•  Mandrel U-bend exhaust pipe, part no 520-12270 (specs: OD: 2-1/2"  Radius: 5"  Leg A: 12"  Leg B: 12")
•  K&N Cone filter part no 599-RU-3130  Specs: 3-1/2" id, 3-1/2"- 4-5/8"x7"L
•  Three 2" PVC rubber pipe clamps
•  One can of engine paint (your choice of color)
•  Basic tools 

*    I chose 2.5" piping over 3 inches for a couple of reasons.  The first is that 3" pipe would be a lot harder to fit under the hood of our cars.  You'd have an especially hard time getting it between the battery and the shock tower, especially with the pipe clamp on.  Another reason is costs, a 3" pipe would probably cost $5 to $10 more and the clamps were about $2 more a piece, so your looking at almost $20 more money.  The last reason is the size of our engine.  3" is too big for an engine of  only 1.6l (1.8l or 2.0l too) and doesn't move enough air for a 3" pipe.  With a 3" pipe you'd slow the air velocity down too much and lose power in the low end and have minimal gains, if any, in the top end over the 2.5" pipe.  I'd only recommend using 3" pipe if you are using some kind of forced induction.  That's the only way that a 1.6l engine can move enough air to warrant a 3" pipe.

*    The PVC clamps can be purchased at any Lowe's or Home Depot.  The pipe clamps are made of a durable, high-temp rubber that won't melt at underhood temperatures. The ones you want come with the metal clamps around them already.  Do not use the ones without the metal clamps as they won't hold the pipe together tight enough.  The price is approximately $4 or so. 

*    You can get the K&N filter anywhere.  I only ordered it from Jegs because it was available and I was already paying shipping for the pipe.  The filter is 7 inches long, 3.5 inches at the top and 4.625 inches around at the bottom.  The inner diameter of the of the cone opening is 3.5 inches.  We'll use an adaptor to attach the K&N filter to the pipe which I will explain later.  

  I'll assume that you have remove the intake from the car already.  The only part that may give you trouble tin the lower intake resonator.  You MUST remove the lower intake resonator in order to put this intake in.  To get the lower resonator out you'll have to pull the splash shield from under the car and push up on the resonator.  It's just held in by friction, there are no screws.  Just give it a good hit with the hammer and it should just pop out.  Once the intake is removed it should look something like the picture to the right.   

    Before we install the intake get the exhaust pipe and wash it with soap and water.  Make sure you do a good job washing the pipe as it will have grease on it from the bending process. Normal dish soap and warm water should be fine to remove the majority of the grease.  If you don't have all the grease off of it you'll know as soon as you try and paint it as the paint will not adhere to some parts.  You may want to wash the pieces after you cut them to make it a little easier to clean the inside of the piping. 

   Ok now that everything is all cleaned up we can move on to the install.  First take the pipe and lay it against the throttle body with one of the legs point toward the passenger side of the car.  You'll want to cut the pipe at a slight angle so it will fit between the battery and the passenger shock tower.  I don't have any specific measurements as I didn't use any when I originally cut the pipes.  Just eyeball it and you should be ok.  If you look in the top picture you can see the slight angle that I cut the piece at.  It's not much so don't overdue it as the intake will hit your battery instead of going by it.  Once you have the pipe lined up mark that spot.  Use a hacksaw to cut the pipe at this point (make sure it's a straight cut!!).  Once you cut the pipe use some sandpaper to smooth the edges down and use a soft cloth to remove and metal filings from the pipe.  If you have good hands and a decent magnet (not one of those ones that attach to your fridge holding up your A+ report card!!) you can probably get most of the filings with that.  I used that and the wiped it out with a cloth.

    Now take one of the PVC pipe clamps and squeeze it onto the throttle body.  Once it's on there tighten down the hose clamp.  You'll have a small piece of piping coming from the valve cover that used to hook into the intake hose from the PCV valve.  You can just leave this out for now.  I plan on later adding a grommet so the pipe can be inserted into the rubber hose clamp.  As of the time I'm writing this I haven't done this to the intake but my plan is this.  Use a small knife and cut a hole in the rubber PVC clamp.  Then I'm going to get a small grommet and insert that into the pipe clamp. The pressure from the rubber should be more than enough to hold it in place but if not a little epoxy will hold it there.  Next I'm going to get a small piece of vacuum hose (not the kind on your mom's vacuum!) and squeeze that onto the small pipe and insert the other end into the grommet.  Just make sure you push it in far enough that it won't fly out under hard driving.  Also don't worry about it disrupting airflow to the engine as it will cause very little.  When your are finished it should look like the picture on the right.

    Next take the pipe that you previously cut and insert it into the pipe clamp.  Push it in far enough so that the hose clamp can securely tighten itself around the pipe.  Now attach another pipe clamp to the end of the first piece of pipe that you cut.  When finished it should look like the picture to the left.  You'll notice that the pipe reaches just up to the battery.  The pipe clamp should give it enough clearance to make it past the battery so that we can attach the next piece of the intake to the straight pipe.  Also make sure that the metal pipe clamps don't hit the positive battery terminal and a part of the frame as you can short something out.  I know that the chances of this are slim to none but I'd rather be safe than having it short out my amp or something.  You might want to place some electrical tape on the parts of the clamp that can hit the frame to totally eliminate the chances of it shorting out.   

    The next piece of pipe is going to be a bend so the intake points toward the front of the car.  Cut the pipe exactly in the middle of the bend.  Your going to take the smaller piece and attach that to the hose clamp right on the end of the previous pipe.  If you cut it right this should make a 90 (the angle of the pipe near the throttle body and the small bend you just cut should theoretically add up to 90 degrees) degree bend and have the intake pointing to the front of the car.  Before you put the pipe on you'll want to sand the edges down and wipe out any metal filings as you did to the previous pipe.  Once again make sure the pipe is securely placed in the pipe clamp and tighten it down.  Once your attach the pipe it should look like the picture on the right.  Make sure the pipe will not rub against your battery.  If it does you'll have to do some adjusting with the pipe clamps.  Just loosen them up and move the pipes out slightly to lengthen or shorten the intake.  Now attach another pipe clamp to the end of the curved pipe and tighten it on there.  

    You should now have one piece of pipe left.  This pipe will be used to attach the K&N filter onto.  This is where you'll need your old intake tubing.  The K&N filter has a 3.5 inch opening and the pipe is only 2.5 inches.  The old intake rubber piping fit perfectly on the 2.5" pipe and it's much thicker so it's about 3.25" on the outside which is almost a perfect fit for the K&N 3.5" opening (the K&N opening can close quite a bit so 3.25" will provide a good seal).  You want to use the end that attached to the airbox as it gets bigger than the other areas so it can attach to the opening on the airbox and it doesn't collapse easy. You can see a picture of it to the right with the K&N filter attached. Cut about 2-3 inches off of the old intake pipe and grab a hose clamp from one of the PVC pipe clamps and use that to tighten it around the straight part of the pipe.  Now  you'll want to use this measure how much of the pipe you need to cut off.  This part is entirely up to you.  I chose to cut a little less off than I needed to as I could just slide the adaptor and filter up a little higher on the pipe if the pipe turned out too long.  Just make sure you don't cut off too much pipe.  You want the filter to sit as low as you can so it sucks in colder air but don't let is rub against the splash shield at the bottom of the car.  You don't want to cut any of the curved part of the pipe as that will turn the pipe down!

    Once you cut the pipe file down the edges and remove all the metal filings.  Attach the K&N filter to the pipe adaptor and tighten it down securely.  Make sure the filter is on there good, you don't want it falling off while your driving.  Now take the curved end of the pipe and slide it into the pipe clamp at the top.  Slide the pipe in far enough and tighten the clamp around the pipe.  The picture to the left shows the last part of the pipe attached and the filter sitting down near the splash shield.  You'll notice small spot on the intake that isn't painted cause that part still had grease on it and I couldn't get the paint to adhere to it.  Well that's about it for the install.  Start the car up now and listen for any air leaks (probably make a whistling sound if there are any).  The final product should look something like the picture below.

    Before you take the car for a drive you'll want to reset the ECU.  Take the 10 amp fuse out that is on the battery terminal for about 10 minutes.  That should be more than enough time for the ECU to be reset.  This will allow the engine to reset and adjust itself to the greater amount of air that your engine will be taking in.  One last thing before you take your car for a spin, make sure you attach any wires or hoses you may have moved during the install.  You probably didn't move anything but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

*    When painting the intake use light coats of paint and not one big thick coat.  Using one big thick coat will just cause it to run all over the place.  Using many light coats will stop it from running.  I'm no painting expert (as you can tell from the shitty paint job on my intake) so I'll stop there.  

*    If you can find a filter with a 2.5" opening you can use that in place of the adaptor and K& N filter.  I used the K&N because I know it's a quality filter (who else guarantees a filter for 1 million miles!) and it would be easy to find a replacement.  The only company that *I* know of that uses a filter with a 2.5" opening it AEM.  You can order a replacement filter for their cold air intake and use that one.

*    Please DO NOT use PVC pipe to make your intake.  PVC pipe can melt at underhood temperatures and release toxic fumes into your car.  No one wants to die from using a cold-air intake! Besides PVC piping would look ugly as sin under your hood =)

*    If your worried about sucking up water from the intake being too low, I wouldn't worry about it.  Our cars have a splash shield that will protect the filter from most water.  If you are worried about it don't drive into deep puddles.  Another alternative is that you can remove the filter off the last piece of pipe and just attach it to the bend and have it sit where the airbox used to be.

*    If you've still got any questions or feel that I need to change something on this page e-mail me.  Questions or comments are welcome.