How to Make a Homemade Cold Air Intake for Your Car

car engine with cold-air intake
What You'll Need
3-inch diameter exhaust pipe
Cone-shaped air filter
Copper tubing
Clamps for hoses
Heat-resistant paint
What You'll Need
3-inch diameter exhaust pipe
Cone-shaped air filter
Copper tubing
Clamps for hoses
Heat-resistant paint

While your car already has its own intake system installed, you might want to add an additional cold-air intake system if you use the car for racing, or if you want to potentially improve your car’s horsepower and mileage. You can purchase a system that’s already made for the make and model of your car and install it with ease. However, if you’re an automobile enthusiast, you can also make your own cold-air intake by following a few simple rules and tips.

Step 1 – Mark Your Path

First, use copper tubing to mark a path through the engine. Copper tubing is easily bent and manipulated, so you can do this with your hands. The air intake pipe will follow this path. Once the tubing has reached your engine’s location, decide where you want the air filter to go, and cut the copper tubing at this point.

If you have an older cold-air intake system that your homemade model will replace, simply use the piping from that, rather than shaping a new path with copper.

Step 2 – Shape the Exhaust Pipe

Once you have marked out the path, remove the copper tubing and mold the exhaust pipe to match the shape of the tubing. Then, remove the copper tubing carefully, so that you can copy the identical shape with your exhaust tube. You can complete this step in your own workshop, or you can take the tubing to a automobile garage to have them shape it for you.

Checking the Fit

Before you begin fitting the pipe into the space, make sure it will fit. Also check that you can close the car hood completely with the new pipes in position.

Step 3 – Fit the Exhaust Pipe

Your exhaust pipe will become your new cold-air intake pipe. Before you put it into the engine, place the cone filter at one end of the piping, and then fix it into position by using hose clamps.

As an alternative, you can place the air filter into a box at one end of the piping, and fix it into position by screwing it to the body of the vehicle. Complete the project by applying a layer of heat-resistant paint to the outside of your piping.