 65mm PVC tube could fit through. A 2¾-inch (70 mm) holesaw would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to spend $50+ buying one for a one-off job! The bare metal was finished with touch-up paint, and a length of plastic edging strip fitted inside the sharp metal edge to prevent damage to the PVC tube.

A short piece of the tube was cut, and the inside of one end chamfered slightly to hopefully smooth the flow of air into it. The trick of heating and flaring out the tube into a bellmouth could not be used since the tube could only be fitted through the hole by inserting it from the engine bay side. The tube was fitted to the PVC adaptor, and both were given a coat of Penetrol (penetrating oil - to help the paint stick without chipping), followed by a coat of silver spraypaint. I thought silver would look the best purely for aesthetics, though theoretically it should also help keep as much heat out as possible.

The whole intake contraption (snorkel tube, PVC adaptor, shrouded filter, airflow meter adaptor and the standard [see breakout box below] airflow meter) was bolted together and fitted to the car. Two small metal brackets were used to support the airflow meter to existing mounting holes, now vacated by the stock airbox. The only other matter was to relocate the windscreen washer bottle to the wheel guard, since the hole in the cowl goes right through where the bottle originally sits.

Testing
Back on the road, the most immediately noticeable change was the loud induction roar - definitely a more angry sound than stock, and quite pleasant in an aggressive way at WOT. Seat-of-the-pants testing confirmed more urge in the midrange, and also a willingness to run right out to the engine cut-out at 7200 rpm. Fitting the manometer showed that the total pressure loss had dropped from 42cm to 26cm H2O (a 38% decrease). This meant that the restriction upstream of the airflow meter had improved from 25 to 9cm H2O. Potentially more could be gained by fitting the RX7 airflow meter, but as explained in the breakout box, that setup was not tested.

Using a stopwatch, and hand-timing some acceleration runs was carried out to compare the new system with the stock one. To avoid the launch variations of a 0-100 km/h run, I chose to start at a cruise at 2000 rpm in 2nd gear, punch the throttle wide open, and run out to 6000 rpm. Redline would have been nice, but I didn't want to break the speed limit by too much... With the standard intake, over 8 runs back and forth I had averaged 6.1 seconds. Fitting the new intake system dropped the average time to 5.8 seconds, a 5% improvement. While the 0.3 second improvement may not seem much, it was highly repeatable.
Temperature measurements were made with the probe fitted at the entrance to the snorkel. Under nearly all driving circumstances, the intake temperature was within 5 degrees C of the ambient temperatures - obviously a small amount of heat-soak from the engine bay was still occurring. However, the improvement was still typically about 30 degrees C cooler than before. Using the rule of thumb that a 4 degrees C temperature drop is worth an extra 1% power, this would imply that I could expect up to 7% extra power over the standard system. Parked at idle, the temperature got closer to 10 degrees above ambient (hard to judge since I didn't have a reference thermometer, but still well below the stock setup), and immediately dropped when moving again.

Later, the opportunity arose to dyno test the car at SelectMaz in Epping, Melbourne, with the MX5 Club of Victoria. The graphs show that there is a moderate torque improvement in the midrange at about 4000 rpm, and also a good top end improvement above 5500 rpm. Peak rwhp went from 75 to 79hp - a 5% increase. I can tell you that the graph also compares very well with the aforementioned Loch Stewart system which was fitted to other cars tested on the same day, giving almost identical power outputs (very similar exhaust systems were also used on those cars).

Note also that the bonnet was 'popped' to the safety latch for both runs, giving slightly cooler air to the engine bay - if the bonnet had been fully closed, I would expect the stock intake to have sucked hotter air and given worse results, and the corresponding improvement to look even better.

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 04:35 PM

Note hole cut in cowl wall, exactly as I have been saying:

Simota enclosed filter with 3" inlet/outlet. This may be what we need to use.

Duct that can be attached to cowl wall.

Finished product or facsimile of what we could do:

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 04:43 PM

OK people, I need your help. Help me find an enclosed Simota air filter like the one used in the example. This would be perfect. Help out a brother in need.

melomood · 03-08-2008, 05:04 PM

Cold air 3" intake tube conical design hi-flow filter

there you go!!!

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melomood

Cold air 3" intake tube conical design hi-flow filter

there you go!!!

That will work and the price is right too.

pwrful4 · 03-08-2008, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melomood

Cold air 3" intake tube conical design hi-flow filter

there you go!!!

Nice and it's a good price as well. I wonder how that filter performs compared to the Apexi? If the cfm is close to the Apexi it would be a nice replacement on the current xintake setup as the red shield would provide some heatshielding properties. I was at Oreily's Auto parts today and noticed a large selection of DIY intake pieces include tapered intakes and tubing.

I know it's not at effective as running to the cowl, but how about connecting the end of that filter to the stock tube that brings in air fron the fender?

soxfan143 · 03-08-2008, 05:19 PM

I had that exact Ractive filter on my 99 Accord V6. It was the worst filter ever. I had to change my AEM filter on my CAI so I got one of these because it looked like it would keep the filter a little cleaner and it did do that but it rusted up completely in less than 2 months. The screen over the filter, the entire housing was completely rusted. It is poop. And I just can't see myself not using the $85.00 Apexi filter that took me 4 months to find in stock. Plus it is the best filter on the market.

Now that I know what exactly you were talking about I think my original idea about the Ford conical style air box will actually work. The Apexi filter will fit inside perfectly, with just a little modding, and there is already an oulet at the end of it to attatch a tube to run into the firewall. I'm going to try and find a picture of one.

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwrful4

Nice and it's a good price as well. I wonder how that filter performs compared to the Apexi? If the cfm is close to the Apexi it would be a nice replacement on the current xintake setup as the red shield would provide some heatshielding properties. I was at Oreily's Auto parts today and noticed a large selection of DIY intake pieces include tapered intakes and tubing.

I know it's not at effective as running to the cowl, but how about connecting the end of that filter to the stock tube that brings in air fron the fender?

First of all, with an enclosed filter housing like the one that was described, it would be almost impossible to connect to the factory cold air tubing as the filter would be facing the cowl wall.

Take note of the filter and its opening. To connect to the factory cold air would require more than a 90 degree bend. Not worth the trouble IMHO.

Secondly, where the factory picks up air is a relatively low pressure zone. The effects are minimal at best. Because of today's modern cars and their cramped engine bays, there is often little room to duct air either from the lower bumper area or the cowl. It is much easier to pick air from the fenderwell area, thus many manufacturers go this route. It is much more expendient to do it this way, but it is not the best way to increase performance.

***NitrousG35*** · 03-08-2008, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soxfan143

I had that exact Ractive filter on my 99 Accord V6. It was the worst filter ever. I had to change my AEM filter on my CAI so I got one of these because it looked like it would keep the filter a little cleaner and it did do that but it rusted up completely in less than 2 months. The screen over the filter, the entire housing was completely rusted. It is poop. And I just can't see myself not using the $85.00 Apexi filter that took me 4 months to find in stock. Plus it is the best filter on the market.

Now that I know what exactly you were talking about I think my original idea about the Ford conical style air box will actually work. The Apexi filter will fit inside perfectly, with just a little modding, and there is already an oulet at the end of it to attatch a tube to run into the firewall. I'm going to try and find a picture of one.

Mike, show me a pic of the Ford conical box. If the dimensions are right, it would be perfect to use. For me, the source is not important, just the size. If it could use the Apexi filter, all the better then. Link me up with the Ford unit.

soxfan143 · 03-08-2008, 05:42 PM

http://www.varsityfordparts.com/catalog.htm

This is the only ford parts catalog I could find with an illustration. It has to be the worst parts illustration I have ever seen. But if you look at the cover that goes over the element, part number 6, with a little cutting and shaping the Apexi filter will fit right in there. I don't know if this link will bring you directly to the illustration but just enter into the year a 2004 Ford Expedition and go under engine and then into air intake. This took me right to the horrible illustration but you can get the idea.

chenslee_cheese · 03-08-2008, 05:43 PM

Wow. How the hell did I miss this thread? I was thinking along the same lines.

Do you guys know what the part number is for the metal cowl? I can't find it.

soxfan143 · 03-08-2008, 05:47 PM

This link does not take you to the page for some reason. You also have to look in the Ford collision catolog to be able to pull up the air intake assembly. To be honest I don't even know how I got there but I did and for some reason their website won't let me link you guys directly to this page. it will only link to the home page.

03-08-2008, 04:33 PM	#386 (permalink)
*NitrousG35* Mr. Cowl Induction Join Date: May 2007 Location: To Infiniti and beyond... Posts: 8,929 Wild VTEC'n Bill iTrader: 1 / 100%	Here is the article that is being discussed. It is worth reading IMHO: The Plan of Action One popular aftermarket intake available in Australia for MX5s is the Loch Stewart airbox. (Pics of this design can be found at http://www.miata.net.au/loch.htm). Replacing the entire airbox up to the airflow meter, it picks up cold air from the cowl below the windshield through a large 3-inch tube, and feeds it in a straight path through a (stock size) flat panel filter to the airflow meter. The cowl is a known high-pressure area - notice how air is pushed through your cabin vents when driving at speed, even when the HVAC fan is switched off. The theory behind these particular intakes is sound, though in my opinion they suffer two problems. Firstly, by being constructed from fibreglass over a mandrel, the raw external appearance is well below what one would expect from a product costing hundreds of dollars (the inside is however beautifully smooth). Secondly is of course the price - if something could be built just as effectively for less, then it would be worth doing. Other aftermarket cold-air intake systems available from the US (eg Jackson Racing, Racing Beat) draw cold air from over the top of the radiator, but given the current value of the Aussie dollar, these are prohibitively expensive. The LHD Miata, it should also be noted, does not have the ability to be fitted with as simple a cowl-induction intake as the Loch Stewart, as the brake master cylinder and booster are located where the intake would go. I decided to follow the same principle as the Loch Stewart system, which of course involves the painful decision to cut a big hole in the sheetmetal of your car. This panel is however non-structural, so not likely to cause any weakening of the chassis, nor cause possible rust as might a hole through the wheel guard. By keeping the end of the intake above the bottom of the cowl channel, there should also be minimal chance of sucking water into the intake. Gathering the Parts I also wanted to incorporate a larger airflow meter. Wreckers were searched for a cheap RX7 airflow meter, but the cheapest source turned out to be a fellow AutoSpeed member who answered the call when a Wanted notice was posted on the For Sale forum. Working out how to fully enclose the filter (so that cold air could be ducted to it) was a dilemma, and about the only easy choice I found was a Simota Super Power unit that incorporates a plastic heat shield around a cone filter. Analysing and measuring photos from the web showed that the intake hole to this filter was approximately 100mm - coincidentally a popular plumbing size. The filter (with a carbon fibre finish) was ordered from the Autospeed Shop for $81. From a large hardware barn, a neat PVC 100-to-65mm adaptor was found at a mere $2.50. A (minimum order) one metre length of 65mm PVC plumbing tubing was bought for another $10, the idea being to use a short length of this to go back through into the cowl. 75mm tube would have been nice, but I couldn't find any 75-to-100 mm adaptors. Given that the length of tube required was about 100mm, I figured this was a minimal compromise. When the filter arrived, it was found that the plumbing adaptor slid straight on like it was custom-made to fit! I was expecting to have a slight tolerance error that could be corrected by softening the PVC, but this was extra-good fortune. The Simota filter uses the ubiquitous 3-inch outlet duct size. While adaptors can be bought cheaply (for about $25) to fit such a filter, I had the materials available to build my own. By notching and pressing a short piece of 3-inch aluminium tube in a vice, the end could be squashed into a match for the RX7 airflow meter's rectangular intake (the inner circumference of both pieces being almost identical). This provided a very smooth transition with no square edges. This tube was bonded to a flat plate that had suitable mounting holes for the airflow meter, and the adaptor was complete. Installation At last, it was time for assembly. With the stock airbox removed, a 2½-inch holesaw was borrowed and used to cut a hole through the cowl wall. This hole required enlarging, using grinding tools on an electric drill, until the 65mm PVC tube could fit through. A 2¾-inch (70 mm) holesaw would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to spend $50+ buying one for a one-off job! The bare metal was finished with touch-up paint, and a length of plastic edging strip fitted inside the sharp metal edge to prevent damage to the PVC tube. A short piece of the tube was cut, and the inside of one end chamfered slightly to hopefully smooth the flow of air into it. The trick of heating and flaring out the tube into a bellmouth could not be used since the tube could only be fitted through the hole by inserting it from the engine bay side. The tube was fitted to the PVC adaptor, and both were given a coat of Penetrol (penetrating oil - to help the paint stick without chipping), followed by a coat of silver spraypaint. I thought silver would look the best purely for aesthetics, though theoretically it should also help keep as much heat out as possible. The whole intake contraption (snorkel tube, PVC adaptor, shrouded filter, airflow meter adaptor and the standard [see breakout box below] airflow meter) was bolted together and fitted to the car. Two small metal brackets were used to support the airflow meter to existing mounting holes, now vacated by the stock airbox. The only other matter was to relocate the windscreen washer bottle to the wheel guard, since the hole in the cowl goes right through where the bottle originally sits. Testing Back on the road, the most immediately noticeable change was the loud induction roar - definitely a more angry sound than stock, and quite pleasant in an aggressive way at WOT. Seat-of-the-pants testing confirmed more urge in the midrange, and also a willingness to run right out to the engine cut-out at 7200 rpm. Fitting the manometer showed that the total pressure loss had dropped from 42cm to 26cm H2O (a 38% decrease). This meant that the restriction upstream of the airflow meter had improved from 25 to 9cm H2O. Potentially more could be gained by fitting the RX7 airflow meter, but as explained in the breakout box, that setup was not tested. Using a stopwatch, and hand-timing some acceleration runs was carried out to compare the new system with the stock one. To avoid the launch variations of a 0-100 km/h run, I chose to start at a cruise at 2000 rpm in 2nd gear, punch the throttle wide open, and run out to 6000 rpm. Redline would have been nice, but I didn't want to break the speed limit by too much... With the standard intake, over 8 runs back and forth I had averaged 6.1 seconds. Fitting the new intake system dropped the average time to 5.8 seconds, a 5% improvement. While the 0.3 second improvement may not seem much, it was highly repeatable. Temperature measurements were made with the probe fitted at the entrance to the snorkel. Under nearly all driving circumstances, the intake temperature was within 5 degrees C of the ambient temperatures - obviously a small amount of heat-soak from the engine bay was still occurring. However, the improvement was still typically about 30 degrees C cooler than before. Using the rule of thumb that a 4 degrees C temperature drop is worth an extra 1% power, this would imply that I could expect up to 7% extra power over the standard system. Parked at idle, the temperature got closer to 10 degrees above ambient (hard to judge since I didn't have a reference thermometer, but still well below the stock setup), and immediately dropped when moving again. Later, the opportunity arose to dyno test the car at SelectMaz in Epping, Melbourne, with the MX5 Club of Victoria. The graphs show that there is a moderate torque improvement in the midrange at about 4000 rpm, and also a good top end improvement above 5500 rpm. Peak rwhp went from 75 to 79hp - a 5% increase. I can tell you that the graph also compares very well with the aforementioned Loch Stewart system which was fitted to other cars tested on the same day, giving almost identical power outputs (very similar exhaust systems were also used on those cars). Note also that the bonnet was 'popped' to the safety latch for both runs, giving slightly cooler air to the engine bay - if the bonnet had been fully closed, I would expect the stock intake to have sucked hotter air and given worse results, and the corresponding improvement to look even better. __________________ Last edited by NitrousG35; 03-08-2008 at 04:44 PM.

03-08-2008, 04:35 PM	#387 (permalink)
*NitrousG35* Mr. Cowl Induction Join Date: May 2007 Location: To Infiniti and beyond... Posts: 8,929 Wild VTEC'n Bill iTrader: 1 / 100%	Note hole cut in cowl wall, exactly as I have been saying: Simota enclosed filter with 3" inlet/outlet. This may be what we need to use. Duct that can be attached to cowl wall. Finished product or facsimile of what we could do: __________________

03-08-2008, 04:43 PM	#388 (permalink)
*NitrousG35* Mr. Cowl Induction Join Date: May 2007 Location: To Infiniti and beyond... Posts: 8,929 Wild VTEC'n Bill iTrader: 1 / 100%	OK people, I need your help. Help me find an enclosed Simota air filter like the one used in the example. This would be perfect. Help out a brother in need. __________________

03-08-2008, 01:59 PM	#381 (permalink)
mike_si_29 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Thousand Oaks, CA Posts: 350 Mike iTrader: 4 / 100%	I will measure all the demensions tomorrow.. if we can find something to fit Xintake then we can fit any other short ram there. I will just skip work and go to junkyard on tuesday. I have huge junkyard 20-30 mins away from my work. I think location of the inlet and outlet is not really important as long as it utilizes most of the avalable space in our car. If i wont find anything, then it will be time to build one.

03-08-2008, 02:18 PM	#382 (permalink)
Metzaballa Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 41 Andy Metz iTrader: 0 / 0%	To fabricate a part, a friend of mind made a CAI scoop out of fiberglass. He first made a Styrofoam mock up, shaped it with a heated knife, and then wrapped it in fiberglass. To get the Styrofoam out, he used gasoline. It dissolves the Styrofoam. But be careful, it will make a gel of Styrofoam and gasoline (napalm) that is highly flammable. I would highly suggest trying a different method of getting the Styrofoam out as making napalm is a very bad suggestion!!!! Do this at your own risk.

03-08-2008, 05:04 PM	#389 (permalink)
melomood Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: red bank, nj Posts: 549 Melo iTrader: 0 / 0%	Cold air 3" intake tube conical design hi-flow filter there you go!!!

03-08-2008, 05:19 PM	#392 (permalink)
soxfan143 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lynnfield, MA Age: 34 Posts: 2,055 Mike iTrader: 2 / 100%	I had that exact Ractive filter on my 99 Accord V6. It was the worst filter ever. I had to change my AEM filter on my CAI so I got one of these because it looked like it would keep the filter a little cleaner and it did do that but it rusted up completely in less than 2 months. The screen over the filter, the entire housing was completely rusted. It is poop. And I just can't see myself not using the $85.00 Apexi filter that took me 4 months to find in stock. Plus it is the best filter on the market. Now that I know what exactly you were talking about I think my original idea about the Ford conical style air box will actually work. The Apexi filter will fit inside perfectly, with just a little modding, and there is already an oulet at the end of it to attatch a tube to run into the firewall. I'm going to try and find a picture of one.

03-08-2008, 05:42 PM	#395 (permalink)
soxfan143 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lynnfield, MA Age: 34 Posts: 2,055 Mike iTrader: 2 / 100%	http://www.varsityfordparts.com/catalog.htm This is the only ford parts catalog I could find with an illustration. It has to be the worst parts illustration I have ever seen. But if you look at the cover that goes over the element, part number 6, with a little cutting and shaping the Apexi filter will fit right in there. I don't know if this link will bring you directly to the illustration but just enter into the year a 2004 Ford Expedition and go under engine and then into air intake. This took me right to the horrible illustration but you can get the idea.

03-08-2008, 05:43 PM	#396 (permalink)
chenslee_cheese Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Beaumont,Tx Age: 32 Posts: 427 Performance>Aesthetics iTrader: 0 / 0%	Wow. How the hell did I miss this thread? I was thinking along the same lines. Do you guys know what the part number is for the metal cowl? I can't find it.

03-08-2008, 05:47 PM	#397 (permalink)
soxfan143 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lynnfield, MA Age: 34 Posts: 2,055 Mike iTrader: 2 / 100%	This link does not take you to the page for some reason. You also have to look in the Ford collision catolog to be able to pull up the air intake assembly. To be honest I don't even know how I got there but I did and for some reason their website won't let me link you guys directly to this page. it will only link to the home page.

03-08-2008, 05:50 PM	#398 (permalink)
*NitrousG35* Mr. Cowl Induction Join Date: May 2007 Location: To Infiniti and beyond... Posts: 8,929 Wild VTEC'n Bi