air filter question

[Joe Wilson]

Hi, I'm getting ready to change the air filter on my 04 ecotec and was wondering about the cold air intakes I've seen on eBay. Looking at my engine it looks like you might not need all the long pipe that goes up behind the battery. Couldn't you just remove the airbox and the plastic tube and clamp the filter to the inlet of the plenum? I realize you're clamping something round to something oval but that wouldn't be too big an obstacle, I'd think.

[J-Ri]

And have the air filter directly behind the radiator? That would defeat the purpose of the CAI after the thermostat opened. You'd probably have a noticeable increase in gas mileage due to the decreased density of the air (and therefore less fuel), but power would suffer greatly. A true cold air intake gets the air from below, in front of, or to the side of the radiator, and actually gets ambient temperature air. I have seen people make good looking CAIs out of PVC pipe. If your goal is to save money (whose isn't?), go that route, just be sure you attach it to something other than the throttle body so you don't have a 3 ft long tube banging around and twisting on it. Also be sure you drill a hole and install a grommet for the IAT sensor, I have seen all sorts of problems arise from letting the IAT sensor just hang. Also, use a good paper filter, the "high-flow" reusable ones let way too much dirt in. I would go with a larger paper filter, get the extra airflow and get the dirt out. Possibly one of the cone filters for a ford pickup? If it's good for 5.4 liters, it's good for 2.2!

[doberman_52]

From what your saying it almost sounds like my setup. Its right behind the radiator for the moment and I never really did notice anything with power from it. What I am going to do is get an aftermarket radiator from a 92-95 civic (2 inch core and not as wide, but my radiator also has a leak) and custom mount that towards the passenger side and in front of the support instead of behind it. Then I will add some pipe and take the filter towards the botom of the support in the open space. I just cut an CAI tube that I had laying around for a 92-96 prelude and used that since the curves are about where they need to be.

[J-Ri]

You probably didn't notice anything with the power because the higher flow mostly canceled out the lower density. Plus at highway speeds the air is pushing past the radiator so fast it doesn't get all that hot. I would think twice before installing a radiator designed for a smaller car with a 1.5 liter engine into a car that weighs almost 1,000 lbs more and has a .7 or .9 liter larger engine. There's a good chance you'll have cooling issues. At least figure out the BTUs you need to pass out of the radiator and what the smaller radiator can do (sorry, I'm no help there).

I would personally make a setup like the ram-air on the Pontiacs, where there is a wide 1" air intake above the radiator. You might even be able to find one in a salvage yard that would come close to fitting a cavalier, the Grand Ams aren't much bigger under the hood and the air filter is in the same spot (modification of the upper radiator support may be necessary for this to fit). Or remove the high beam section of the headlight assembly, use a dual filament bulb in the low beam spot, and have the air intake right behind the headlights. I saw a Cavalier on cardomain.com with a turbocharged 3.8 liter in it that got the air from vents in the lower bumper (it was a body kit, but you could easily cut a vent) and had the duct ran up through the hole for the washer solvent tank, I believe. You'd need a new routing for the fill neck, but that would be easy. If you end up installing the smaller radiator, let us know how that goes and if it will handle long term high speeds (by that I mean the posted speed limit, of course )

[doberman_52]

Id be looking at a radiator similar to this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-95...Q5fAccessories
and mount it in front of the support. From what I have heard it should be enough to cool it maybe even better than the stock second gen radiator and then will put my intake lower to the other side of that in the more direct route of the air flow. Otherwise I have thought about getting the cowl induction Z24 hood and fabing up somingthing with that. I do know that would add more weight to the car though. Did the newer Z24's have a cowl inducted hood or not?

[Classicrocjunkie]

No one makes them for J-bodies. I went in with 30 other people and had Griffin Radiator company do a group purchase for all of us. Even with that many people the radiators were still $450 + $110 SPAL Fans, but on the nice side of things. The stock J-body Radiator core is .5" thick while these were 1.5" thick. Thats massive compared to stock and my fan never kicked on until It was 100* in the summer sitting in traffic and the fan only stayed on 2-3 mins tops.





If you really wanted one, I'm sure Griffin still has the specs but plan on paying in the $600+ range for one.

[J-Ri]

He's talking about using the radiator from a Civic. Go to an auto parts store and see if they'll let you look at both of them side by side. The Civic ones are tiny, even compared to the Cavalier. They're so small that I was thinking about using one for a radiator for my supercharger intercooler, although the top few inches would have been in place of an expansion tank just to have fewer parts. I'd go with a direct fit replacement and go with the cowl induction hood. I really think you'll run into problems with that small of a radiator.

[Classicrocjunkie]

Reading > me while under the influence of Killians.

[doberman_52]

Yeah it is a smaller radiator in width only i believe, but I would be looking at an aftermarket one with a 2 inch core which is a lot thicker than my stock half inch core. It would be an aftermarket one, otherwise I could probably use one from a nissan or something else similar to the j-bodys. Either way, I need to replace mine since its starting to leak. I am going to do more research before I do decide what one I want to go with to provide the best cooling.

[Classicrocjunkie]

Now that I am sober... Its honestly too small. But then again with a Garrett GT40R shoving 24psi of boost down its throat, there is a lot of heat in the engine bay. This is our fully built 2.2 OHV owned by one of my co-workers at the shop. $5k worth of motor upgrades to handle the boost.

[J-Ri]

Having a core 2x thicker doesn't mean double the cooling. The air flowing through heats up very quickly. It absorbs all the heat it can almost right away, and then the hot air traveling through the rest of the core absorbs very little heat. Having a thicker core gives you more heat reserve, so it will take longer to overheat, but it will still overheat. You might be OK on the highway with light throttle, but driving hard between stoplights will make it overheat.

[Joe Wilson]

Getting back to the original subject, air filters, I wasn't trying to get the maximum hp out of this thing...I can always drive my Corvette if I want more power, I was merely trying to clean up the engine compartment a little. I figured I could remove the airbox and that plastic hose and save a little space, plus having an air filter I could clean.

[J-Ri]

No, we're talking about performance now, please start your own thread j/k, that did get a little bit hijacked...

So on air filters. You can do almost anything, but I personally wouldn't mess with the factory air stuff if you're not concerned with performance. And stay away from any air filter which claims higher airflow than stock. With more air comes more dirt, and you really don't want more dirt. I have seen on many cars that have reusable air filters there is a thin coat of dust on the air intake past the air filter. Take a look at one of these air filters, most (I say most because I don't ever say all) have holes in them big enough that you can see through them. And I don't mean see light, I mean you could read a book through them if you wanted to.