screamindman

Was bored the other day, and decided to make a heat shield that plugs into the factory "ram air" style duct under the hood, and got some interesting results. Went to Lowes and bought an $9 Stanley plastic tool box (needs to be at least 8" high not including lid) along with a piece of flexible gutter plastic (found a piece that fit perfectly into factory duct). I removed the top, and put the toolbox sideways facing the Stillen filter setup (I have a frankencar midpipe with the stillen filter) I cut away most of the bottom (box is laying on side), and the side closest to the battery (in order to fit the wire from my fuse block, and negative battery cable) I left the top to have a cut that shows some of the filter, and leaves a 1" tab that goes all the way across to the fender and attaches to one of the original airbox mounts. In the bottom right hand corner (the side facing the engine, perpendicular to the battery), I cut out a rectangle for the flex gutter piece, and inserted it from the inside of the shield, and then used black silicone gasket maker to seal off the inside and the outside of the gutter pipe. I let it all dry and cure, and installed it on my car for laughs. Here's where it gets interesting. The shield rests very slightly and the filter (on top), and blocks the MAF from direct heat from the engine. Because the material is a plastic/rubber compound that sits gently on top of my K&N, it absorbs a sh*tload of sound coming from the intake. It doesn't have that super loud vibrating sound that is typical of a Frankencar/Berk set-up. It cut the sound at least in half. I'd be lucky if it cut intake temperature by 5 degrees, but the sound reduction alone is worth it. So maybe people who have the Frankencar/Berk setup can put something on top of the K&N to slightly mute the intake. Haven't noticed any real extra oomph, But can't hurt to have some cool air blowing on the intake(this is one of the complaints about all the aftermarket intakes for our cars, no one incorporates an actual sealed VOLANT style airbox set-up, that actually uses the factory ram-air setup or a new ramair setup that plugs into a factory like box that houses the cone filter) All I know is that the muted sound is phenominal (helps the sleeper thing), and if I decide to keep it on the car I'll get some kind of carbon fiber laminate to make it look cooler. Bottom line is that my intake sounds a lot closer to stock, and probably helps cool the intake charge by a few degrees, which probably makes the computer fatten the fuel a little bit.

Lontar1

iTrader: (5)

but I follow what you did... good..

screamindman

I have to wait until my girlfriend sets me up to show photo's. (I'm not the computer guy) I figure once I got that I can post a couple of photos on the forum with my drop,rims, and other goodies. I'll get photos soon. Sorry , but I wanted to post because I was amazed at how much it quieted things down. Most of us want to be as discreet as possible until people are looking at our taillights.

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

interesting.....it's been a while since I saw a new home-made mod on here

though...I love the sound of my frankencar/Apexi setup

screamindman

I've wanted to do that since the day I first put in the Stillen filter set-up. I actually got a good deal ($31 shipped) on ebay for 8 or 9 feet of carbon fiber vinyl , self adhesive laminate to put on the ghetto shield to dress it up a bit. Not real carbon fiber, but for the total of a whopping $11 to make the thing, I'm not about to spend like $60 to get real carbon fiber laminate. I wish that I knew how to work with fiberglass, I'd do a whole setup with a plexiglass top to show off the filter. Anyone out there feel like making one?