i've heard of a lot of people doing custom CAI's lately, and they all seem to be really happy with their finished results. i've seen some that look like crap, but perform well... and some that look really, really good that perform well. i'm wanting to build a custom CAI for my car... with a nice look so it's eye-appealing when i show it off... but i want to have one that performs as well as the K&N FIPK. which, actually shouldn't be that complicated considering it's just tubing and a giant cone filter...

anybody have any info on the parts you used, and the instructions to build it? i'd really like to do this soon, so if you have any info, it'd be greatly appreciated. and, also, if you have this info, let me know the part # for the K&N filter you used for your custom CAI set-up. thanx guys. later.

- jay

 

anybody? lol

- jay

 

i have never made one but i guess u can get polished aluminum 3" or 4" tubing and make it from that

 

if your really concerned with looks, and are not a professional metal/plastics worker... just dish out the 2 c notes on a slp cai...


thats what im doen...

good luck on your endeavor tho...

my recommendations, besides those above, would be to get some polished alluminum tubing, that fits directly the width of the air elbow, and one big *** cone filter... or you could be REALLY creative and make your own MAF holder assembly and use duel tubes going directly into the TB...

 

interesting. like i said, it doesn't appear to be too hard... and the custom CAI's i've seen actually look good ( at least most of them do ). i'm not entirely concerned with looks, i just prefer not to have things that look like total *** on my car.

- jay

 

I have done this and its not hard at all and will only cost about 60 bucks. I used 4" diameter THINWALL PVC tubing (thinwall pvc is sometimes called sewer pipe, much smaller wall thickness makes it lighter and more pliable). I just bought a 10 foot section of this at my local hardware store. You will also need a 4" thinwall PVC 90 degree elbow and PVC sealant to connect the tubing to the elbow. You need something to connect your MAF to the tubing, for this I used a 4" Fernco coupling, the only problem with this is the MAF end is smaller than 4" so I wrapped a rubber strip around the MAF end to bring up the diameter so the Fernco will tighten down. As for the filter its really up to you, I took rough measurements inside the air box and got hold of a K&N catalog and found a filter that I thought would fill up that space, its 6" diameter and 9" tall (I don't remember the part # unfortunately). For a 4" CAI you are going to need to relocate your ABS unit which is really simple, just get a small L angle bracket to replace the huge one that is on there that holds the unit onto the frame. After this is done you will have to put the tubing that goes by that ABS unit sort of in place and figure out where its going to hit the unit and the fan shield on the other side. Mark those points on the tubing and heat up the PVC over a range stove and use your thumbs to make indentations where you marked, this stuff becomes pretty pliable when heated so be careful not to go too far. I think I had to do it about 3 times to get it perfect. Make sure you use leather gloves. Connect your tubing and elbow with PVC sealant and let it dry, then you can paint it if you want, I just painted mine black. Connect your filter to the tubing and your tubing to the MAF and your done. I have some pics of my finished CAI on my site. Then ya should get on to putting a custom air scoop to help it out even more. There is a really good site that I used to make my CAI but I can't find it now.....maybe someone knows. Hope this helps,

Derek

 

other people i've spoken to have made it seem far less complicated. either they were excluding things, and forgot to do things when they did theirs... or you did yours the hard way. i guess everyone has done it a different way. anybody else do their CAI differently?

- jay

 

Well it all depends on what you want...I went with a 4 inch CAI just because I wanted the max benefits possible. You can make a 3 inch one and probably not have to bend the pipe or move the ABS unit, I do not know for sure. I don't think my way is very complicated I was just trying to be detailed in explaining what you need and what you need to do. Peace,

Derek

 

well, so far... i've bought the 3' PVC pipe... and the 3' 90 PVC elbow as well as the PVC cement. as soon as i get done typing this post, i'm gonna go back and double-check on the other parts i need, go buy my paint... and then find the K&N filter part number that i need so that i can make my CAI. i don't think i'll have to move anything or find a way to re-route my MAF. seems to me that this project won't interfere with my MAF in the least. i don't see how you would've had to move it since it doesn't connect in the actual tubing.

- jay

 

Here is mine, I made it from 3.5" Exhaust piping

PIC 1

PIC 2

PIC 3

It is polished now as well I will get some new pics up soon

 

You are right , you do not need to move your MAF, only your ABS unit possibly. Hope it goes well,

Derek

 

I can't understand why people waste money on making a custom CAI. Do what I'm currently doing. Go out and buy a Holley Powershot filter (or K&N) for the stock airbox. Put it in and keep the front cover of it off. Now your going to say "well the filter will just fall out" , but all you do is use about 3 zip ties and secure it to the air box. Voila! You have a CAI that looks stock, performs just as well if not better than a FIPK and all it costed you was the filter and 3 zip ties. I'll try to get some pics when mine is finished.

 

nice CAI johnny, it looks like you did a good job with it.

i'm painting mine gloss black cuz i really can't think of any other color that would really match up to my car besides silver. my car is mainly hunter green and black with just a touch of silver... so i think i'm gonna stick to black since green under the hood wouldn't look too good and chrome paint isn't always that great looking...

if all goes well i'll have mine installed tomorrow minus the K&N. i'm gonna temp it with a fram until i can get the K&N. first i'm gonna have to figure out which filter will fit up to the 3' PVC pipe and make sure it's gonna stay attached to it without any problems. i'd be pretty mad if my filter fell off when i was driving down the road. i took a good look at my car's set-up earlier to see how difficult this was going to be... and it looks like it's gonna be relatively easy. a small piece of PVC pipe attached to the 90' PVC elbow with a slightly larger piece of pipe coming down from the bottom of the elbow connecting to the air filter. all attached, and the CAI should work perfectly. i won't have to make the extra effort to make a "ram-air scoop" at the bottom of my car because the fender well has already been hollowed hopefully i won't suck up any water and throw a rod or three and blow a king size hole in the back of my block like my friend did in his SS when it flooded

- jay