Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Cold Air?

Hey, I had a bit of a tinker in the yard and garage today. After repairing the gate at side of my house, I changed the oil in my Mystique (and filter). Took somoenes advice and headed into Walmart looking for a jug of Mobil 1. Found a 5 litre jug for $25.40 ( Canadian!!!) so thankyou whoever wrote that!
Also, as the subject suggests, I went in search of some cold air. I removed all of the air intake components, including plenum. Replaced that with a 45 degree rubber piece (from a Ford 5.0)attatched to a length of 3"ABS pipe. Other end I put the bellows looking peice from the original setup, MAF sensor and finally a K&N conical filter (p.n.#2710) that points down to the left hand drive shaft and sits just under the master cylinder. I drilled a hole in the pipe for the IAT sensor and it screwed right in.
I took her for a spin 'round the block, and I don't think I noticed any real diference other than sound (slightly) but I'll leave it in for a while and see. So the filter is about a foot lower than I had it before, would the air be that much colder, if there was any difference?

BTW I checked the oil level again after driving and got a bit of smoke out of the dipstick tube! Is this normal with synthetic oils, or am I in for a garage visit?

Lastly, this project was dirt cheap (ABS sewer pipe $8 Canadian, and I've got lots left) as I, like many do not have money to burn, Kennard, I just enjoy messing with the cars. :rolleyes:

Did you reset the computer. It's fuses 4 and 11 I believe. Pull them out for a few minutes then put them back in. Then see if you notice a difference.
Those are the fuses under the hood

After you reset the comp. dont touch the accelerator. Just let it idle until the cooling fan kicks on. This will help out with letting the comp. relearn its settings and to adjust the idle with air.

be careful tho... after i reset my computer for my custom intake, it did all bad things to my car!! ran like someone crapped in the intake pipe and clogged it up after 3850rpm!!

so just be careful

Hey guys, thanks for the reminder. I reset the computer (yup, fuses 4&11, as mentioned in the How To section of modifications) and as I'm typing, the Mystique is idling on the driveway (locked)
I went out again last night on the highway and pick up at WOT seems to have improved, but the sound! Wow, way better than the whistle I got before I removed the resonator(one with IAT sensor in it) Wondering now if it would be worthwile covering the whole thing in aluminum foil to reflect heat. Yeah I know it sounds really daft, but I read on the net. a while ago of a guy who did the same to his Jeep Cheokee and got an improvement in performance and fuel economy. Maybe my best choice would be to replace the black sewer (clean BTW) pipe with some 3" dia. stainless exhaust pipe. We'll see.

David BC

White '96 Mystique GS - A work in progress!
White '88 Cherokee Ltd -Still going places!

RE:the problem you had at 3850rpm, was this on the driveway or out on the highway? I have experienced similar at a stand still, and apparently this is rev limiter from the factory so one couln't redline it and then dump the clutch/shift into "D" (according to a Ford tech)
Out on the highway my can freely runs upto the redline in gear, so there could be something to this! (Ford tech mentioned this is computer controlled and overrideable!)
Anyone else heard of this?

Yes, the ATX have a REV limiter in them (from my own experience). I don't know what the limit is...

The plastic is much better insulation. I almost made an intake out of ABS myself, rather than getting the CTA, but I couldn't find an elbow I was really happy with, and I was hoping to get a 2.5" diameter pipe instead of 3", this being a better match to the TB and MAF.

Yes, just the other day I was trying to rev it in neutral and found that it cut off somewhere around 4000.

Paul, you say the plastic is a better insulator, any comment on covering the whole thing in aluminium foil for heat reflective purposes?
Also, with regards to intake angles, do you think I should stay with the filter in the dropped position, or straighten out the intake flow? (Double question really, is the filter in the dropped position picking up cooler air and delivering it efficiently enough to jusify it being there, than if it were in the same position as yours and other KKM users?)