tonight i'm going to start work on my DIY air intake because i get my nice aluminum elbow:



i'm going to connect 3" ID PVC pipe to the elbow, the MAF to the PVC and the K&N filter to the MAF. it won't be a CAI but it still should flow MUCH better than the 87 stock intake.

i will be sure to post pics after it is done if people are interested.

 

PVC will work, but if you want it to look nice I highly reccomend you go to an exhaust shop and ask for a piece of 3 inch pipe and a 3 inch elblow and paint them with a high temp paint. PVC looks really tacky and its always hard to get the filters to fit on with the flared ends. Here are a couple pictures of my setup. I used a stock intake boot from a 88+ TPI Trans am, a 3 inch carbon fiber tube, and a chrome 60 degree elbow I got at autozone.

 

by making ur intake how much more hp do u think you got or what are u going for with this. did it make that much of a difference?

 

You can't just guess how much hp you're making with a new intake, it seems like 3-5 is a fair estimate for a better flowing intake, it doesn't really do much until you start working on the engine a bit.

I'm not up on thermodynamics but metal intakes are going to get heatsoaked and possibly negate the effects from the better flow. I'm sticking with PVC for that reason.

 

If I had to guess id say maybe 10 hp over stock, the difference is quite noticable on the Seat of the pants dyno.

 

all i can say is if you never saw a stock 87 firebird airbox you have NO idea how bad it is. i KNOW this is better than the stock intake by far..... here is what i have:

(please keep in mind the car is a work in progress and there is a lot of work to be done to clean it up)