1990 Nissan Terrano/Pathfinder : Building a CAI

[ArvinSlayer]

Heya,

Being a noob at this forum, though i have been reading as a guest for almost three months now, any with the help of my mate, have grown some balls to do some mods to my terrano.

Please note that the turbo is leaking some oil.

The truck itself has done 190kkms on the clock, i have had it since 150kkms, or about two years now. i dont think anything in it had been messed around with, the previous front tyres were from 1971, the lady in the shop was impressed, car was made 1990, front tyres from 1971...

anyhow, this is how the initial Cold Air Intake looked like

note that the blue box there is the coils maybe? or something for the headlights or a relay or fuse for the pump for the windscreen cleaner? tell me....

So, we gave the car a service, and started taking the air intake out.

this is when we realised that the turbo was leaking oil, my mate reckons it isnt anything major, and i havent had any trouble with it, but i get off dreaming that i will put a scania turbo in it lol!

so after we took it all apart, we had a problem, which i thought was hillarious at this point, how on earth are we going to build this???

so we figured we needed pipes, and a pod filter, so we headed to repco, whom were friendly and helpful, but had no pipes, so it was at this point we decided to build it as a working prototype, and then, CAD it up, and get it made maybe?

Cold air intake means it takes in cold air, therefore steel pipes, though has better thermodynamic and aesthetic properties, could be slightly overrated. Silicone pipes, i cant comment as i havent got a chance to play with em yet. We used PVC pipes from mitre10, to be exact, bout a foot length of straight pipe, 50mm diameter, one 50mm to 40mm(i think, not sure, but smaller, for the turbo flange is the same size as it), and 40mm@45deg. We also used 2 random pieces of intercooler rubber piping, and some random collarclamps.

so, step 2,

Attach the 40mm@45deg to the rubber hose/pipe first, and clamp it, coz it was a bitch to get in. Then, if ure turbo was warmish, it would b a bit easier to the get the hose on. Clamp that end too. We recycled the clamps from the previous intake.

Then i put the rubber hose, which was an intercooler rubber pipe bit, bout 50mm OD, and i squeezed it onto the 50mm straight pipe, and the 50mm to 40mm. Attached the pod filter on the open end of the straight pipe, clamped that. Then i fitted the whole thing togather in the bay to check for fitting.

Then it was just a matter of deciding where the breather hose and vacuum hose will go, and drilling them out and attaching the hoses back into the holes.

this is what i have done thus far, took me bout 8 hours all up, running around, having some woodys.

next would be to CAD it up, which will take me some time, as i work weekends..

Till then fire away i suppose, i dunno its my first post...

[kiwipete]

Firstly, welcome to the site.
Secondly, do some searching on here, I mean proper searching. (insert constructive criticism here)
I do not agree with plastic pipe for air intakes at all, especially on a Diesel engine.
Why did you not settle for a steel tube snorkle and hat instead? Your pod filter is going to be of no use at all if you go any where near water.

[ArvinSlayer]

no u are absolutely right, i am not that rangi lol to keep with pvc pipes, i just needed an idea of how they would fit and engine bay management as i want it to look as clean as possible in the end. I will be goin to some exhaust shops and pipe benders, try and get some metal pipes, try again, finalize it, and hopefully get a beautiful one piece made, with mounts n all.... XD. The PVC is just the prototype, gunna hunt 4 steel pipes today yay!!

[ClassicCruiserSpares]

Welcome mate,
Wouldnt that pod get more warm air through it than cold sitting in a inclosed engine bay? If you put a snorkel on you would get force feed cooler air as you drive down the road.

[kiwipete]

Yep, what he said ^^^^^^^^ and is kinda what I was leading to, too.

[ArvinSlayer]

yea, there seems to be that problem of enclosed engine bay heat, the whole is more like a warm air intake lol! But i realised that after spending a bunch of money geting silicone reducers, stainless steel pipe, clamps, n hoses. so would snorkeling b the way to go, coz they are pretty expensive? i saw the DIY snorkel one here, will look further into that. there is gap between the left headlight and grille( well not grille, i will put more pics to explain this), think i can utilise that somehow?

2ndly could i do something like this..

like an aluminium box that i could fabricate that would contain the pod filter. and gets air from front. would that work? and if the inside of the box is powder coated black, and outside white, would it help? as black absorbs and radiates heat better that white, will it make a difference?

Cheers, will upload more pics after i put the new piping!!
XD

[kiwipete]

As has already been said, put a snorkel on it, you will not be taking it off road with a pod filter in the engine bay! Well not for long.

[ArvinSlayer]

oh but i have no intention of offroading it, just wanna see how i can pull more horses out of the td27, but i have installed the new intake will put pics tmrw! XD

[sibainmud]

To get more power out of a TD27, you need to do more than just a pod filter on it. Increasing the intake size is a good start, but is only half the job. It's a bit like making your mouth bigger, but your asshole is the same size
Make a 2.5 inch dump pipe off the turbo with a 2.5 inch system and 90% of the job is done
Just a pointer.

Cheers,

[ArvinSlayer]

i was given a quote by a exhaust shop for 600 to change my entire exhaust system to 2.5in, he was saying from the the downpipe if i am not wrong, anyone know any better prices? yea i am looking at upgrading the exhaust soon, once i can save up 600, maybe 2 weeks? Sucks being a student ahahahahaha

[ArvinSlayer]

So, more pics~

Here it is with the stainless pipe

so as i was saying earlier, the region between the grille and headlight, nee

that red circled piece, i was thinking on cutting a section of it off, and making a squarish intake to go around the cut gap? is this legit?

Comments and guides much appreciated!

Arvin

[slide]

that red circled piece, i was thinking on cutting a section of it off, and making a squarish intake to go around the cut gap? is this legit?

Arvin

Yea, all legit to cut away at plastic grill. Just make sure you don't alter headlight alignment, have any sharp protrusions, or trim any structural bodywork

Maybe use a heatgun to bend/ stretch a funnel into a square-mouth to fill gap you cut out?

Be wary that it'll ram in any road debris/water too, not just incoming air, so maybe a deflector before the filter could be good

[ArvinSlayer]

beauty!! i was gunna steal a part of those vr4s that look like a air scoop bt int bonnet, cut that, insert some mesh and fit it in the grille space i cut, will prolly do that tmrw or the day after, will post the pics~ and now after the new poddy, i average 700-800 per full tank, instead of 500-600!

[slide]

and now after the new poddy, i average 700-800 per full tank, instead of 500-600!

Whoal! That's a huge difference! Have you done anything else to help that? (exhaust or boost or anything?)
That'll help you save some $$ and pay for the work you've done in no-time

[kiwipete]

If only I could get that much increase with my Terrano, sigh. Perhaps she's just too heavy.

[ArvinSlayer]

well i am not a hard out driver, but yes, even today i checked, the gas needle crossed half way n i have 366kms~ but i go easy on the accelerator. m looking to do the exhaust, have half saved, jz waiting on anotha week's work, n i will get tht n will post more on the fuel savings!

[lincooln]

speak properly for #### sakes. they put all the letters of the alphabet on a keyboard for a reason

Also, best increase is exhaust, has to be turbo back, and if you want better intake, make a custom manifold, or atleast take it off, clean it out etc. Unless you have already done that. Have you removed the EGR setup?

[ArvinSlayer]

ah, well, it was late at night, and the keys were to many aahaahaha

but, no, i havent removed the EGR, or cleaned the manifold!

[lincooln]

do it dude, You will find so much sludge in there. Will free it all up again.