can this be made out of plastic pipe of some sort eg pvc and heat wrap it so it coesnt melt....if i make it out of steel how do i clean slag and metel that would get in there after welding.do i just blow it out with air and clean it out with water

p.s. does the length of pipe make any difference to power out put ..eg.run it towards radiator and then to air box instead of towards fire wall and then to airbox

I think intake length can effect torque. If you've cleaned the pipe out with water and blown ehr out with compressed air I doubt there's anything left that is gunan come loose and worry you.
Yeah use some sort of tubing that can handle the heat.

a good weld wont get any slag in the pipe

pics of a good weld here

http://www.fordmods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26558

the thing is i can weld but im not that good .....but practice makes perfect

everybody uses steel/aluminium/stainless steel for intakes... y not plastic pipes? n if ur answer is "cos it will melt" how come the airbox doesnt melt?? plastic is lighter.. n wouldnt transfer as much heat as metal in the engine bay.. opinions anyone? yes elrob... good to see u having a go...

Too hard to get plastic into the shape you wanted, without sacrifising a smooth inside? Othewise hmmmm.. good point!

The wrong plastic will melt, the right one (like what is used in the stock intake) wont.

Plastics that are easy to work with usually have low melting points

everybody uses steel/aluminium/stainless steel for intakes... y not plastic pipes? n if ur answer is "cos it will melt" how come the airbox doesnt melt?? plastic is lighter.. n wouldnt transfer as much heat as metal in the engine bay.. opinions anyone? yes elrob... good to see u having a go...
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thanks...hmmmmm i wonder wot sort of plastic the standard pipe is made of and where you would get it from?

it's piss easy to find plastic that'll stand heat. go to some hose and pipe shops and they should have stuff there. i've gotten 3" flexi hose before that stands the heat and that no worries. people use metal couse it looks pretty and that.

i doubt any half decent plastic would melt, the intake doesnt get that hot, if it did id be a bit worried

in response to the original thread, PVC would probably not be a good material as it would tend to distort due to the heat.

Before making a new intake, test your's to see if it actually restricts airflow...i dont know about other models, but i do know that the EF dual pipe intake was quite restrictive hence why the EL had a single pipe for its whole length.

An easy way to test restriction is to make a manometer. It consists of a broom handle, a coke bottle and 3-4m clear plastic (flexible, 5mm) tubing. All you do is use sticky tape to attach bottle to bottom of broom handle pointing up, then insert the plastic tube all the way to bottom of bottle, fill the bottle up with water and some food colouring. Now you drill three small holes in your air intake, one on the side of the airbox pre filter, one on the airbox after your filter, and then one before the throttlebody. In these holes you can get those hollow metal tubing irrigation things that have a thread on the outside allowing you to screw nuts on either side holding it in place. Now you attach the clear tubing to the first irrigation thing close the bonnet (with the tube running out of the bonnet in the gap near the windscreen) and take the car somewhere you can drive pretty hard, getting the passenger to measure how far the water moves up the hose. Repeat for the other two areas, and hence the further it moves the more restriction.

i was goin to upload a drawing but it doesnt accept bmp images....

would you plastis weld the pipe....bend it with heat or just use silicone hose to join it

The EF air intake was actually the best lots of good design work by real engineers went into it. The EL was just a cost down cheap version to save money. Most of this intake stuff is just pissing into the wind though you make more power by just changing the leads and plugs than you do by fitting big pipes