DIY Cowl Intake
- Thread starter Sam410
- Start date
Diameter vs length vs velocity, mix in density altitude, on the upstream side of the butterfly valve...
Absolutely. My intention was to free up as much space on the fender as I can. As far as hydrolocking, Im diligent about keeping my cowl/cowl drain clean. Remember, the hvac intake is there too (lots of folks get wet passenger floors) so I consider checking the cowl drain routine maintenance.
check it every now and then and you'll never have an issue.
As others mentioned, noise level isn't bad at all. the slight swoosh noise is accurate.
Jeepster09
Member
Rather than the Windstar, I thought I would just go with simple THOR system. I want fender space for freeing up space for winch fuse and diss-connect.
It looks to me like the filter could get wet with that system, even though the filter is not directly under the cowl grille. But, I'm certainly not sure. It is pretty slick.
I had been planning to turn it up and connect it to a hummv style mushroom snorkel but I like what JJVW showed in his picture. Now I just need to track down exactly what reducers and elbows to buy.
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Couple of questions about this mod. I bought mine off an F150 late 90s for 10 bucks today. Going to do this when I get back from my next business trip but in the picture below mine has electrical plugs in the area the guy in the video drills his. Is there a reason I can't drill it right above the ground? Those plugs are all supported by a metal bracket that is a nice clean install.
The location of the hole into the cowl needs to be low enough to allow the hood to close on top of the air filter canister without hitting it.
Make yourself a circle template the diameter of the largest portion of the canister with a small center hole. That will tell you where the entry through the firewall can go.
From there, the pipe from the throttle body into the canister will dictate the horizontal positioning of the hole.
Yeah he didn't appear to use the fender grommet either I plan on trying to use it for a cleaner install. The ground wire in the video appears higher than mine as well. Cutting and resizing the canister wasn't shown either is it pretty much as short as you can get it and still reassemble?
You definitely need the fender grommet.
When I made mine ten years ago, I cut the canister down as much as I could. But it could have been a little longer. To my knowledge, there is no specific guide for how short to make the canister. You just need to get a good handle on how the various pieces need to fit together.
You need a fairly substantial hole cut. Don't forget you'll need clearance to fit the Ford snorkel inside the cowl. You'll also want to center it in the cowl (height-wise) as much as possible.
Too low and it increases the risk of ingesting water if you get a major surge of water over the hood or if the cowl drain becomes plugged. Too high and the filter canister might interfere with the hood.
The ground can be relocated as needed. I'm pretty sure that's the engine ground. Personally I pulled all my OEM grounding wires out, relocated them, and upsized them. If you're running a larger alternator than factory (like the Durango alternator), you'd want to upgrade that wire anyways.
When he makes his template and lays out the hole location, he will discover that there is only one small window where it can physically go. There is no way to go too low because the floor of the cowl is in the way. There is no too high, because the hood is in the way.
I'm losing the factory airbox to the Highlines, so I've been planning out intake routing. I've come across a few things that may be of interest to others in my research.
Now discontinued, Spectre offered the 9943 intake kit, it's the Windstar mod for all intents and purposes. I was able to find the PDF instructions, I'll attach them here if anyone is curious. Most of the parts are also discontinued, but there are a few Spectre equals. I prefer the Windstar style to the exposed in the cowl version from Thor.
Pretty much the only decent aftermarket inline filter I found was Spectre's 9833 (This is the 3" in/out version for around $100 with filter, they also have a 4" available). K&N had a couple offerings, but they are stupid money, and either big (off-road universal) or kind of small (Apollo) or about right (54-5000). Airaid has a universal box, but it's big (and also expensive). I looked at the stuff the go fast trucks were running and didn't see anything that would work better. There are some ebay/amazon K&N Apollo Knockoffs out there too, but they look like they'd be better in a Civic.
Spectre also has a convenient surface mount flange, the 8148 ($8), I grabbed two of these, one for either side of the firewall.
Still need to mock up and decide on how I'm piping it, but figured I'd share what I found.
9833 Dimensions:
8148 Dimensions:
Now discontinued, Spectre offered the 9943 intake kit, it's the Windstar mod for all intents and purposes. I was able to find the PDF instructions, I'll attach them here if anyone is curious. Most of the parts are also discontinued, but there are a few Spectre equals. I prefer the Windstar style to the exposed in the cowl version from Thor.
Pretty much the only decent aftermarket inline filter I found was Spectre's 9833 (This is the 3" in/out version for around $100 with filter, they also have a 4" available). K&N had a couple offerings, but they are stupid money, and either big (off-road universal) or kind of small (Apollo) or about right (54-5000). Airaid has a universal box, but it's big (and also expensive). I looked at the stuff the go fast trucks were running and didn't see anything that would work better. There are some ebay/amazon K&N Apollo Knockoffs out there too, but they look like they'd be better in a Civic.
Spectre also has a convenient surface mount flange, the 8148 ($8), I grabbed two of these, one for either side of the firewall.
Still need to mock up and decide on how I'm piping it, but figured I'd share what I found.
9833 Dimensions:
8148 Dimensions:
If anyone needs the 4” version you can have mine for the cost of shipping. Air filter will need cleaned. You can see it in my post on the 2nd page of this thread. I was able to find one of their older discontinued ones that uses a 6” filter via help from this forum so I’ll pay the old setup forward.
My advise is don't put it where the o.p. did. I put my ranger housing where jjvw did (i think) and it fit perfectly. You may find the f150 housing to be too large. Ranger/windstar housings are a better fit. Parts list,guide and then some pics a couple posts down
Post in thread 'Project Basketcase!' https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/project-basketcase.67755/post-1649352
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I tried to fit up a 2007 F-150 intake since I had one (specifically from the 4.2L V6 Essex engine) and it was a very tight fit. Much larger than the Windstar one. It might work but in my case it contacted the hood and the engine at the same time, which I didn't want to do if I could help it.
The Windstar filter already has a significantly higher CFM rating than the OEM filter.
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