Scotty
07-03-2004, 07:40 AM
A friend recently got his 3.4 liter 2003 Impala and we were looking for ways to make it slightly more aggressive (despite being a family sedan) but we were thinking of things to do. We looked online at cold air intakes, but they were all in the $100+ range and the setups didn't seem ideal. So with the help of another F-body friend, we fabricated a custom intake for him.
We stopped by Auto Zone and picked up a length of 3" stainless steel polished piping and and high-flow air filter. We popped the package open in the store there and they fit perfectly. From there, we used the stock MAF's rubber coupling and clamps. We removed the massive stock air box, which was trying to suck cold air from the back of the headlight. :rolleyes: Great design there. We noticed that there was a large hole right next to where our intake filter would be. Upon further inspection, we noticed that it went directly down to an area underneath the front bumper. So we used a dremel and cut out part of the metal so that we could have the whole intake sit right there. Then we went under the car and chopped off an unneccessary piece of the underneath of the fenderwell wall so that cold air could come up. In essence, it is a custom ram-air setup.
http://fototime.com/{C71A2905-F3C7-437A-BBAF-9B6828B3A699}/picture.JPG
http://fototime.com/{585B5CC7-9454-4036-B287-439527C5084A}/picture.JPG
Here you can see where we cut approximately 1 1/2" off the side of one of the inside walls to accommodate the intake filter size.
http://fototime.com/{8C4B5F0F-90AC-414F-943E-D59D3A370FCC}/picture.JPG
And here's a view through the bottom of the cut out space under the car up to the filter. I positioned the camera in the hole and took the shot straight up.
http://fototime.com/{446A8CAA-49B5-44F2-8B4A-E168C4818E1B}/picture.JPG
Call it ghetto if you want, but I will guarantee you it is a better design than the $190 intake we could have bought online that sucked hot air right off the side of the engine. This thing cost us only $32. We started up the car and you can literally hear this thing sucking the air. It sounds amazing. The car also has a mean growl to it at the top of the rev range that it did not have before. :cool:
We stopped by Auto Zone and picked up a length of 3" stainless steel polished piping and and high-flow air filter. We popped the package open in the store there and they fit perfectly. From there, we used the stock MAF's rubber coupling and clamps. We removed the massive stock air box, which was trying to suck cold air from the back of the headlight. :rolleyes: Great design there. We noticed that there was a large hole right next to where our intake filter would be. Upon further inspection, we noticed that it went directly down to an area underneath the front bumper. So we used a dremel and cut out part of the metal so that we could have the whole intake sit right there. Then we went under the car and chopped off an unneccessary piece of the underneath of the fenderwell wall so that cold air could come up. In essence, it is a custom ram-air setup.
http://fototime.com/{C71A2905-F3C7-437A-BBAF-9B6828B3A699}/picture.JPG
http://fototime.com/{585B5CC7-9454-4036-B287-439527C5084A}/picture.JPG
Here you can see where we cut approximately 1 1/2" off the side of one of the inside walls to accommodate the intake filter size.
http://fototime.com/{8C4B5F0F-90AC-414F-943E-D59D3A370FCC}/picture.JPG
And here's a view through the bottom of the cut out space under the car up to the filter. I positioned the camera in the hole and took the shot straight up.
http://fototime.com/{446A8CAA-49B5-44F2-8B4A-E168C4818E1B}/picture.JPG
Call it ghetto if you want, but I will guarantee you it is a better design than the $190 intake we could have bought online that sucked hot air right off the side of the engine. This thing cost us only $32. We started up the car and you can literally hear this thing sucking the air. It sounds amazing. The car also has a mean growl to it at the top of the rev range that it did not have before. :cool: