Custom CAI How-To

[big_ben]

I will start off by giving credit to Mike(a.k.a. snowmongoose) at the P5 board. He is the one who told me how to make one.

1. Mandrel Bent Tubing - You can buy this from either JC Whitney or Summit racing. It was a little cheaper at JC Whitney. All you need it three tubes, all 2.5". One tight radius 90 for the area coming out of the throttle body(about $25, I think). I think the radius is about 3.75". Then two normal 90's.(about $11 each). I think the normal 90's are 5" or 6" radius.(about $68 after shipping)
2. Black Rubber Sleeves - I got them from Lowes for about $4 each. If you get the pipe frome the throttle body welded to the pipe that passes the battery, you will only need 3 of the sleeves.($16 for 4 sleeves)
3. You can have them cut at a muffler shop or if you have a drill, you can buy a carbon cutting disk to attach to your drill. This is what I did to keep the costs down. The one I bought is for a roto-zip, but it also fit into a drill chuck.($10 total for the piece that holds the disks and for the two cutting disks). It took about 30 to 45 min. to cut all the pieces. I really cant tell you where to cut them. You kinda just have to take off your rubber intake tube and then just eye it. But for the tight radius tube that comes out of the throttle body, cut it right as the bend starts. This way it wont hit the master cylinder.

After you are done with the cutting, just put it together. All together with the filter and bypass valve that I'm going to buy in the future, it will cost around $68 for the tubes, $10 for the cutting disks, $16 for the sleeves, $35 for the bypass valve, $20 to get someone to weld it, $40 for a K&N filter. Grand total of $189. I will post pics of each cut that I made when I take off the pieces again to paint them.

P.S. What color should I paint it, Red or Yellow?

 

[kep0ne]

could you point me in the right direction for tubing. only ones on jcwhitney.com and summitracing.com are exhaust tubing

 

[big_ben]

That's what intake tubing actually is. It's not strictly for exhaust only. It can be used for anything. As a matter of fact, the same thickness of tubing is used for industrial wire conduit, mandrel bent and everything. I went to an electrical supply shop before ordering the exhaust tubing from JC Whittney. They had the 2.5" but the bend radius was too big. They were out of the tighter radius stuff, so I ordered it from JC Whittney.

 

[preluderican007]

Congrats on the custom work, but for that type of money I would of bought the Injen intake for 205. It comes polished and with all brackets and mounts for maf sensor and etc. Also you dont have to go through all the work. But anyways congrats, i built a cold air for my 91 prelude cause noone made one. It worked just didnt like it. Paint it the color of he car. That would be sweet.

 

[Swimmer]

Hey Ben, how does it sound? I hear peeps that have the Injen or MHP say that it is a deeper tone and you can here it sucking in the air. Does your's do that?
I know that it might be easier to buy an Injen, but this sort of sounds like a fun project, and I'm sure you get a lot of satisfaction of doing it yourself.

 

[big_ben]

It would have cost just a little more for the Injen, but as swimmer said, I really enjoyed building it. Gave me a sense of satisfaction. And, swimmer, it growls like a motherf***er! It makes a hissing sound when you are accellerating. It was a lot of fun making it. I'm going to get one of the pieces welded tomarrow and I'll take pics of each tube before so you all who want to make your own can see the patterns.

 

[Swimmer]

That would be awesome Ben. I think I'll do this as well, so a detailed How-To would be great

 

[big_ben]

Hey swimmer, give me about a day or two and I'll write a more detailed how-to for you. I even put pics of each pipe and how it's cut in there. I'm going to a muffler shop tomarrow to get a piece welded and some brackets welded on. But for all of you out there, you don't save a huge heap of money doing this. The best part is that you can do it little by little, instead of forking out like $230 to $350 all at once. And if you are a guy that gets enjoyment and satisfaction out of building something yourself, this is perfect for you. But I'll try to get it done tomarrow, I only have one class so I'll have plenty of time. If not it will be up by friday.

 

[Swimmer]

That would be great Ben, but you don't have to rush just on my part, I can wait. This actually would save me a lot of money. Because I live in Hawaii, everyone wants to charge $75 extra just to ship it out here, and some won't even ship out here at all. It's really getting frustrating.