I own an 03 cavalier 5 speed ecotec and i want to start putting bolt-ons on. I dont want to spend tons of money doin so since i am only 17 and am in highschool still. I dont want to pay 200 for the name aem. But the other day i found a pipe bender in my garage and was wondering if i measured and made precise bends. Is it possible to make my own CAI and put a K and N filter on it? If so how do i go about doin so? Any instructions? Any info would be great help and if anyones could help... what is the best size tubing to use?
Oh this post made my heart skip a beat! I love when people do thigns themselves. Makes me happy!
Not sure what size you can physically fit in the Cavy engine bay, but the bigger the better. This is totally possible since the ECOtec is not MAF which allows much better and creative intake pluming. Find a spot where you can snag some cold air from outside, normally behind the air damn, in the wheel well or infront of the rad. core support. For the latter two you may have to cute a hole to allow the tubing to pass through the sheetmetal. Buy a cone filter, K&N is possible. Get the largest you can fit in one of those spots. Mount it with a nice homemade bracket or buy something from a hardware store. Then start measuing adn routing piping.
Should be a simple, fun and worthwhile task. Most CAI setups can be made for under 50 bucks from normal hardware store parts. Make sure to routing any vac. lines in the acutal intake pluming to the new intake, thought I think the Cavy ECO gets all its vac lines from the manifold itself.
GOOD LUCK!
1988 Pontiac Fiero, engine transplant underway.
2004 ECOtec, built and boosted
even at 3 inch inner diam, you slow velocity quite a bit...
Here is mine, 3 in. with a spiral foam filter. I had to relocate my battery to do it but it was no biggie. Makes a hell of a sound from 2500 on up!
My Sunfire
This is mine.... bought it for a 2.4 modified it with some parts from home depot... 35$ total...
its easy man u dont have a long intake anyway whatever pipe u use its all the same and soo is aem and everything else the filter the what matters whether u use 2 or 3 inch tube its all thee same because ur throttle body is factory and it can only suck in whatevr the bore is of it like whatever stock is 55mm or something if ur really worried about the money just buy exhaust pipe that is shapped similar to ur stock intake and throw a k & n filter on the end shouldnt cost more than 50$ i did my intake last year and it is well worth doing it urself
