My last ghetto fabrication was 'Found a Good Interior Paint'

Im working on an alternate cold air system...just thought i'd share the progress of the prototype.

I know theres the cold air headlight covers... but those only work during the daytime. At night, they're pretty much useless and a waste of 200 bucks IMO.

As some of you know, i like to keep my car pretty boro (aka ghetto...screw form, its all about function baby) and I took out my parking lights because I was bored and wanted to see if it made things any cooler.

It was tad cooler, and it looked cool... but i had no front turn signals, which wound up annoying people when i had to make a yielding left turn, or a left turn at a 4 way stop. I decided to take it a step farther with this mod.



I got this idea from Miatas. They have a nice little cold air induction kit for their parking lights.

The difficulty of this is similar to the 99 tail light conversion. Easy, but a pain in the *** and takes patience.

1. Took out parking light (duh)

2. Removed bulb assembly and harness.

3. Used heat gun (in my case, a blowdryer) to soften glue holding down lens cover.

4. Took out lens cover and hacked off the portion that covers the parking light. (inside corner)

5. Spray painted the parking light assembly black.

Thats as far as I've gotten. Next:

6. Sand down corner of lens, for smooth beveled finish.

7. Use fibreglass or bondo...or something to create a smooth sloped finish for the gap where the lens cover used to reside.

8. Sand it down, repaint.

9. Enlarge hole where turn signal bulbs were.

10. Find a flexible pipe to mate into the hole.

11. Route piping to direct into open air intake (I have the Apexi intakes)

12. Most likely will have to cut a hole in the sheetmetal that is holding up the pop up lights.

13. Reroute the wiring from the turn signal to the parking light, so that the parking light will become the new turn signal.

14. Find some way to measure how much air is getting pushed through the setup. If it's a significant amount...start working on a mold for a more efficient model....

15. Figure out where i can duct the air from the drivers side to.

Im figuring since the parking lights are at the very front of the car, it will push in the most air into the engine bay. I destroyed my parking light and turn signals in the process, but I never liked them to begin with

Most likely wont offer any significant hp, maybe 3-4rwhp at the most... but it should help keep the intake temps cool, especially when mated with a heat shield. It also looks better IMO.

Boro fever 0wnZ j00!

 

Right on Ghetto Brother!

The only part you forgot is marketing it to all the newbies and retire rich...

BTW, the best flexible pipe I have found is "hot air riser manifold tube" It comes in all metal (bad since it dents) and metal reinforced with a black fiberglass sheath. (good but much more expensive). Comes in different lengths - you can stretch it like an accordian, also - different circumferences, and you can easily snake it around bends without constriciting it. Available at Pep Boys. Here's a pic from my ghetto airbox mod:

 

Keep it up. You may make something that the newbies will be talking about for years to come!

 

I have a base model, so no 2nd oil cooler. I know guys have used this as a cold air intake. Is there a way to get air from this intake without cutting metal?

 

Blackr1, damn good idea..

 

Yeah, this is pretty easy to do as well. Just remove the plastic piece that is in the opening for the second oil cooler location. This piece is just held on with clips from the back. Then you can either attach some kind of flexable tubing from the opening to your airbox, creating a ram air effect, or if you're not that worried about it just skip the tube. Either way you'll be getting more air (and cooler outside air at that) into the engine bay at a location near your intake.

Chaz

 

i dont think there will be a way without cutting the metal. I believe it would be horribly inefficient if i tried to go around it. Im also working on other ways to get more air in there...a la intercooler duct style.

Mastacow brought up a good point about the ineffectiveness of the headlight cover kits... because of the pressure difference of the engine bay and out, the air just gets pushed over. I'm hoping since this is practically like a ram air, it will have enough pressure to circumvent the problem and get a sufficient amount of air into the engine bay.

Is there any kind of sensor i can use to put in the tubing to check the volume of air pushed through?

I was considering just keeping it all a secret and selling it later for $$$... but i'm feeling rather philanthropic so i wanted to share it with everyone :p My other ideas...those will be kept under wraps for now