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No pics at the moment...it was too dark by the time I finished it. I spent probably a few hours doing this right after I got off work. I'll try to explain what I did.
First off, Saturn put the air filter in the spot they did cause its pretty much the only spot short of going under the car and snaking tube down there and putting a filter under the car. Unfortunately there's some tiny bit of space to work with. You look at the engine bay and you'd think there's plenty of room...but for the ATX...its just not there. Strangely, the Neon has a super cramped engine bay and I could still work with the intake more easily. Obviously with an MTX, its a smaller, and yes, more efficient transmission...so there's plenty of room to move around. Plus there's probably no fluid filter in the way. So, the problem was, I wanted to move my filter down as far as I could without getting into any trouble with it rubbing on anything that could cause problems...namely the radiator hose.
So I couldnt really go down very far...the filter really couldnt sit vertically...it had to sit horizontally. There's just no room for an upright filter. So...that means I can either extend the tube a tiny bit and maybe move it downward only at an angle...not really on a lower elevation...if that makes sense...or I can move the filter down perhaps 5 inches...by resting it against the fender well frame member and extending the tube a lot more and then make a corner that goes down and fits into the filter.
The second option is what I did. Here's a crappy diagram to give you an idea...the "==" is tube, the "/ and \" are the corners, the "<00|" is the filter.
The issue I was worried about was the corner...would it make it restrictive? I mean I hear people on neons.org talking about removing the 90* bend in the intake manifold to make the air flow more properly. Now, thankfully, I have an intake manifold that already comes like that...so the problem there is non-existent...though third gen S-Series do actually have the 90* upward bend. Anyway...I was afraid it was gonna make it more restrictive with the bend as drastic as it was. I later ended up making it less drastic by putting an exhaust adapter inbetween the two corner pieces...stretching it out a little.
The car isnt really much louder...and I kinda expected that cause the extended tube is an old 91 Festiva tube which, has baffling for noise reduction as most stock tubes do...I'm assuming. The Festiva tube extends off the stock Saturn tube at the Saturn's baffling...which is where the baffling is on the Festiva tube. So the air goes through extra baffling. The noise is really not reduced though...just not really any louder than with my previous setup (basically stock filter location minus the airbox and resonator).
The first drive was insane...I could hear the "whooosh" immediately! I really couldnt hear the whoosh before...so that was cool. The kickdown when you floor it while cruising is nuts! I'm still not entirely sure about tube length and all the dynamics involved...so I dont know for sure if a longer tube means bigger high end...or what...but thats what I've always thought and read. I dont think I lost any low end though, thankfully...in fact, I think I gained some...as well as high end. I think the power was spread evenly instead of one end or the other. Not sure...but the butt-dyno was happy. :twisted:
First off, Saturn put the air filter in the spot they did cause its pretty much the only spot short of going under the car and snaking tube down there and putting a filter under the car. Unfortunately there's some tiny bit of space to work with. You look at the engine bay and you'd think there's plenty of room...but for the ATX...its just not there. Strangely, the Neon has a super cramped engine bay and I could still work with the intake more easily. Obviously with an MTX, its a smaller, and yes, more efficient transmission...so there's plenty of room to move around. Plus there's probably no fluid filter in the way. So, the problem was, I wanted to move my filter down as far as I could without getting into any trouble with it rubbing on anything that could cause problems...namely the radiator hose.
So I couldnt really go down very far...the filter really couldnt sit vertically...it had to sit horizontally. There's just no room for an upright filter. So...that means I can either extend the tube a tiny bit and maybe move it downward only at an angle...not really on a lower elevation...if that makes sense...or I can move the filter down perhaps 5 inches...by resting it against the fender well frame member and extending the tube a lot more and then make a corner that goes down and fits into the filter.
The second option is what I did. Here's a crappy diagram to give you an idea...the "==" is tube, the "/ and \" are the corners, the "<00|" is the filter.
Code:
=========\
<00|=/
The issue I was worried about was the corner...would it make it restrictive? I mean I hear people on neons.org talking about removing the 90* bend in the intake manifold to make the air flow more properly. Now, thankfully, I have an intake manifold that already comes like that...so the problem there is non-existent...though third gen S-Series do actually have the 90* upward bend. Anyway...I was afraid it was gonna make it more restrictive with the bend as drastic as it was. I later ended up making it less drastic by putting an exhaust adapter inbetween the two corner pieces...stretching it out a little.
The car isnt really much louder...and I kinda expected that cause the extended tube is an old 91 Festiva tube which, has baffling for noise reduction as most stock tubes do...I'm assuming. The Festiva tube extends off the stock Saturn tube at the Saturn's baffling...which is where the baffling is on the Festiva tube. So the air goes through extra baffling. The noise is really not reduced though...just not really any louder than with my previous setup (basically stock filter location minus the airbox and resonator).
The first drive was insane...I could hear the "whooosh" immediately! I really couldnt hear the whoosh before...so that was cool. The kickdown when you floor it while cruising is nuts! I'm still not entirely sure about tube length and all the dynamics involved...so I dont know for sure if a longer tube means bigger high end...or what...but thats what I've always thought and read. I dont think I lost any low end though, thankfully...in fact, I think I gained some...as well as high end. I think the power was spread evenly instead of one end or the other. Not sure...but the butt-dyno was happy. :twisted:
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