My cheap CAI

[Ender]

My stock TID (turbo inlet duct) cracked yet again, and I refuse to keep buying another one about every year. I didn't want to just slap a cone filter in the engine bay and make my car worse off, but I'm low on resources. No TIG welder (nor experience with TIG) and I'm nearly broke. However, I had picked up a Honda intake piping kit for like $15, I had a dual cone air filter with an adapter that was given to me years ago, and a silicone coupler from ebay (which is still being resolved, he sent me one coupler that was completely wrong, and the blue reducer I used was supposed to be red). I do have a trusty rusty old Lincoln welder, which was helpful but not necessary for this project.

I pulled everything in front of the turbo and began moving wires and crap out of the way so I could cut a hole down where the washer fluid tank is (which has to be removed for this project, I want to relocate it as it is pretty much a necessity in Iowa). My $13 air saw from Harbor Freight performed decent, but I miscalculated where the pipe would need to go down so I cut a much larger hole than necessary. Oh well, cest la vie. Presently, what you may not see is the new TID has part of a rubber plumbing fitting inside the coupler as a spacer (the ebaytard I mentioned was supposed to send me a red 70mm-60mm reducer. instead I got a black 57mm 90* elbow. wtf.). The filter also has a spacer cut from one of the red couplers because it's a bit bigger than the piping. I bolted up some plumber's strap to keep the AFM from rattling too much, keep it off the piping under it, and also keep the filter from banging around too much. I also put a vac hose bump above the filter where it could hit a metal edge (cut a slit in vac line to make a nice little bumper).

I made the same kind of vac line bumper for the headlight motor access in the closure panel. I've never messed with the damn things, but I figured why the hell not make it accessible. I had to make the panel because the filter would otherwise get plastered with everything from the tire. I carefully welded two nuts to the passenger side of the panel so it would bolt up easily on both sides of the tow loop. The material came from a discarded steel door I picked up at work haha. I'm a little disappointed I have no more brake duct, but I doubt it's a big deal. If I get crazy for racing slotted rotors might do more than the duct would anyway, there's no direct piping to the rotors like you see on formula cars. The filter's resting place is a comfortable ~3/4" off the panel and about a 1/4" from the metal edge that sets its max upward travel. I think this is going to work pretty well. You can't see the panel unless you get down to its level.

PICS! I did spray paint the whole panel black after scouring it with a wire wheel.