Mid-August, a friend invited me to got to Ocean City, MD for a week. The day before we were supposed to go... something came up and he couldn't take his car. I spent a good 6 hours getting my car ready for the trip the night before... I didn't even have air filters... so here's what I did about that:


I'm actually quite embarrased of this crappy job... but it was urgent to get some filters on it before the long trip. My excuse for not re-doing it the right way is when I got back from the Ocean I had about a week untill school started back up, and I've been busy ever since... I almost never drive the car anyway, especially since the tranny (3rd) is broken. I just took the picture today so I thought I'd share.

Its made of galvinized chicken wire that I rolled into 3" tubes and wrapped with fiberglass(black) and when I ran out of fiberglass I used aluminum duct tape.

 

Better to have filters on it then to look pretty and suck something into the motor. Sounds like you're gonna have enough work to do with the trans anyways. Just keep in mind you need to re-do it, and make sure you've got time to get it squared.

 

I think its great you're doing the work, but the next step is to clean up that engine compartment. 3rd Gen Camaros are nice but seeing one thats real dirty makes it look bad.

 

I love my camaro, but its just not worth my time/money to make it pretty at this point. I consider this car a host for the parasite under the hood. When the parasite is finished milking it for all its worth, I'll find a new host.

 

I don't understand why you didn't just put the filters directly on the turbos!?
Since you have an intercooler, isn't it pointless to have "ram air"?

 

Its not about the "ramair" effect at all. Anyway, I couldn't find a way to put a cone filter on the passenger side turbo with the ac compressor installed.

The functional purpose is for decreasing intake temperatures. With filters inside the engine bay, they draw hot air from behind the radiator and intercoolers. I noticed a 30*F drop in IAT at WOT the day I did this modification, which mandated a WOT tune. It also significantly improved idle since IATs are more consistant and do not climb to 180*F while sitting still for a couple minutes. I don't like the idea myself, but the rewards completely out-weigh the drawbacks.

 

I guess I'm just jealous. Got my turbo this week (TO4E .63ex .50a/r, 53 trim). With the Firebird, I've got NO airflow! So I am adopting the Buick design.
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Do you have a designated guage for your intake temps?
I'm interested in what your using.

 

The Holley Commander 950 comes with the v6 style (open element) IAT sensor and logs IAT data along with every other sensor.

 

That's a whole new ECM, right? I plan on using the stock ECM for now along with a FMU and larger injectors. Daves12secv6 is pushing 16psi with his ecm and I won't be going that high very often till I get some forged pistons.
Can the IAT be use independently?

 

Not scared a piece of the chicken wire will break off and get sucked into your turbo/engine? That wire is really not that strong.

 

Just use what ever datalogger you can get for your stock ECM.


I've thought about it, but not really. When I redo it I plan to cut the tubes down the center, remove the chicken wire, then fiberglass another layer to seal it back up. I also plan to use 3" 6061-t6 aluminum pipe for the long straight sections. Basically when I redo it i'll be making custom shaped elbows/connectors and clamping them to straight pieces of aluminum pipe.

Does anyone know how/if cold weather (January in Baltimore) affects fiberglass when its curing?

 

Why are you going through so much trouble? E-bay has a cheap set of pipes, comes with silicone connectors too, here's a link...
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=intercooler+piping&category0=

 

Standard elbows will not fit in the tight spaces. I've definitely looked into that. Its pretty easy (and cheap) to fiberglass the custom "elbows" too.