YOU CAN DO WHAT I DID, leave the OE piping up to the MAF, and just build an intake extension from the MAF sensor. I need a digi camera for pics, i was gonna write up a how to. aNYWAY, if you have a grinder, grind out a bigger hole where your old piping to the resonator box would go. buy a 90 degree plumbing elbow, and some pcv piping. cut out 2 pieces of piping, one about 10" long, and another about 6" (you can actually play around with sizes, depending on where you want your filter to point). My filter points down and out, towards the bumper, but it is still inside the engine bay. I specifically bought the filter with a heat shield around it (reactive rip off, $28 ) so that the air is being drawn from the outside air, and not the warm air within the engine, which might occur with a typical open cone filter (which was my previous filter, mounted right after the maf, inside the engine bay). My old set up was good, effecient, and loud (sounds really nice ). I was just worried about the filter getting air from the warm engine bay, and i also figured it was a little restricted since there was no direct air hitting the filter. The new set up is nice, but not as loud as the old, since the filter is moved further away from the cabin (but it can still be heard over my muffler at WOT). Oh, btw, on the end of the pcv piping where the filter attaches, you’ll have to shave down the end of the pipe about 6mm, so that the fliter slips over the end, and can be clamped. without shaving the end, the inlet for the filter is 3", and the piping i used was 3", so hopefully you can see what i am getting at.
If you want to be really thorough, you can build the whole piping out of pcv piping from the throttle body out. The piping can actually be baked for about 15 minutes in an oven (a little tip courtesy of Mike Bender) so that is can be bent around the fan shroud or anything else which may be in its way. But looking at the oe piping from the throttle body, it appears to be fairly effective and effecient, thats why i opted not to do the whole pipe over. You’re welcome to look at my setup, i will hopefully have pics up asap. and don’t forget to protect the new area that you would have to grind out of the engine bay with either rust proof paint or some sort of rubber lining.
I have driven in heavy rain, and I don’t have an engine under cover. The filter was soaked, but I had no problems with hydro locking, although I do lift the filter out of my bumper when there is really heavy rain, just to be on the safe side.
The main difference I noticed is that the powerband is alot smoother, and there is quite a bit of power right up to 6000rpm’s (and even redline), especially in the lower gears. Prior to the cone filter, I’d really have to push the car to hit the rev limiter in the higher gears (3rd and fourth). Now it revs with ease, although I can’t say the power gains made a really big difference. The sound is alot nicer, especially when you floor it. People mistaken my intake for an exhaust before i mounted my muffler (they were obviously newbs in the car scene).
hope that helps, feel free to shoot me questions
PauL
EDIT - I forgot, i used this tape called magic tape, its used for high pressure air seals, kinda looks like electric tape, without the adhesive. Anyway, I applied that stuff where ever a vacuum leak looked like it might occur (around the MAF adapter, cone intake, ect.). It seems to work great, I can’t detect any leaks in the system. And I din’t even bother to glue the pipes, although i would recomend it.
