Cutting the shroud

[vms4evr]

Hey folks,
This has been discussed from time to time and I thought I'd post what I have done incase someone is interested.
I'm running the SLP Cold Air setup (used to be called Triple Threat). It's basically 3 tubes that have a K&N cone filter on each tube. Those mesh into a big tube that connects to the factory tube going to the TB.
I'll post 3 additional pics that each show what it looks like from inside the engine with the filter removed, under the car, and with the filter in place.
After I cut the hole I covered it with an eves vent that you can find at any local hardware store. I use a small peice of door molding rubbber between the vent and the shroud to act as a gasket to make a better seal. Cost me less than $5. It's metal and has a built-in screen so bugs and such can't get in there. I can also easily add a piece of AC filter material in it if I want to tone down the dust and pollen mess in spring time.
Now some folks got really concerned about water ingestion. So I didn't post this earlier until I got many months and miles on the car to verify it wouldn't fry the engine. This car is a daily driver and has been out on the road in heavy rain numerous times and I have had no problems. In fact the area that gets all the water is on the sides because of the pop-up headlamps and the openeing below them. The area around the air filters has never been wet.

First pic is everything assembled.

Graham

 

[vms4evr]

This pic is the vent peice installed with air filter removed.

 

[vms4evr]

This is a view looking into the sharks mouth and you can see the radiator and the shroud opening with the vent.

 

[vms4evr]

SLP removed the car.

 

[c4fan]

That looks fantastic. Impressed with your inginuity with the vent cover:BOW A person could paint the cover black and it would be almost unnoticable but it looks sharp the way it is.

 

[gt306]

SLP

Did you consider any other intake setups beside the one you are currently using? Looks great, would you recomend that setup?

 

[Utah]

great custom work! what have you noticed for gains??

 

[Ken]

Thanks so much for the pictures Graham.

_ken

 

[bill mcdonald]

Now have you thought about covering the air filters on the top, the side that is in the engine compartment with anything? Like maybe a tupperware container would fit over the air filters so you get the full on ram air thing going on?

Or you could build a mock up out of cardboard and fiberglass over it.
I am working on building an upside down intake out of cardboard and fiberglass now.

 

[vms4evr]

thanks folks. you should see the look on my wife's face when i'm in Home Depot and the like and start eye balling stuff. she's never sure if i'm working on the house or have some new idea for the car :L

c4fan - i could have got that in black, white, brown. but i figured the paint wouldn't last. after all it's a $2 part ;-) so i just went with unpainted aluminum.

gt306 and utah -
i did look at some other ones but when i got the SLP a couple of years ago i got it on an internet sale from SLP for about $130.
the gain with the SLP was nice but once I cut the shroud it grabs air really easy. you don't need to break the sound barrier to get air flow either. i noticed some sotp improvement. it also changes the note of your factory exhaust to sound a little bit louder but not much. the car breathes very easy now.

bill -
yes i thought about actually making a plexiglass or some type of material to cover it like the ram air ones do. but quite frankly it flows more than enough air without sealing it. it's a stock engine so it will only take so much air anyway.

ken -
you got it bro. someone had asked me to post this a while ago and i was admittedly a lazy boy and didn't do it...

Graham

 

[Vettelt193]

How are your engine temps? It would seem that the air would flow into the engine compartment instead of through the radiator when moving at high speeds. Any trouble so far?

 

[vms4evr]

How are your engine temps? It would seem that the air would flow into the engine compartment instead of through the radiator when moving at high speeds. Any trouble so far?

Actually here is my observation. And I watch the coolant and oil temp a lot. This was with the factory T-stat.

At idle at a stop light there is no difference. They all run hot and don't like standing still. From 5-35mph~ the engine is probably sucking air harder than the movement of air to the radiator. The car would run 193-205 at 5-20mph. At 25-35mph it would start to cool down a little to about 197. At 35mph it would quickly drop back down to 193. This is driving easy, no funny stuff. On the highway crusing up to 75mph it was just like with the factory setup. No problem at all. I did some runs up to about 120 in short bursts. With the gears I'm running that puts the tach around 4000rpm. It still stayed around 200. I think at that speed the force of air flow into the radiator is stronger than the engine is sucking air. So I didn't see any negative results. I also don't cruise at 120+ for long periods of time for obvious reasons so I can't tell you what happens if drive at 120 for an hour straight.

Since then I converted to a 165deg stat and the car runs cool all the time unless I'm stuck in a traffic jam. I also have an aftermarket chip that turns the fans on at 200deg.

Also note that folks have asked if this helps even if you're not going 100mph. Well at idle you get no ram air type affect but the engine can still take a deep breath and doesn't have to fight restrictions. Once it gets moving there is more than enough air to feed that 48mm TB.

The only issue that I have heard and is debatable is that when the car gets hot and the fans come on. They are blowing hot air out and the air filters are trying to suck air in and grab that hot air. For me that is a very limitied situation as my car doesn't sit in big intown traffic jams. Even the factory breather is still going to get hot air being blown out by the fans when they are on. I guess it depends on how much heavy intown traffic you get stuck in and how often your fans are running.

Graham

 

[Vettelt193]

since your system is a cold air, i was thinking the path of least resistance would be through the hole under the filter instead of through the radiator... glad to hear it is working out for you