DIY Carbon fibre cowl intake install

[siege]

Yes there are plenty of write-ups doing this with agricultural or plumbing pipe but don't you want carbon fibre for all that hard parking street cred?
I found an inexpensive genuine (not plastic with a sticker) carbon fibre enclosed pod filter and an expensive length of pultruded carbon fibre tubing all in 3 inch diameter. There's a kit available from mania but I had fun putting it together myself and did it a bit cheaper. Obviously requires a washer bottle relocation so that is included here as well.

If you want to replicate this send me a PM as I have a surplus of 3 inch carbon fibre tube now. It'll make it much cheaper for you to only pay for the length you need.

Here we go! First all the tools and equipment needed. Except for the things I forgot and went back to the store for 3 times.

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NB8A engine bay. The MAF is smaller than the AFM in NA cars so I needed less carbon fibre tube than others might need

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Empty the washer bottle first, we need to get this out of the way so we can start cutting up our cars

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A couple of 10mm bolts are removed, the washer pump unplugged, and the washer line pulled off. Then the pump can be pulled out of it's grommet and put onto the new washer bottle which Suzuki motors thinks is going onto a Cappucino. How wrong they are.

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We are instead putting the Suzuki washer bottle behind the cowl on the passenger side. It needs to go quite far over to clear the bonnet and wiper arms but I didn't want to drill through the chassis number plate.

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Now we get to start damaging the car! Subtle hole behind the brake booster for the first bolt to mount the new washer bottle. The second mounting hole is in an odd place, but is near to an unused threaded hole in the cowl. So I bent up a bracket and used that rather than more drilling.

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The feed line for from the washer bottle to the wiper arms needs to be routed from the other side of the car now. Pull it out of the engine bay, switch the pieces around to reverse the direction and then secure with cable ties because you broke the brittle plastic factory mounting clips like I did.

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I had to go buy some electrical wire now because I forgot I'd need to extend the plug to power the pump, so I did the rest of the install out of order. So despite the horrible break in theatrical continuity... here is a hole that Mazda kindly provided right where we want to send the wires through into the cowl area. There is a little rubber grommet in it from the factory.

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I wrapped the wires in loom tape and cable tied them up out of the way of water etc. But just cut off the factory plug, extend wires, reconnect plug and reattach to washer pump.

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Here it is all neatly tucked in

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And I didn't break anything! The windows are still getting wet and nothing else is.

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OK let's press on to the carbon fibre intake

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Several 10mm and a 14mm bolt later, the factor airbox and snorkle are removed, leaving the crossover pipe and MAF hanging in the breeze. You need to unplug the Air temp sensor plug and also rescue it from the factory airbox before you get too carried away with the incredible weight savings and throw it all in the bin.

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I drilled a hole in the pod filter enclosure, made a little grommet out of 2mm vacuum hose and shoved the air temp sensor in there.

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Look! Real carbon fibre!

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Measure many times. Cut once with a hacksaw. Through masking take makes the edge very neat.

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Now we need a big hole cut! 3 inch hole saw and arbor attachment is not cheap, but it does look badass on the end of my cordless drill so that's a plus. Also now I can cut 3 inch holes in anything I want.

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full points if you noticed my second unforgivable continuity fail.

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Used a couple of 4 ply silicon 3 inch diameter couplers with stainless hose clamps to attach MAF to airbox to carbon fibre noise tube. The MAF, it turns out, is actually 70mm diameter not 76mm. Well done. Nothing a bit of extra force squishing than silicon coupler can't fix. Also bent up a bracket to securely support it off the strut tower.

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And there is the finished result! The carbon fibre tube sits very snugly as the hole is exactly 3 inches. It's protected by some masking tape until I take the time to widen the hole with a file and make another nice grommet out of vacuum hose.

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My first drive had me whooping with glee at the noise. Really sounds like half a V8 now! Can certainly feel the dyno proven imaginary +100hp too.

Here is a list of parts and prices including shipping. I'm not including tools because you still need you own tools if you buy a complete kit online. For most people this probably means buying a 3 inch hole saw.
- Ebay Pod filter carbon fibre airbox with some agricultural hose ducting that I threw away ($50)
- Suzuki Cappucino washer bottle ($50)
- Vacuum hose $2
- SS Hose clamps $5
- Bracket material $2
- Bolts I already had
- Electrical wire, joints $10
- Loom tape $2
- 600mm Carbon Fibre 3 inch tube $120

But I only used 200mm of the Carbon fibre tube
So send me a PM if you want some. I'll send it to you at cost price, you pay shipping. So $40 for 200mm or $80 for the whole 400mm piece. I couldn't find anywhere that would sell 3 inch diameter tube in a shorter length.

[shirtz]

first


good work. am considering it for my NA. will measure it up next week.

[siege]

Cheers mate. Let me know what you decide.

[siege]

SOLD thanks