DIY- Ram Air / Cold Air Intake from Fog Light Opening
 

Note: I take no responsibility if you damage your car trying this. This is posted for other Fit owners to gain from my experience.

So I've had a broken fog light for a while and decided to make something happen today. Decided to try this and I am very pleased with the results. First step is to remove the housing and broken fog light. Then buy a roll of this from Home Depot for $13. You get enough for $13 to do several cars.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake1.jpg

There is a piece of plastic blocking where I ran the duct through. Remove that small plastic piece. You'll see it if you are looking for it.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake2.jpg

Run the duct up through the fog light opening. You'll have to squeeze the duct a little to get it through to where the intake is.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake3.jpg

I ran the duct straight into the filter so the air has nowhere to go but into my motor.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake4.jpg

Zip tie the plug for the fog light so it doesn't become an unknown noise.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake5.jpg


Here is how it looks.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake6.jpg

I think it looks better than a broken fog. :rotfl: Kinda race car style.

Driving Impressions

Okay right away I felt more throttle response. I didn't want to get too excited and come to an unrealistic butt dyno. But it is definitely noticeable especially in the top end. The intake is louder. I now hear it over the exhaust completely when in high RPMs. This tells me that it is passing a lot more air through.

On the freeway it is faster too. It seems to work better the faster you go. Makes sense I guess, the more air that passes through the better. The temperature of the air will be colder too.

duct
 

Just be careful with debris getting in there.

I will probably have to clean the filter more often but I think its worth it.

Nice concept you have there. I really like that intake box, I am going to look into one of those, possibly make my own where I work.

^^ Thanks. I had a SVT Focus a while back. I made this heat shield where I worked.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/focus8.jpg

The concept was borrowed from another company, who borrowed the idea from Nascar. ;)

The engineers at SVT made a snorkel that fed air under the filter.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/focus9.jpg

The SVT snorkel connected to this black plastic piece in the middle of the picture. I made the other aluminum piece that connected the snorkel to the grill.

This set up was great and I loved what it did for the car. That is why I made something similar for the Fit.

best thing i think iv ever seen, def has the tuff look to it, awsome to see the race style concepts brought to the street im gonna have to do this

Nice job on the focus. Where I work, we make the intake boxes and intakes for any SRT vehicle really, but the big one we do is for the Viper trucks. We powdercoat everything. Really going to look into it. The whole deal, intake box, intake, and whatever else I think I a can make for it.

Thanks^^. I was pretty stoked on the initial drive. Glad I didn't bring the wife on the test drive, she probably would have said I was runnin the piss out of it. :D

I actually worked at a sign shop, but we had sheets of aluminum and I had a dremel tool.

Nice work. it pays to get creative.

for those without a broken fog who'd also like something like this - you could run the duct down to the vent that's right next to the driver's fog light in the black trim/airdam in the lower middle part of the bumper.

Just go look to the left of the driver's fog standing facing the front of the car and you'll see what I mean.
Since the ducting is flexible I imagine there shouldn't be too much for clearance issues.

this is what i'm planning on doing...

there was someone who asked me to test the inches of water of pressure that are present at the foglight and i still haven't been able to do that...

my only concern at the fog, or even the lower grille, is during the winters that area can become packed with snow and cut off airflow...

Yeah snow plug would be bad. I have thought about removing my fogs in favor of brake ducts. I wonder if the same vent tube could be used.

I did something similar with my A-spec CAI a while back. I called mine "ghetto ram air" LOL Instead of removing the fog light (mine aren't broken, yet) I Dremeled out the little vent to the right of the fog-light and attached the duct there instead. Yours is very well executed, and should keep your IATs lower by a bit. Get a Rogue cowl scoop to complete the effect.

Thanks for commenting. The wife agrees that the car is more responsive. I bought a rubber elbow that I attached to the fog light housing. Now it looks a lot cleaner from the front. I will post another pic soon.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake7.jpg

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake8.jpg

That looks real nice. Most people won't notice it unless you tell them, it's stealth

Thanks. I was stoked that the rubber elbow fit so well.

what kinda elbow did ya get? where from?

Its a 3" rubber 90 degree elbow from the same isle at Home Depot as the Aluminum duct. I had it duct taped to the back of the fog light housing. Within 1 week the duct tape failed because of the pressure of air coming through! I used a lot of duct tape too.

I am working on the car today, installing new carbon fiber trim right now :D. I will fix the elbow attachment later and post pics.

If you stick your hand out the window going down the freeway you will feel the amount of force the air pressure has against your hand. This mod definitely allows the engine to breathe better and the results are quite noticeable with my current setup.

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake9.jpg

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake10.jpg

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake11.jpg

http://tfbdesigns.com/gallery/intake12.jpg

I think it worked out pretty well with that rubber elbow. The zip ties seem to be sufficient and I didn't have to alter the fog light housing.

wow awesome report! i got an AFE intake as well, definitely want to try this soon! thanks for the write-up and where you got the parts :-)

^^Thanks! I'll be interested to read your review.

so i was a little too excited and ended up doing this mod tonight haha initial impression is there is some gain noticed in all areas. I took it on the freeway once, drove around the city and had a lot of chances to stop and go. Wasn't sure if it's just because I am focusing on the engine more now to see if there are changes.. but I did notice in 5th gear when cruising when I barely press the pedal, the engine wants to accelerate already (you can feel a difference but nothing earth shattering..). Before this mod I would notice barely pressing the pedal does absolutely nothing. I am assuming this is because more air is being forced to the intake so it's easier for air to be taken in when the throttle opens..

For installation I ran into some issues. I forgot to notice how you fed the duct directly into the intake filter, so when I did it I just put a lot of duct tape to support it into the intake chamber area.. which is a lot less efficient than directly into the filter element. I will change this tomorrow and see if it benefits. I did notice the intake temps were dropping quicker when in motion from a stop. Also, I did not have zipties on hand to tie up the 3" rubber angle tubing to the fog light cover. So I used a combination of duct tape and two c-clamps that came with the tubing. I bent the c-clamp so it has more of an oval shape to match the fog light cover.. which means I could not get it completely flush like how the guide shows with zipties. It's subtle but pretty ghetto if you look closely haha. I will be correcting this when I find my lost supply of zipties :-p


Other than those two issues, doing this mod is super easy and cool if installed correctly!

^^Right on! Nice review, I'm glad it worked out for you as well. It's not like adding a supercharger but it does feel like there is a little more usable power. I would say the two biggest improvements are throttle response (especially at freeway speed), and more power at high RPMs.

I have been tempted to order a DC header and a test pipe. I think the header and test pipe would be good friends with this mod. The engine could pass more air through and I think it would work well with this setup. I would leave the stock mid pipe for back pressure. Does anyone have their exhaust setup like this?

i have a weapon-R street header and t1r muffler. had a t1r b-pipe but never put it on because it probably woulda been too loud especially for AT..

Video Clip
 

Here is a video clip with this intake installed....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TFB-Designs-Custom-Graphics/134190636603957?ref=ts#!/video/video.php?v=144776942224319&ref=mf

you definitely need to get a DC header! it will really make a difference in the flow :vtec:
having all aftermarket I/H/E (stock cat/b-pipe) you'll definitely feel the engine run more free without feeling restricted.

I recently uninstalled the mod and also the aFe intake [to pinpoint my decrease in MPG] and put back the stock airbox and I really notice the engine suffocating when driving! I was scared driving on the freeway! The top-end gain from this mod definitely helps accelerating quicker to freeway speeds.

Have you figured a way to make a snorkel type mod for the Fit? That would be super cool :D

I think the header / test pipe may be in the near future. I just ordered a new set of wheels, waiting on my new extended lug nuts to arrive. :D I will share soon.

I also found a good deal on some fog lights so I will be relocating the elbow that draws cold air soon. I thought of fabricating a upper grill ram air setup, but it would require modifying part of the bumper that is under the hood. Plus this would probably let water in when it rains.

I drove on the freeway with this intake setup in pouring down rain. I was worried that the filter would be wet but it was completely dry. The water must not make it through the bending tube.

I did notice that the gas mileage / responsiveness of the mod went down when the filter was dirty. After cleaning the filter all is good again.

I'll post what I come up with as far as relocating where the cold air come in.

I did about the Same thing on my 1993 Civic! Removed the load of resonators and passed a hose i took off a Chrysler 3.0l Caravan directly from the Stock airbox right to the foglight opening along with a K&N panel filter and a slight fuel pressure increase... It was looking sweet too...

It did wonders at higher speeds!! More power, more responce, more noise...

I'm looking at something similar on the fit! Probably this summer!

Marko!

nice..i did something like this a while back to my crx

How is that AFE intake? any diff over stock? I just got a new 11 sport A/T
How about that tube any diff from just the AFE?

^Yes the AFE intake is better than stock for sure. Adding the cold air inlet tube definitely helps. I replaced my fog light so I need to come up with another setup to feed the cold air to the intake. I missed this mod as soon as I installed the new fog light, it will be back soon though in new form.

I ordered a K&N filter for the stock box for now, I dont know if I want to drop any more $ into it yet. will the K&N filter replacement improve much over stock?

As i have a base Fit, i'm trying to find something i could put instead... so far i've thought of a couple of things, they just seem to be a little hard to get for cheap:

might have found some prelude grills
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...qiYjT5GST98G-s

maybe the only thing that does'nt rust on a Mazda
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...yB0HaY0iSE0tJg

maybe someone on NASIOC installed fogs and don't need these anymore...
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...L8pGTGKNL0K75G

Does anybody have another idea? there's also a round opening for this purpose on Egay but i'd have to put a grill... just for peace of mind you know...

You might notice a slight improvement. It will definitely last a lot longer than the stock filter.

^you should modify the stock box... gut the interior, etc... that way it'll be free and will make the most out of your filter!

You need an air filter like this and put your duct on the end.


http://www.mpracing.org/store/images...rt_filters.jpg

How'd you get the elbow to stay? I had the hardest time trying to zip tie it to stay in the shape of the fog light, but no luck.. Did you use tape as well?

Yes, I believe I also used some duct tape on the inside to help keep the oval shape on the rubber elbow.

Ram Air
 

**Zombie Thread**

Was looking for ram air information since I'm trying to design a similar concept on the 2015 Honda Fit (There is already a stock location for this. Just trying to improve it).

Outside of 0-60, 1/4 mile times (which I will be testing), what ECU parameter can I look at to see the difference this modification makes? Maf sensor g/s? Intake air temperature before and after?

Any other impressions of this modification?