Okay....got bored and decided to hack the ole' air box.

Not bad for a 10 minute project.

Complete write up on my site.

h4x0r air box

hope this helps some of you new guys out, or maybe entices some of the older guys who haven't done it yet to do so.

Took it out afterwards and had a deeper, throatier growl in 1, 2, & 3 gear. 4 & 5 gear my friend said he could hear as i went down the road, although i could not. (I didn't hear it because my windows were down. If the windows are up, you will hear it in 4 & 5 gear as well) That was while going towards WOT. Going normal driving speeds, it was just as if i had not hacked the air box.

As far as gained HP, small amounts of gained HP are generally not noticed. However, one thing i did notice was a willingness to head towards the redline a little faster. Nothing huge now, but it all adds up eventually.....right?

On thing that i will try is to see if there is noticable difference in running with the cold air scoop, and with out the cold air scoop. There should be some slight yet un-noticable gains in running the hacked air box with the cold air scoop. The reason for this being is as follows.

Cold Air Intake (CAI) generally have good lower RPM HP response.

Hybrid Air Intake (HAI) generally have good mid RPM HP response

Middle East Variable Intake (MEVI) generally have good high RPM HP response

That means that the hacked air box is a Semi-Hybrid Air Intake which should give you a fair low and mid RPM HP response.

If you were to take of the cold air scoop, you would essentially be running a Hybrid Air Intake.

 

a little bump before class and dinner.........

 

Nice comprehensive write-up with good pics. I'll probably try the OSCAI and this in combination in the next few weeks.

 

nice write up, i added ti to the how to's

 

Good job, deserves a merit badge

 

are there any cons to doing this? I may be considering it soon...

 

None other than wanting to go WOT everywhere in order to hear the growl.....

just keep the cut out incase you ever want to glue it back and "repair" it

 

Newb here, I see this acronym "WOT" a lot but could not figure out and find what it stands for??
Could someone clarify please!!

 

wide open throttle

 

NOW it makes sence! Thanks!!

 

Wait did you cut out 2 sides or just one? In the picture it looks like you cut out 2 sides and in the write up you only talk about the fender side and not the front side...

 

I only cut out the fender side. While i can always go back and cut out the battery side also, i decided to leave it in for now since i am preparing to build my own midpipe and create a hybrid setup. The next thing that i will do, to be closer to the hybrid setup is to remove the stock cold air intake, and just allow hot engine air to be sucked through the passenger/engine side air hole....

Did'nt see a reason to hack more of the box away, althought......

You could just cut off the upper lip of the lower air box, the part with the clips. Cut that off, rotate the upper air box so that it fits upside down on the MAF, and then reinstall the air filter and the cut off lower air box's upper lip. Then you have a pannel filter set up to breath all it wants, and the filter is easy to get to and replace without having to dismantle your whole intake setup.......

?? I would like to see some picks if someone would do this....

 

Now I was thinking about doing this but. . . how loud is the growl and how deep. . . i had a K&N cone filter with just the adapter and it was bugging me because it was too loud for me and it annoyed me. . . is it as loud as that??? I don't want to cut my box and then not like it.

 

[SoapBox] I love how everyone 'says' they feel results. Why doesn't anyone get to a dyno before saying one intake is better than the next? [/SoapBox]

 

Did'nt see a reason to hack more of the box away, althought......

You could just cut off the upper lip of the lower air box, the part with the clips. Cut that off, rotate the upper air box so that it fits upside down on the MAF, and then reinstall the air filter and the cut off lower air box's upper lip. Then you have a pannel filter set up to breath all it wants, and the filter is easy to get to and replace without having to dismantle your whole intake setup.......

?? I would like to see some picks if someone would do this....[/QUOTE]


I might be willing to try and do that. I've been looking to pick up a spare box from someone. I've been checking the classified forum but havent gotten anything yet. Anyone want to sell me theres?

I'm thinking about hacking my box like you did. But i have some questions? I dont have anything else done to my car. Engine wise. Is this beneficial to me in any way? Or would i just be making it louder without the help of a CAI, or HYbrid or some other intake? Thanks, and hopefully i'll find a spare air box soon that i can practice on and report back to you guys.

 

It should not be as loud snce you are only cutting the driver's fender side........

Since you are only allowing a minimal amount of noise to come out unbuffered.......unlike a cone filter which allows any and all noise to permeate thru the engine bay.

as for mrglynis............... if you can find it, go for it......it would just be an easy way to create a HAI without having to buy or create much.

 

Good write up, I actually did this a little over a year ago. You won't need a cold air scoup with a hole that big in your air box. The hole from the air box leading to the throttle body is much smaller than the large hole you cut out of your air box. Air will always take the path of least restriction so it will always come from the cut hole unless you dramatically change how much air the throttle body can suck in (where the cut out hole is not able to supply it, then some air would come from your cold air scoup.)

Also keep the resonator. The midpipe desinged intakes (some people call them hybrids) have really poor low end and midrange power, but good high end (after 4900rpm.)

I really enjoyed my hacked air box, the sound was great.

 

Hey, i just hacked mine. Have a few questions...
1. My CEL came on, any idea why?
2. And with that open space, won't it be alot easier for dust and debris to get into the engine?

 

1. check ur codes http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=104931 ; you most likly forgot to reconnect your air temp sensor or your maf
2. yes, thas why you can use a k&n and reuse it over and over

 

You forgot to hook your MAF sensor back up (how does the car run?) Did you hook up the three vaccum lines back to the resonator?

Air flow from the bottom of the air box up through the filter and into the throttle body. So as long as you only cut the bottom half of the air box your car will always get filtered air.

 

^^ yeah, i was driving around and figured it out. heh.

Yeah, i guess i'll check the tubes again. Meh.