homemade cai

[whitey]

so i was seriously looking into a jlt cai, due to the dyno sheets, and i was looking at the parts used and i thought....4" pipe....45*(not sure if its 45* exactly) elbow, maf to filter adapter,etc. and thought i could probably make one of these myself. i was looking at a website called intakehoses.com and was wondering if anybody here has made their own cai, and if so, what parts were needed.....im thinking a 4.5" tube, a 45* elbow that would connect to the tb....im going to figure out what size will work since they don't carry an ellipse/oval to round type of connector, and a kn cone filter......the only thing im undecided on yet is the size of the tube i should get...4.5" is large and im not sure if it will work clearance-wise. any input would be great, thanks guys--whitey

ps: i have no problem with jlt or their price, im just a tinkerer who likes to build things myself and make things from scratch.

[Blk Mamba]

Well, I thought of it, and if you are serious about it you should go to Spectre, they make CAI's, and sell parts, they have the, oval to round, about $25, the prices are a bit steep, and to put together a basic CAI, like JLT, it would be about $200, that is why I went with JLT.

[Krytin]

I made my own for my '04 Crown Vic LX Sport using the Spectre parts - did NOT save any money! JLT's kit is the same or less. Just my $0.02.

[Bradley G]

The early version of the JLT was pieces that you could get at a home center.
Now the kit has dedicated parts and is more refined.
I have conjured up a tube using PVC soil pipe green.
I got enough to send you a piece if you want it.

[na svt]

The homemade ones will make just aas much power, but that's easy since the aftermarket CAIs/RAIs provide little to no gain.

[sailsmen]

The best CAI is the OEM. Show me one that is better?

[SC Cheesehead]

The best CAI is the OEM. Show me one that is better?

I've heard the same thing. Roush spent a lot of engineering effort designing it fr high flow, don't think you get much performance increase going to an aftermarket unit, but you DO pick up some nice sound... ;)

[Mr. Man]

I've heard the same thing. Roush spent a lot of engineering effort designing it fr high flow, don't think you get much performance increase going to an aftermarket unit, but you DO pick up some nice sound... ;)
+1. I love the sound when you mash the throttle.:)

[fastblackmerc]

The best CAI is the OEM. Show me one that is better?


I've heard the same thing. Roush spent a lot of engineering effort designing it fr high flow, don't think you get much performance increase going to an aftermarket unit, but you DO pick up some nice sound... ;)

I believe Roush was involved with the design of the intake... not the CAI....

[BlackOps]

How are you guys getting cooler air to your intake? Vents? Headlight cut-out? I think aftermarket intakes suck more engine heat than the OEM. Just wondering if anyone here has a vent setup to get cooler air to your intake? Pics?

[guspech750]

How are you guys getting cooler air to your intake? Vents? Headlight cut-out? I think aftermarket intakes suck more engine heat than the OEM. Just wondering if anyone here has a vent setup to get cooler air to your intake? Pics?

I'm using my Eaton!!:D


---
- Sent from my iPhone
Eaton Swap + 4.10's = Wreeeeeeeeeedom!!

[Ms. Denmark]

______________

[sailsmen]

I am using Meth, drop the temp 50*.

[TAKEDOWN]

MuscleMerc CAI looked good to me, I could be wrong.

[whitey]

The homemade ones will make just aas much power, but that's easy since the aftermarket CAIs/RAIs provide little to no gain.

jlt has a dyno test of +12-20rwhp and +8-28rwtq.....to me thats significant enough to be called a decent gain...for $160, i cant beat it.

and i would also like to see if anybody has routed intake duct to provide for cooler air.

do they still make the roush cai for a marauder? a quick search just pulled up mustangs.

[whitey]

MuscleMerc CAI looked good to me, I could be wrong.
amen to that, if i could get it for lets say ~$300, it would be mine, but i cant cough up $416.....santa claus is coming to town:banana2:

[Pat]

The outside air feed orifice on our MM's is a rather small opening in the bulkhead behind the DS head light.

An air intake tube/box should to be pressed up against the bulkhead to avoid sucking in warmer air from the engine compartment.

I used several thermometers to ascertain that it's 25 degrees warmer on the engine side of the bulkhead on an unshielded inlet air filter cone than outside ambient.

I then fabricated a temporary air filter box and measured the difference in temperature from outside ambient to what was measured inside the box. It was less that five degrees. This seems to effectively seal the air filter cone from engine compartment heat.

DR's intake for my centrifical S/C installation is such a design, fabricated in metal, to seal against the bulkhead with the air filter inside. Effectively ambient air is going into the filter.

My observation and your results may differ. I was not able to measure power differences, just temps, nor did SOP register any differences. What's ten horse's when your putting down 400 at the wheels. The big whoosh is muted however.


Regards.

[Vortech347]

The best CAI is the OEM. Show me one that is better?

Seriously?

I picked up 9rwhp on the dyno with one.

[ctrlraven]

Roush didn't make any intake for the car. Roush Engineers had a hand in the design of the intake manifold, that's it.

JLT is bottom dollar top intake for the money, it's not super pretty or fancy like a K&N but it works and that's all that matters to some. If you want a more refined pretty looking intake go with K&N. I've been using a JLT V1 intake for close to 5 years now, never had a heat shield for it either. That's a project I will try and tackle this winter now that a metal fab shop is right next door to my work.

[na svt]

jlt has a dyno test of +12-20rwhp and +8-28rwtq.....to me thats significant enough to be called a decent gain...for $160, i cant beat it.

and i would also like to see if anybody has routed intake duct to provide for cooler air.

do they still make the roush cai for a marauder? a quick search just pulled up mustangs.

Of course they're gonna show gains. I've installed both the CAI and RAI and neither showed a gain in power. The car was tuned before the CAI/RAI intall.

A stock marauder will not suck enough air to cause the stock inlet tube to be a restriction...seriously.


Roush didn't make any intake for the car. Roush Engineers had a hand in the design of the intake manifold, that's it.
The intake was designed back in 99 and I doubt Roush was involved because it would be much better if they were.

[ctrlraven]

Of course they're gonna show gains. I've installed both the CAI and RAI and neither showed a gain in power. The car was tuned before the CAI/RAI intall.

A stock marauder will not suck enough air to cause the stock inlet tube to be a restriction...seriously.


The intake was designed back in 99 and I doubt Roush was involved because it would be much better if they were.
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=24485

[na svt]

Ya gotta love advertising!

The 03/04 cylinder heads developed by Roush as were the FR500 heads. The intake is an just improved version of the 99/01 Cobra intake manifold. The Marauder engine is the same as those in the automatic Machs and the Aviators. The Marauder cams are the same as those in all Mach's, Aviators , 03/04 Cobras and also all 4v Navigators. The engine block is the same as the non-teksid 01 Cobra's and even the 2v explorer. There's nothing "Roush" about the vast majority of the parts.

[MrBluGruv]

If you were doing a super budget build, I'd keep the factory intake arm, put in a good quality paper filter, then remove and close off that baffle in the intake arm. This way, similar flow to factory, maybe a little bit better, but more sound, plus the paper filter actually filters better than the oiled filters like K&N so it's slightly better protection for the engine (as opposed to marginally better flow.)

Man, would I LOVE to have a second chance at owning/modding a Marauder...

[Phrog_gunner]

If you were doing a super budget build, I'd keep the factory intake arm, put in a good quality paper filter, then remove and close off that baffle in the intake arm. This way, similar flow to factory, maybe a little bit better, but more sound, plus the paper filter actually filters better than the oiled filters like K&N so it's slightly better protection for the engine (as opposed to marginally better flow.)

Man, would I LOVE to have a second chance at owning/modding a Marauder...

Y u no have Marauder? :(

[MrBluGruv]

Y u no have Marauder? :(

Sold it last February, too many mechanical problems.

Bought a nice Camaro SS with the trade in. Much to the disappointment of Chevy haters everywhere, it's holding up better than my Mercury did.

(Although to be fair, the Marauder could hardly represent Ford build quality on the whole, plenty of known defects.)

I miss the **** out of driving it, much less driving a big car. I want to do a SOHC panther build though once I can afford a project...

[Phrog_gunner]

Sold it last February, too many mechanical problems.

Bought a nice Camaro SS with the trade in. Much to the disappointment of Chevy haters everywhere, it's holding up better than my Mercury did.

(Although to be fair, the Marauder could hardly represent Ford build quality on the whole, plenty of known defects.)

I miss the **** out of driving it, much less driving a big car. I want to do a SOHC panther build though once I can afford a project...

I know what you mean. I've always maintained that the build quality of my 92 Camaro (especially the interior) was better than the Mustangs of the same era. My 93 CV had a better quality interior than the MM. :(

[MrBluGruv]

The problems with my MM just stacked all the time, and I didn't want to spend my budget for automotive expenses chasing down and never really fixing the same problems over and over again. Instead, I chose to put it to a REAL car payment, and I have a reliable car that is much faster stock than my MM ever was with pretty much full bolt-on modification. I think it would've taken a full external-engine bolt-on N/A build on the MM to even hang with my SS stock. At that point, it's just senseless to not get boosted really, and I didn't have the full budget for that either.

[01LXHPP]

The best CAI is the OEM. Show me one that is better?

musclemerc will fight you to the death over that statement...



Ya gotta love advertising!

The 03/04 cylinder heads developed by Roush as were the FR500 heads. The intake is an just improved version of the 99/01 Cobra intake manifold. The Marauder engine is the same as those in the automatic Machs and the Aviators. The Marauder cams are the same as those in all Mach's, Aviators , 03/04 Cobras and also all 4v Navigators. The engine block is the same as the non-teksid 01 Cobra's and even the 2v explorer. There's nothing "Roush" about the vast majority of the parts.

And thats that... If roush really had any direct influence on the marauder, I imagine it'd do better then 15.5 second quarter mile times....



Sold it last February, too many mechanical problems.



So you obviously bought a crappy one, seems like most of them are going to crap due to how people are driving them. My 04 with 57k miles on it has only had one or two small issues, nothing to ever leave me stranded.

If you really want another MM, don't buy a black one, they are the most unreliable :P

[whitey]

i think that by design, musclemercs intake is by far the best out there, unfortunatly, i dont have $400 for one. i was looking at some parts on intakehoses.com, and i could configure a 4.5" 45degree elbow (the oval intake has a circumference of 14.25", the circumference of a 4.5" diameter circle is 14.13", i believe this should work) a 4.5" to 4" reducing bushing(since they dont carry 4.5" tube), 1 foot of 4"tube(i can cut to any size needed), 4" to 3.5" reducing 'hump' hose for the MAF<<all this for $65 shipped.....then a MAF to filter adapter, and an air filter....which im still searching on who has the cheapest price......im guessing a very generous price of $120 total.....and my time to build it.


heres a question though on a cone style filter, should i go with a short and stubby type cone filter, or is longer better?...i dont know how not to make that sound perverted, sorry:). i figure it would be easier to shield/box in the short filter to keep away engine heat, but it might impose a problem of not being able to allow enough airflow for proper combustion/increased performance. longer would be better, but almost impossible to fully shield away from engine heat. if im going to make my own, im going to do it the way a Cold Air Intake was supposed to be done, drawing in cooler air than whats in the engine bay, i'm even thinking of insulating the intake pipe with reflective wrap to reflect away radiant heat from it.

any input is greatly apperciated, let me know any thoughts or suggestions on it guys, thanks--whitey

[MrBluGruv]

So you obviously bought a crappy one, seems like most of them are going to crap due to how people are driving them. My 04 with 57k miles on it has only had one or two small issues, nothing to ever leave me stranded.

If you really want another MM, don't buy a black one, they are the most unreliable :P

Ahh, I remember when mine had only 57K on it. WHEN I BOUGHT IT. It had just turned 114K when I sold it, little things here and there were breaking, enough to be constantly causing me grief and embarrassing me in public, as no matter how much effort I put into it to treat it right, it still sounded like a busted hooptie under the hood.

I repaired my own LCM, I did all my regular maintenance, I tried to fix problems as soon as they arose, and it still bugged out on me frequently. If it didn't have those problems, I'd still have it today, but alas, it wasn't the only MM that's had these problems.

Besides, how exactly are people driving them wrong?

[Local Boy]

In an effort to provide cool air to the filter...I mounted a small but strong fan in the bulk head behind the headlight, in front of the filter...so it blows cool air on the filter once you turn the key. ...This and a heat shield works to keep the IAT down in this hot Hawaii weather...

Best of Luck with your project...

Aloha

[01LXHPP]

Besides, how exactly are people driving them wrong?

I mean just by not upkeep, I've seen plenty of MM's pop up lately that look like ragged out taxi's

[99SVT]

I made a CAI using the stock zip tube and a cut down F-150 CAI I got for free. It worked well enough to pick up over 0.10sec in the 1/4. And no, it wasn't just a 1 trip to the track change, I ran with the stock airbox for a season and with the CAI for the next season, no other mods during that time and I was always over .10sec quicker.

[RacerX]

Here ya'll go:

vNhpo0P6OYE

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3319754027_0e98e031c2.jpg?v=0

[whitey]

thanks RacerX!, dryer duct! why didn't i think of that?!:banana:







:lol::puke:

and local boy, thanks for the suggestion.

[justbob]

Here ya'll go:

vNhpo0P6OYE



Unmetered air anyone? LOL

This post is rated E for everyone.

[fastblackmerc]

Here ya'll go:

vNhpo0P6OYE

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3319754027_0e98e031c2.jpg?v=0

Damm!

I'm going to swap out my JLT for one of those!

[jstevens]

I mean just by not upkeep, I've seen plenty of MM's pop up lately that look like ragged out taxi's

I know what you mean. When I traded in my 04 DD with 72k miles you could eat off the engine.