• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

New mod for the 2.0

Zetec_contour

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
218
Location
I just raced past you ;)
So I have been reading around and haven't found anything about optimizing the stock air box so here's my simple how to I have made to add on to the sleeper z intake. Do you want to keep your factory air box but want the deep sound like an after market air intake, well now you can. First remove the air box from the car and take off the top and remove the filter. In the bottom you will find a small intake tube on the drivers side of the car. That's where the air comes in to the air box. Pull that out of the air box and you will find it has clips on both long sides of it(hard to describe what it looks like). Pry the clips off with your finger on both sides on the bottom side of it,it's easy to do,theres about 10 on each side. Now you will have to halves but one will still have the triangular piece that goes into the rubber grommet into the frame, the top part is now useless. Now put the piece with the triangular end back in the box and reassemble the box and put back in. You will now find it sounds much deeper and powerful,kind of like a full air intake kit. If you have any questions, post away!!

Here is the video part of the how-to-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wTzSNCJ0vY
 
fyi dude that is a terrible picture. please take step by step pictures with good contrast so we can see what you are talking about.
 
Ahh I see what you did. Why not just cut the whole thing out and insert a 3" dia pipe into the fender a la sleeper z style?
 
When I get more money i'm going to do that, that piece is still pretty restrictive so, once it goes into the fender it's pretty much out of sight where the actual intake is in the fender lol
 
I want to run a custom pipe to the front of the car maybe behind the head light where it will get cold air but avoid hydrolock,it's on my to do list right after fixing the gaping rust holes in the running boards lol
 
fyi dude that is a terrible picture. please take step by step pictures with good contrast so we can see what you are talking about.

That picture shows exactly what is done. Look in your airbox and it should be easy to figure out what he did. Not sure if it is worth anything performance-wise but I took mine off the first time I changed the air filter and saw it in there. Made a little more noise.
 
im wondering if this is a 98+ only thing. since my 100% stock car didnt have any of that stuff. bought the car from an older guy and i know he didnt modify anything. ill have to take a pic of my stock airbox.
 
Correct. Pre98's didn't have all that crap. Just the big airbox and that's it.
That explains why none of it looked any different, because compared to mine there isn't any difference. Sorry about the bad picture comment, I just couldn't see what the difference was. Hopefully this summer I can design up a good cai for my zetec, kind of like a sleeperz.
 
I cut the entire oval tube off just to keep the plate at end that the rubber goes onto. If memory serves also enlarged the hole in that plate. You'd have to fill the entire lower box with water to hydrolock, just drill a couple holes in lowest area to drain water. looks stock, works good, sounds good. Never had any water troubles, it's been like that for years.
 
This is funny because I just did this all today before I even read this thread. Feels a little more responsive and has a bit better sound. I pulled that whole piece out even where the hose attaches and just used duct tape (temporarily) to hold the hose to the box. I'm in the process of enlarging the "connector" that the hose attaches to.
 
IIRC the thing you're pulling out is called an "air horn" (don't know why) and pulling it out, while making great sound can actually decrease overall HP. i don't think that it is a huge loss, maybe 1-3 hp. there was for a time a big discussion amongst the SHO owners as to the Pros and Cons of pulling it out.
i do think that if you fab the sleeper z intake and remove the air horn then add some kind of flexable hose that runs to the front of the car it will be just as good as most aftermarket CAI's.
 
Back
Top