Air Intake Fabrication (January 1 - 10, 2013)

I needed to fabricate an air intake system because all that came with the engine was a boss to facilitate mounting the mass air flow sensor. The instructions say to use 4" tubing and that the MAF needs to be centered in at least a 6" long straight section. I wanted to pick up cooler air from in front of the core support. Originally I had planned on coming up with some sort of air box, but I didn't come up with a design that I was happy with. Read on and you can see what I came up with.

I started by removing the "bump" from the driver's side of the core support.

Trusty Air Saw. If you don't have one you need one !

I used 4" 100 degree bends from Spectre. I needed to trim just a bit off of the end that would attach to the throttle body to clear the cooling fan and shroud.

1st piece in place. The couplers are from Spectre as well.

Before I started anything I had drawn the entire layout on poster board.

General location for the filter.

Trimming the next piece.

  

Used some masking tape to hold this piece in place so I could fabricate a support bracket.

Another poster board template. Rough cut bracket next to the template.

   

Bracket placement before welding.

   

Cutting the opening for the MAF sensor.

The boss is direction of air flow specific. 

The boss welded in place with the sensor installed.

This is the support bracket welded in place.

  

Mocked up to mark the mounting holes.

I used rivet nuts for the attachment points.

The filter fits nicely behind the grille. It is slightly tilted down in the front. 

Time for addressing the hole in the core support. I started by cutting a filler piece. I had marked the perimeter of the filter where it passed through the core support with the tape (before I put  the filler panel in place). Then marked the center.

Prepping for welding.

Welding in place.

Grinding the weld flush.

I used a hole saw to cut the hole for the filter to pass through.

If you look close you will see that the flange of the inner fender slightly encroaches into the hole. I trimmed with the air saw.

Fits nicely!

   

I may come back later and fabricate some type of enclosure for this side of the core support around the filter.

I plan on having the entire assembly powder coated to match the valve covers.

Fuel Filler (December 31, 2012)

I fabbed up a new fuel filler tube from 2" stainless tubing. The car came with a cool aftermarket fuel filler and I wanted to re-use it. The previous owner had tried to modify an original style filler tube but it didn't fit well and it took forever to get any gas in the tank as the fuel would splash back in the tube and constantly cut off the pump, very annoying. The bend at the tank is a 90 and the bend at the top is slightly less than a 90.

I added this bracket to attach to the frame rail.

This is the completed filler tube.

There is 3/4" clearance from the tailpipe. I have a short piece of DEI thermal wrap for this area for insurance.