Good idea or redneck engineering at it's best? :)

[ADirtyLegacy]

First I'm not sure if this thread belongs here, but I figured I'd give it a shot. So in my quest for reasonable cheap mods (i.e web surfing at work, HA!), I stumbled onto an idea on a site that matched up exactly to what I had been thinking about.

I have a NA '02 LGT and am basically looking for some noise (I know..bad) with low to modest power gains. I was looking at intakes and thought to myself, instead of buying one, why not make one? From looking at my undershood setup, I was thinking a 3" dia tube run from the grille scoop thing up to the stock box, since it would take a HUGE cone to equal the stock box area. In my online searching I found an aftermarket tube for about $65, but it ran from the inside of the fender to the stock box. I figured Subaru didnt just put the grille scoop there for looks, it probably has a purpose, so I figure use it! Now this aftermarket tube wouldn't work for what I'm thinking; however I did find a site that sold straight intake tubing with a 30/45/90 degree bend at one end. It was about $30 I think. But in this case I'm thinking CHEAPER!

I'm thinking going to Home Depot/Lowes and investing in an ABS-type polymer plastic tube (or one that wont melt) with a 3" diameter. I can get some of the silicone connetor ends online relatively cheap to use as connectors as opposed to Alabama Chrome (aka duct tape :D ). So I'm just looking for opinions as to if this is a good idea or a case of redneck engineering. Seems to me that a smooth tube of any type with the right diameter could be used as opposed to buying an expensive one for about the same gain...althought I know the more high dollar intakes will give more performance output.

Kenda

[Helfrick]

Wouldn't that throw off the MAF/MAP (don't know what an 02 uses)? How are you going to test gains? I don't know if you would see any gains, but I'd love to hear how you do it and how it turns out. Don't forget the pics.

[Xenonk]

why not just yank out the air filter and just run it open? That would work.. (but again, not a great idea)

Keefe

[ADirtyLegacy]

Wouldn't that throw off the MAF/MAP (don't know what an 02 uses)? How are you going to test gains?

I don't know. I did the intake silencer removal (i.e useless plastic stuff) and while doing that I notice that there are no MAF/MAP plugs in all of the tubing from the grill scoop up to the stock box. I guess the only "test" is butt dyno, but I'm going into this knowing not to expect huge gains, if there are any gains at all. I'm just looking for a little bit of good noise until I can afford a decent exhaust system to really open up the motor and let it breathe.

why not just yank out the air filter and just run it open?

I like that the filter keeps unwarranted peices and particles out of places where they don't belong. I know my car needs a new filter, I am quite sure its running on the OEM filter from the factory and I'm at a little over 45k. Once I get some extra dough (yeah as if that is gonna happen!) I'm thinking of replacing with a K&N, but I don't know that I want to drop $50 on a filter. I may just replace with an OEM filter since everyone seems to think it is a good quality filter. I think this potential mod with a new filter could produce something nice in terms of sound, maybe not so much in performance and in the end I'm not out of that much of they ever so precious dough!

I don't have a digi cam, but I could go old school and take film pics and hook up my scanner and scan them. I know, bad quality but it's all I could do for now.

Kenda

[Tide]

Moving thread to Older Legacy Performance