cowl intake

Wondering how to run the inake pipe for a home brew cowl intake? Does the pipe have to be straight or can it have a lot of bends? I'm making it out of that spectre intake stuff from autozone. Please help need advice. Thanks.

you would want it as straight as possible to keep the air flowing the best. but it will not hurt to have bends in it.

If it's the flexible stuff most run it from the bottom back side of the stock air box up to the cowl and then cap off the front of the air box. That way any water that gets in stays in the bottom.

Do some searching, There is a writeup about it somewhere!

Use 3 inch pvc. It works great. I made a 3 inch hole in the cowl, and used an extra stock intake hose cut down, and it fits snugly in the cowl. I used a combo of self tappers, and rtv to hold it all together. The front intake hole is closed with some flat abs, screws, and rtv.

This setup has been proven in 4 feet of water. And it obviously allows for lots of air, I average 17-20 mpg on the freeway, with 3.55's and 31's.

I can't run it out the back of the air box due to having ABS brakes.

The other option that you'll find via a quick search for cowl snorkel or cowl intake involves a K&N cone filter in the cowl with the hose running straight to the throttle body, bypassing the stock airbox.

ah. Ok.

Go the ericsxj way.

looks like i know what i'm doing this weekend!

Yeah I just bought a bunch of of those spectre fittings but now I need a filter that is somewhat staight

I used the $21 Spectre tube. My whole setup is based very closely on srmitchell's thread http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/my-attempt-cowl-snorkel-727684/

Frankly, I was intimidated by piecing together a solid tube out of PVC. My work with PVC is exceedingly limited and all the geometry seemed overly complicated, so I opted to use a universal intake tube based on a TV commercial I remember as a kid for a product which I think was called "Flex Jars." :laugh: AutoZone.com | Air Duct Hose | Black air ducting



I removed the air box, cleaned it up and used the tube to get a rough idea of where it would need to go. I marked and drilled a small hole in the center of where I wanted to place the tube.



I cut a strip of plastic and drilled two small holes in it 1½" apart as my template for the hole.



I used the drill bit as a hub and drew the circle I would cut with.



I have a pneumatic trim saw I'd planned to use but my compressor is at my parents' place so I used what I had on hand, which was a simple coping.



I drilled a ¼" hole as a starting point and reassembled the coping saw with the blade inside the hole.



I proceeded to cut out the air box with the coping saw. When done, I used a Dremel with a sanding wheel to smooth the edges.



I again used the tube to determine a rough placement and used my template to draw the circle which I would cut out.



This is the hole one everything was cut out. It turned out quite ragged as I used a Dremel with small cut off wheels. I smoothed it out with a grinding wheel before installing the tube but I was excited the hole was done and forgot to take a picture.



I mounted the tube up as high as a could so that the base of the cowl would act as a dam to keep water from entering the intake tube.



As srmitchell had warned me, this did result in the tube making contact with a rib on the hood but since I used a flexible plastic tube, I don't think it will be a problem.



And much of my reasoning behind adding this mod to my relatively stock rig is because a photo I saw of one of my fellow club members with a significantly bigger XJ than me in a water crossing I know I'll be facing soon.



I still have to seal up the front of the box and the weep holes as well as secure the box better. There was some creative fastener use employed by a previous owner I didn't bother to deal with today.

I like what you did kevin108. So much that Im going over to autozone and picking some of that up tomorrow. Thanks!

I did pretty much the same, but used RV sewer hose. Got enough hose to do 3 for $8. The fittings from the hardware store cost about $10.



JIM.

I like this, i might have to do this sometime

Maybe I am just obtuse but how do these setups limit the amount of water. The stock box still has holes in in that allow water in, it doesnt seem like you are moving the intake any higher.

These setups seal the stock box so that it doesn't have holes in it (other than the inlet tube that you add). Or they remove the stock box entirely, and add a cone style filter inside the cowl.

So why is everyone leaving the box in the engine compartment. Seems like you would want to get rid of it all together

smiley said:

So why is everyone leaving the box in the engine compartment. Seems like you would want to get rid of it all together

Click to expand...

Smog restrictions more than likely.

smiley said:

So why is everyone leaving the box in the engine compartment. Seems like you would want to get rid of it all together

Click to expand...

Leaving the box retains the stock filter element and ease of changing it. I can tell you that changing/cleaning the filter in my cowl is a PITA and I don't do it nearly as often as I should. It's also a more expensive filter, and requires more parts to put together.

On the upside, it frees up space in the engine bay for other accessories that I have yet to purchase.