Ok so that's the hard bit done and past the point of no return. I should also mention I cleaned up all the metal shavings and actually had a bloody large magnet under the hole saw to catch them. I then painted the hole with colour coded touch up paint and let it dry overnight. I also had to cut a small piece of plastic trim that sits over the fresh air vent. Basically I marked it out through the hole and trimmed it back a couple mm. It isn't noticeable against the black silicone and looks factory. I believe black penguin had a photo on his build doing it with his mania intake, thanks for the heads up Pete.
Next night and time for a trial fit.
Now this is where that little silicone join plays a major part as this goes through the firewall and because of this there is no metal on plastic, fibreglass, carbon ect rattle associated with these intakes.
But I warn you it is a very very tight fit so easiest is bend a corner down feed it in then reach into cowl and pop corner up. Trust me it's tight!!
At this time I took a measurement from the lip inside the join to the start of the tapered section of the the simota filter housing. Cut the pipe and did a trial fit.
Now I should mention here that the 100mm pipe WILL NOT fit over the simota filter housing but there are two ways around this. One is buy another adaptor but it's ugly and I didn't like using one to be honest let alone two. Second way around it is sand down the inside of the 100mm pipe.
I used 100mm stormwater so not sure if drain pipe would have the same thickness wall but essentially what I have has PVC, some blue plastic, then PVC again.
I used the blue plastic as a depth guide and when I had a nice blue ring inside the pipe it slid into the simota filter housing tight but easy. (I also chanfered all edges on this build except filter to help assembly and make the finish neater)
At this point I put two rivets in to hold the filter housing to the pipe. I did this by sliding the pipe down into position perfectly marked two points horizontal and drilled through the filter and the pipe. I then inserted a blind alloy rivet to just hold it in place (just sitting in hole) while I drilled the other side, I then pulled the rivet out and again used the blue gasket silicone to seal the pipe to the housing and properly inserted the two rivets. Now the whole assembly is properly sealed and won't twist on the filter. It makes it more rigid overall.
Sorry no pics of this.
Now my car does not have extractors but will be seeing a full Nitrodann system shortly so I have kept this in mind. Many people criticise these intakes for heat soak when running past extractors and I looked at ways to perhaps reduce this including shields however I found the best stuff to be this.
It is reflective aluminised fibreglass tape with an adhesive back. So not only reflects heat but insulates. You can get gold which would work better (gold reflects heat better) but I didn't want a fully sick gold intake and on the MX we might be talking 0.00000001hp difference.
For what it's worth the stuff in gold is used in F1 to shield there intakes so yes it does work.
Now applying the tape I figured I would wrap it around however with the diameter size change it was going to look ordinary with folds and creases ect. I instead cut strips and laid it length ways.
The adhesive is very good but over time I'm sure it would lift so I fitted a stainless hose clamp each end to stop this and hide ugly frays and uneven cuts.
So now it looks like this.
After a test fit I also used the tape on the side and underneath of the filter housing closest to the exhaust to help shield it from heat there as well.
I didn't put tape on the rest of the filter housing because........it's pretty and Shiny!! Lol.
Now it was fitted up I rotated the AFM 180 degrees to move the plug to the cold side and just neaten up the wiring.
It also allowed me to make a bracket to go from an existing air box stud to AFM. It isn't really needed but couldn't hurt. I also made a temporary washer bottle bracket to do the job till I get a nopro one.
So all done.
Final thoughts.
IT IS VERY LOUD!!! But I like it.
There is definitely a crisper throttle everywhere in the rev range. power increase (butt dyno) is mild but felt especially over 5,000rpm which was probably the air box snorkel and bends acting as restriction before but the cold air would help. I had a K&N panel in my air box before.
Would I do it again? Yer I probably would.
Cost was.
*Plumbing supplies $14
*silicone join $10
*simota filter $55 delivered
*heat reflective tape $50 delivered.
*gasket silicone, hose clamps, metal for bracket ect was all FREE as I had it laying around
*time 5 hours
So cost me $129 but call it $150 if I had to buy gasket silicone, clamps ect.
Now the down side I did develop a rattle from 3/4 to full WOT and after searching for ages it turned out to be the flap for the fresh air rattling when full recirc was on so if I slide the knob back 10mm from full recirc and it's gone. I'll put some foam in there when I'm in that area next.
Enjoy and any questions chuck them up.
Hope this helps someone.
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