Thomasbien

I have been closely following discussions about homemade air intakes. Like others, my initial reaction to the cost of an aftermarket intake is "why should I drop that much for a piece of pipe?" Before attempting to construct an intake I want to have as much info as possible, hence this post. I am not yet sure whether I will attempt a short ram or CAI for my recently purchased Pro5.

First of all, here are the references I've benefitted from thus far:
http://www.mhptuning.com/manuals/guide/mp3cai.html
http://www.teamdelsol.com/howto/coldair/diycoldair.htm
http://www.automediazone.com/pro/90LX_enter.htm
http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/sho...&threadid=6708

Of course I've read many other informative posts from this forum, but the link above is the one I often revisit (mostly because of the picture posted by Jerry). The page from "teamdelsol.com" is informative. Has anybody put together a step-by-step descriptive page like this for a homemade intake for the Pro5?

My unanswered questions...

--- How does the installation of an intake affect the Mazda warranty on my 2002 Pro5? I recall the dealer telling me that I could have them install an intake, and he said it would not affect the warranty. If I were to construct and install my own would that be any different from a warranty standpoint?

--- What is the part below the intake side of the factory airbox? Is this a resonator? I'm curious about this because the page from MHPTuning.com (link is above) does not specifically mention this part of the factory system, though I see from pictures of after market intakes that it is no longer part of the intake system.

--- Would it not be an acceptable approach to remove everything up to the MAF (retaining the MAF and piece of hose connecting to the intake manifold), then attach aluminum piping to the open end of the MAF? The pipe would terminate with a cone filter either in the engine compartment or in the fender. It seems that this may require only a short piece of straight piping to reach the hole in the fender instead of a multi-angled bent piece (I realize the coolant reservoir will still need to be relocated). The temp sensor would then be placed in this new pipe. Or... is this piece of factory pipe between the MAF and intake manifold restrictive enough to justify its replacement?

Thanks for all the information I've gained from this forum thus far, and thanks in advance for feeding me some more info!

-Aaron

obender66

Gee, Aaron, take it easy, it's just an intake, not nuclear warhead
Answers are
-it will not affect warranty, unless you do lousy job and it will suck in mouse or water and blow the engine.
-Parts below factory airbox are irrelevant-you can leave them as it is or remove them after you build intake. I have that over the radiator scoop still on.
-Yes, everything is correct. Replacing MAF to throttle body hose by aluminum pipe will smooth flow out and if you can make suitable bends, go for it.
Hose clamps can be bought at hardware store for couple of $

Simple intake
Alex

Thomasbien

My wife and I laughed out loud when we read this (okay, I'll admit she laughed longer than I)! I am an engineer and I've been trained to overthink everything... or perhaps I naturally overthink everything and thus I became an engineer.

Anyhow, thanks for the quick response and picture Alex. You have done almost exactly what I was thinking. Any particular reasons you stopped with a short ram rather than a CAI in the fender? What kind of gains have you experienced?

Thanks again!

nelnel

I dunno I guess you get what you pay for companies like AEM and Injen spend money on R&D. I dunno I rather shell out money and buy a product that is proven to work rather then use something thats homemade and might not work properly.

obender66

*I went with simple install-it guarantees my 2 hp for $35(dynoed)and nice throathy sound.
*Next-I am saving for turbo and it will change all underhood intake piping layout-why waste $200 for intake which might become useless?
*Homemade intake is in no way inferior to factory made.
*I am very sceptical of "R&D" various companies claim to do and sell people complete crap-prolong, tornados,magnetic fuel savers and miracle scratch removers.
*Last reason-I am accountant.

Alex

Sir Nuke

Aaron....just telling us you are a REAL engineer is enough...lol I work with mechanical engineers EVERYDAY....nuf said...I understand! lol I am not an engineer, but I AM very analyitically minded...and tend to do the same thing....got to have all the facts before making a decision. :{D.....however...I found the "warhead" comment funny too....as I have a friend that works for NASA.....I just LOVE telling him " HEY, ITS NOT FRICKIN ROCKET SCINECE!! " lol



and as for the warrantee part of your question, unless the dealer can PROVE that a part you added CAUSED a failure...your warrantee is good.....AND considering how easy an intake is to put on and remove....if you ever did have a problem...and needed to take it in for something...and thought you MIGHT get hastled by the dealer....you could always just keep all the stock pieces and swap them back out.

smithers_0990

What did you do with the sensor that was pluged into the stock air box? I took mine out and the check engine light came on.

How did you attach/ secure the whole intake so it wouldn't just bounce around?

obender66

If you take closer look at the picture you might see temp sensor-I cut hole in sleeve connecting filter to MAF. It's not bouncing around because it's jammed between coolant tank and factory intake scoop.
Check engine light comes on-I had it too before I installed everything well. Disconnect battery for couple of minutes and it will go away(but come back if you leave sensor outside)
Alex

smithers_0990

Will it effect fuel timing if i leave it out?

obender66

car will run worse

macdaddyslomo

Ill tell you right now its a bad idea to not include your MAF in the intake...you car will not run just worse,it will run like total crap and want to cut out at idle...i home made mine and it works perfect...want to add a bend and put it in the fender wall though..The air its sucking now is too hot,i know...and dont just stick it in there and think it wil work...the MAF is VERY sensitive to turbulence and if the air is not flowing straight thru at the point you mount it,expect a CEL and your car to run like crap....to be honest the the stock tubing is great for your intake,it bends and rubber doesnt absorb heat like aluminum or steel....ill try and get a pic of mine and show you...I used a small peice of piping,just to mount the cone filter because you cant exactly mount it to a rubber tube...plan on adding a pvc bend down to the fender wall to suck colder air

Sil_Pro5

Oh, one quick thing. that link to the del sol site used info that was originally posted in the "how-to" section of www.clubsi.com by yours truly-me. I used to own a 99' Civic Si and since I am a tinkerer and broke, I set out how to make my own CAI. Although I used PVC (electrical conduit at 2 1/2" dia.) to make the pipes originally, i later changed to aluminised steel from JC whitney. IMHO, it was way too heavy to use int he end. some liked it though. just sucks when people dont give credit where credit is due! oh well....people plagiarise so why wouldnt they do this as well?

sil_pro5

chris j

Thomasbien

I'd be interested in seeing a picture of your intake Slomo!

Can any of you give me a part number for the filter you used? I looked through K&N's online catalog and there are too many choices. I know that I'll need a filter with a 3" diamter input. That only begins to narrow it down though. My plan is to locate the filter in the fender, so the overall size of the filter must be constrained.

I'm curious about the "inverted top fiters" form K&N. The additional surface area of the filter would seem to translate into increased flow. Anybody have experience with these? Link:
http://www.knfilter.com/universal/univcustcap.htm

Sorry to hear your work & ideas got ripped off Chris J. Nothing like coming up with an original and thought-out idea just to have someone else respeak it as if it were their own (I'm thinking about my boss as I type this).