DIY: Ghetto dodgy custom airbox for SRI (Accord Euro). Temperature on page 5!

[aaronng]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk! If your car explodes or your engine ingests a huge chunk of aluminium or you get defected because your airbox looks so dodgy that the cops can't believe it's made from aluminium, it is not the fault of Ozhonda or me.

Aim: To make an airbox for SRI. Everyone loves a CAI. So I wanted to be different. So I got an Apexi intake. While it is a dry filter, cops in NSW don't care about that. To them, exposed pod = defect. The only SRI + enclosure that I've seen commercially available is the GruppeM. Do I have $1000 to spare for it? No. I guess you don't as well. Also, you probably like dodgy ghetto™ DIYs. So those are the reasons why you are reading this ghetto™ DIY. Messing around with ghetto™ stuff is always good.

Required: Sockets that fit the bolts you want to take off. Cardboard, pen, measuring tape, chicken scissors, tin snips (the larger the better), rotary cutting tool with cut-off wheels and sanding bits, rubber mallet, hammer, hole punch, riveter (what a weird name), piece of wood, sheet aluminium (I used 1.0mm thick), 2-3mm thick aluminium bar, aluminium rivets (size 4-1 and 4-2, must be aluminium if you are using sheet aluminium), 1/8" washers, 5mm tubing, glue, masking tape, sandpaper, permanent marker.

Optional: Sheet rubber (1.5mm), high temp spray paint or engine enamel, aluminium vent piping.

Steps:
1) Take off your existing airbox (and resonator) and fit your intake. Follow one of the other DIYs for this.


2) Measure out the dimensions for your custom airbox. It helps to make a sketch of it. Then to impress people, transfer it over to powerpoint. Different intake brands require different airbox dimensions. Note: duplicate the bottom left piece but with slightly smaller outer dimensions so that you can seal the part directly beneath the intake arm.


3) Do a sketch of it in life-size on cardboard. I used cardboard from a box, so I had to use super kitchen chicken scissors to cut it (thanks Ahmie!).


4) Cut the cardboard parts out while leaving a slight 5mm margin on all the sides so that you can trim it down to fit your chassis perfectly. Fit the pieces in as you go along and use nice masking take that matches your chassis colour to hold the parts together. Don't be afraid to make a 2nd cardboard template. Usually, the first one gets butchered so much that it doesn't fit well. My cardboard pieces shown below are "2nd generation".
Side 1:


Side 2:


Top cover:


5) Take a deep breath as you put all the pieces together and show off your dodgy "mi goreng" airbox to everyone! You can try starting your engine too, but keep a fire extinguisher or a bucket of water nearby just in case.


6) Now, decide which parts of the airbox will be joined as 1 piece for better sealing. Also, the larger the piece, the more difficult to install and remove. I decided to have the side pieces joined together, leaving the top cover and the piece that seals the underside of the intake arm as separate parts.

7) The fun part begins.... giving your hand blisters. Trace the airbox shape onto your material of choice. I used 1.0mm aluminium. It's too thick for tin snips. I used the dremel for hard to reach places and to cut the curved edges. Trim to fit in your car.

8) Now it's time to join them together. Mark the points where you want to rivet with a permanent marker (you should know by now that a ball point pen doesn't work well on a smooth surface). Use the hole punch and hammer to make an indent that stops your drill bit from sliding around when you drill. Put the piece back in to your car so you can mark where the holes should be made on the 2nd piece that is to be joined to the 1st. Hopefully you get everything done right. For 2 pieces of 1.0mm aluminium, you can use the 4-1 sized ones. For anything thicker, you're looking at using the 4-2 sized rivets. To prevent the aluminium from scratching your paint, split the 5mm tubing on one side using a small pair of sharp scissors so that you can attach it to the edges of the aluminium. Use Tarzan or UHU glue (you'll get glue on your fingers, so don't use something too strong) to keep it in place.

Once it fits, cut a piece of the 2-3mm thick aluminium bar and do the same once you locate it for the top cover. It will hold the cover to your chassis using the airbox mounting hole.
Top cover:


Side:


Put into the car:


9) If you had followed my example and used aluminium, you would quickly find out that aluminium is a great conductor of heat. Also, it is very quick to release heat into the air that is trapped in the enclosure. So I used sheet rubber from Clarke Rubber. For my dimensions, 20cm x 150cm was more than enough with leftover to spare. Arrange the rubber sheet on the inside of the intake box. I chose to place the rubber on the inside because air that comes into contact in the rubber would heat up less. If you put it on the outside of the airbox, you'd have the aluminium surface eventually heating up to the same as without having insulation and you'd be back at square one.

Using the hole punch, hammer and drill, repeat to make some holes to rivet through. Start from one end and make holes in the rubber using the drill. Rivet using the 1/8" washer on the rubber side so that the rivet doesn't tear through the rubber. Trim off any excess using a good sharp knife without cutting your finger off.

Doesn't the intake look like a Hard Gay intake now?
Top cover:


Side:


Another close up because it's so kinky:


10) Because the rubber increases the thickness of the airbox, pray that it still fits in your car. If it fits the apexi, which has a wide but short pod, then it should fit other brands that are narrower.


11) The top cover will require some adjustment to the edges of the lid so that it fits in with the rubber insulation. Once that's done, put it together and admire your new airbox


12) Doesn't the airbox look so stealthy?


13) The next step will be spray painting the airbox black with engine enamel and routing a pipe from the hole in the chassis to the fog light cover. Don't you think the location of the hole is so convenient?


I'll update this thread further down the road once I have painted the airbox and added the piping. For now, enjoy new Ghetto™ airbox!