Air intake: fresh air for engine operation. Car air intake on your own Making a universal intake - creating a blank

Hi all! Here's what I thought. I see a lot of cars that clearly do not have an air intake installed on the hood from the factory. This is purely tuning the hood, that is decorative overlays, or a really useful thing? How do you think?

I was very interested in this question, so I decided to study it in more detail. You all know that while the engine is running, the temperature under the hood rises very significantly. This leads to heating and sometimes overheating. Various air intakes, radiator grille and other inlet openings provided by the manufacturer are needed specifically for airflow.

That is, it seems like engineers are calculating in advance the need for additional cooling of the engine compartment. But for some reason, many additionally install it themselves or turn to craftsmen to make an additional air intake. So let's try to find out why this is done and whether installing such an element is justified.

Why is this necessary?

For an engine to work well, it needs a large number of air and oxygen in particular. Oxygen enters the combustion chamber, mixing with fuel to form an air-fuel mixture. It ignites, which drives the pistons, crankshaft and ultimately the wheels.

Moreover, the amount of oxygen entering the combustion chamber directly depends on the temperature of the air. Due to the fact that the engine heats up during operation, the amount of oxygen decreases. Hence the drop in power of the power plant. Since an insufficient amount of oxygen enters the cylinders, the air-fuel mixture is incomplete and cannot burn completely.

In order for oxygen to flow better, it must be provided better penetration. We can say that the air intakes play the most direct role here. Moreover, they perform two functions at once. Namely, they cool the engine and provide an influx of fresh air with a high oxygen content.

Once installed, the air intake is specially configured to ensure efficient oxygen penetration into the engine compartment, increasing power and efficiency. Therefore, we can say with confidence that this element will not be superfluous. If only we're talking about not about the decorative overlay.

Where to install

You can buy and install an additional air intake on any car. It is important to understand here that all cars already provide in advance the presence of inlet paths for the passage of air with its further entry into the engine and inside the engine to create an air-fuel mixture.

That's why they put it purely auxiliary elements. They can be found on cars such as:

• UAZ Patriot;
• Gazelle;
• VAZ 2107;
• Niva 2121;
• Niva 21214;
• Subaru Impreza;
• Mazda 6;
• Hyundai Coupe;
• Honda Accord;
• Mitsubishi Lancer, etc.

Some cars already have special windows with grilles on the hood, through which air enters for further passage into the heating system.

There are a number of companies that make air intakes for existing windows or for specific models of different car brands. They are even secured with double-sided tape. Although this is already some kind of hack. Such a structure should be properly secured.

But such air intakes will be ineffective, since the windows near the windshield for the air intakes are far from the engine. Therefore, the bulk of the air will begin to overheat or go directly to the heater. It won't do any good for the engine. In order to increase the efficiency of the power plant, experts recommend placing air intakes directly in the middle of the hood.

This position is considered optimal, since the air flows will go directly to the engine, and therefore they will not have time to warm up to a temperature equal to the engine temperature. Further improved external cooling power plant, which is extremely important in hot weather.

There is another implementation option. Namely, put the air intake in the center, and additionally its pipes. They will go straight to the air filter. Just keep in mind that this option is not suitable for sports cars. Here it is better to place the air intake directly above the filter. There is no need to adhere to strictly defined symmetry.

Self-installation

For greater engine efficiency and better cooling, air intakes really are a good solution. It’s easy to buy, and the price is reasonable for modern cars. Some people prefer to make the design themselves. But in my opinion, it’s better to immediately purchase a universal one finished item, or find an option specifically for your model. This is even preferable.

The installation procedure looks something like this:

• Determine the location where the air intake will be mounted;
• Draw lines according to the dimensions of the element for air flow;
• It would be optimal to first remove the hood from the car, remove the insulation from inside. I don’t recommend cutting directly on the machine;
• Using a grinder, cut out the required section according to the markings. Be careful, cut as smoothly as possible;
• Sand the edges to remove burrs. Apply anti-corrosion compound and a coat of paint. This will prevent rust;
• Now attach the air intake, align it along all the edges;
• Fastening can be done using glue, double-sided tape, bolts and other fasteners. Choose a more reliable one;
• The mounting method largely depends on the design of the air intake itself;
• Install the element, return everything to its place;
• Take some photos and brag to your friends.

Whether you have a metal or plastic fence, decide for yourself. Plastic ones are cheaper and easier to use. Metal ones are heavier, but more reliable and durable. Some even use thick foam. But this is no longer our option. Let's do it conscientiously.

Important Disadvantages

Before deciding to take such a step, having studied the objective advantages of additional air intakes, do not forget to analyze their disadvantages.

There are several main disadvantages here:

• A number of poorly thought-out designs impair the car’s resistance to headwinds, which negatively affects aerodynamics;
• Fences without grates cannot be used. Otherwise, stones, various debris and a number of other wonders from the road, including even small birds, will easily get inside through the holes. Wish them, install the grate;
• Possibility of corrosion. Many people forget about anti-corrosion treatment or do it incorrectly. There is nothing good about rust;
• The air intake will make the filter work harder. Therefore, it will become polluted many times faster. You will have to carry out a planned replacement earlier.

But the final decision is yours to make. The air intakes perform really well. But mainly on sports cars and cars with powerful engines. For serial civilian vehicles, where the engine power barely exceeds 120-150 Horse power, there is no need for this element.

If you want to emphasize the power and beauty of your car and give it a more aggressive look, try installing an air intake on the hood. With my own hands this decorative element It's not difficult to make at all. We will tell you about all the features of such an operation.

1 Air intake - simple decoration or something more?

On many cars you can see original jewelry-, aero body kits, and so on, which are manufactured and installed by drivers themselves or in specialized workshops. Similar decorative details make the car non-standard, standing out from the flow of traffic Vehicle. A bright and memorable element of external tuning passenger car is the air intake. Its practical function is to collect from environment cold air and directing it to the internal mechanisms and systems of the machine.

In most cases, the air intake is installed on the hood of a vehicle solely for decorative purposes.

Any modern car is developed as carefully as possible. Engineers competently calculate the trajectory along which air enters the car manifold and create effective ways engine cooling. Therefore, a homemade intake has minimal impact on the operation of the machine’s power unit.

The element of external decor that interests us, however, can also fulfill its intended purpose. In this case, it is mounted:

1. For the purpose of extracting hot air from the engine compartment. The technique is used when it is necessary to achieve cooling of the engine by the flow passing through the radiator grille. The heated air is removed through the so-called reverse nostril - a special hole in the hood of the car.
2. To capture cold air flow from the surrounding atmosphere. This installation scheme is used when the intercooler is placed horizontally (front).

Let's figure out how to make an air intake yourself without extra costs strength to mount it on the hood of your car. Believe me, no special difficulties await you.

2 Making a universal intake - creating a blank

Before starting work, you should prepare the following devices and materials - sandpaper, mastic with fiberglass inclusions, thick film, a sharp knife, putty, polyurethane foam and tape. Scheme self-made The air intake looks like this.

First, create the base for the decorative element. In the area of ​​the hood where the air intake will be mounted, spread a thick film and secure it using mounting tape. Apply foam to the fixed base (as evenly as possible), trying to first give the workpiece the configuration you intended. Then you will need to wait until the mounting compound is completely dry.

After the foam has hardened, arm yourself sandpaper and a sharp knife and give the made base the required outlines and shapes. The work requires attention, perseverance and scrupulousness. Hone your future hood decoration until you get, without exaggeration, the perfect detail.

Cover the prepared universal blank with fiberglass. At this stage you will also have to try, especially if your future air intake will have sharp edges and a complex configuration. Use fiberglass fabric of small thickness (up to 2 mm maximum). To make it fit snugly, you will have to cut the material. Then the outline of the product will turn out clear and beautiful.

Some craftsmen use epoxy adhesive or regular gauze instead of fiberglass. The final result, in principle, will not change. Note. The workpiece will need to be sequentially pasted over with 2–4 layers of material. The total thickness of the fiberglass should be 4–6 cm.

3 We bring a homemade part to mind - make it beautiful

A universal workpiece made according to the scheme described above must be kept for about 24–48 hours. During this time, it will dry well, which will allow you to continue working with it. You will need to cut off all unnecessary parts and protrusions inside the future air intake and make a hole in it through which it will penetrate into the structure air flow. It is advisable to additionally sand the most noticeable defects on the part using sandpaper for this purpose.

The next step is impregnation of the workpiece with mastic. It is optimal if you purchase a composition with fiberglass inclusions. Apply the mastic in a thick layer. This will hide any existing irregularities in the structure. Do not forget to periodically apply the part to the place where it will be installed. This way, during the impregnation process, you will be able to identify gaps between the hood and the intake and immediately eliminate them.

After this, take the putty and begin to fill all the existing pores on the part with it. Experts advise first applying a fairly thick layer of putty composition. And then level the coating by treating it with thin layers of putty. After the composition has dried, take a fine-grain sandpaper and carefully clean the surface of the intake.

Important point! It is often necessary to additionally putty individual areas of the workpiece. You want to get a perfectly smooth surface. Remember this.

There are mere trifles left. Prime the part you made yourself, treat its surface with a degreasing solution and apply paint. There is small nuance. The air intake needs to be painted in several layers. Apply the first coat of paint. Wait 15–30 minutes. Treat the surface with the next layer, take a break again, and so on. Apply the varnish to the painted part in the same way.

4 The long-awaited finale - installation of the structure

The painted and varnished part must be thoroughly dried. And then attach the mesh to it. It will prevent midges and flies from getting inside homemade design. The grid should be prepared in advance. Crop it by required sizes. Be sure to add 1 cm of margin to the calculated parameters (it will allow you to securely attach the mesh to the air flow intake).

The mosquito protection is fixed using a special adhesive mixture. Regular silicone sealant is also suitable for these purposes. If desired, you can paint the mesh (before installing it on the air intake) in the color you need.

Now the homemade structure is completely ready for installation. This is done in two ways:

1. Using sealant (silicone based) and double-sided automotive tape. The latter is used to increase the reliability of air intake fixation. You just need to tape the bottom section of the structure along its entire perimeter with tape.
2. With rivets or bolts. IN in this case you will have to make holes on the surface of the hood for fasteners, install hardware, and then also putty the places where they connect to the body.

Advice. Use sealant to secure the homemade structure. There will be fewer problems, and the result of the operation will be the same. You won't recognize your car! He will become truly original and a little more aggressive. At least externally.

A custom air intake on the hood can not only be a spectacular exterior tuning, but also have a functional purpose. Let's look at how to make an air intake with your own hands and how to install an accessory so as not to harm the car's paintwork.

As practice shows, most often the air intake on the hood is just an addition to pre-installed body kits, arch extensions, etc. Therefore, choose an accessory to suit your taste among ready-made options difficult, and the cost of a finished hood in a non-standard design cannot be called humane.

Previously, we looked at the process of making a fiberglass hood, where the matrix method of manufacturing fiberglass parts was mentioned. The same method is suitable for creating reusable matrices of air intakes on the hood of a car. Below we will consider a simpler manufacturing method, which is better suited for working at home.

To make it you will need:

In this case, we will not consider the issue of painting the air intake in the same color as the hood, since enough has already been said about this in the Painting section.

The air intake is made separately from the hood, since otherwise you simply will not have the opportunity to properly process the internal cavity or install a mesh. How to make an air intake on the hood:

• you will need a stand on which layers of polyurethane foam will be applied;
• after drying, cut the foam with a stationery knife to the shape that will be the lower cavity of the air intake;
• wrap the mold with film;
• Apply sheets of fiberglass evenly with an overlap of 1.5-2 cm, soaking generously polyester resin each layer. Drying between layers is required. To make the surface more even in the future, after the resin has dried, it is better to sand off the humps and overlapping sheets a little. Try to place fiberglass overlaps in different places;
• after the last layer of fiberglass has dried, you can begin rough sanding;
• before puttying, the form can be corrected with technical plasticine;
• You should not expect that you will be able to putty and put the part under the ground the first or even the second time;
• Do-it-yourself priming and painting requires a special tool and an understanding of the process, so it is better to entrust priming and painting to professionals. But if there are no special requirements for the quality of the coating, then the air intake can be coated with acrylic primer from a spray can and then painted with aerosol paint.

Even at the stage of manufacturing the mold, provide a cavity into which you can screw a self-tapping screw to attach the mesh. But you can do it much simpler - glue the mesh with epoxy glue.

Many people consider installing an air intake by screwing it to the hood as vandalism. The bitterness is that sooner or later, pockets of corrosion will appear at the drilling site. It would be a good idea to glue the air intake to the hood, for example, the same epoxy resin. But for this glossy surface The hood will have to be at least matted with sandpaper to ensure adhesion. If the accessory is installed on an unpainted hood, then this is not a problem at all.

It is best to use body sealant for fastening. It will hold the air intake quite firmly and prevent it from damaging the car’s paintwork. As a temporary solution, you can use 3M double-sided tape; to improve adhesion, we recommend a primer used when wrapping cars with vinyl film. But you should be prepared for the fact that the strength of the connection will weaken over time.

The biggest problem with most custom air intakes is the accumulation of dirt and leaves in the internal cavity. Also, do not forget about the aggressive road reagents with which roads are so generously treated in winter time. If in your case the air intake serves its intended purpose - it cools the intercooler, as is implemented in the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, or improves air flow to the air filter, and you had to cut a hole in the hood, wash the cavity with a car wash more often high pressure. Also take anti-corrosion measures at the cutting site and fastenings. When trying on the location of the cutout in the hood, be sure to focus on the internal stiffeners.

Surely each of us, looking at the “pumped up” cars with an exclusive body kit, dreamed of recreating such beauty in our own car. Therefore, I want to help you realize your desires for tuning your car. As one of the options, retrofitting or tuning, I would like to suggest equipping the hood with an air intake made by myself.

You may be surprised, but there are quite a lot of titled cars in the world that are equipped with air intakes, while the latter do not perform any function other than decorating the car. Their main function is to create an aggressive look and emphasize the power of the car, as well as the individuality of the owner. Of course, it is a kind of self-deception to install an addition that, apart from additional resistance, does not give anything to the machine. However, does your car really get so hot that you need to install a special air intake for it? The answer is no! So what should you do, follow principles and think logically, or follow the lead? own desire and just do what you like? If you nevertheless decide to take this step, then I will try to help you realize your desire, and you decide for yourself whether it will be a false air intake or a full one with a hole to direct the air flow into the engine compartment.

The first thing you need to do is stock up on materials, we need: polyurethane foam and thick film. The film is spread on the surface where you intend to install a new body part; it must be cut off with a margin so as not to spoil the paintwork. The foam should be applied evenly, in an even layer, then wait until it hardens completely.

Once everything has hardened, you should end up with a “foamy” block, from which you, like a talented sculptor, will have to cut off all the excess. Don't panic! Just trust your imagination, and as they say, go ahead! Cut and sand until you get the shape you want.

Ultimately, you will have a blank for your air intake, with which you will make the part itself. For this you will need fiberglass, but remember, the more complex the shape of the workpiece (sharp corners), the thinner the material you will have to use. For my sample with “slicked” shapes, I recommend choosing a material whose fiber thickness is 1-2 mm. The number of layers depends on the material itself, but the total thickness should not exceed 4 mm. When gluing curves, it is often necessary to trim the fabric so that it “fits” better on the template, forming the correct shape of the surface.

After gluing, you will have to wait a day for everything to harden properly. Next, we’ll proceed to trimming the excess and shaping the hole, while the mounting foam inside is mercilessly removed. Inner part It is not necessary to sand, this can be done partially.

The next step will be the impregnation phase. If up to this point you have not had to putty, impregnate or tar anything, this can become a serious test and even torture for you. But don’t despair, after successful completion you will have something to brag about and, as they say, “you will have something to tell your grandchildren.” For gluing you will need mastic and fiberglass; often, in order to save money, it is mixed with simple body mastic in a ratio of 1.5 to 1. From time to time it is necessary to “estimate” the future air intake to its location so that, if necessary, you can sand or Apply an additional layer using mastic, thereby leveling out the unevenness of the surface. After we have finished with impregnation, we begin to work with the filler. I do not advise saving on the first layer, the fact is that mastic, as well as fiberglass, can absorb strongly, moreover, it is easier to immediately fill numerous pores thicker than fiberglass than to patch them later. If after this there are still some unevenness, you have the “last” opportunity to level them using body mastic. Now comes the final stage of creating an air intake - coating the product with varnish and paint.

The air intake must be equipped with a mesh so that it does not turn into a “fly catcher”. It is necessary to secure the mesh after you have applied the varnish. Cut the mesh with a margin of 1 cm, it will be useful when fixing the element, for example, with silicone sealant. Of course, there are “in nature” and special compositions created for these matters, but I think nothing bad will happen if you use the usual one. Think about attaching the mesh in advance by making a protrusion on its surface.

First, don't forget to apply finished part layer of soil and degrease the surface. Then we apply several layers of paint, maintaining intervals of about 15 minutes. Then we cover it with several layers of varnish at similar time intervals. Let it dry thoroughly.

Mesh installation

You need to attach a mesh to the air intake so that it does not serve as a trap for flies. You should think about its presence in advance, and do not forget to provide a protrusion for it on the part. When cutting the mesh, you should leave a small margin of about 1 cm; it will be needed when attaching the element. We secure it with silicone sealant, although, if desired, you can use special compounds for these purposes. Before installation, the mesh can be painted black to give it a more attractive look.

Installation of the finished part

There are two ways to attach a finished air intake:

1. Cut a hole on the surface of the body, secure the part with bolts, level and putty the joints.
2. Secure the part with silicone sealant. For reliability, you can also use automotive double-sided tape, gluing it around the perimeter bottom part intake

It’s up to you to decide which of these fastening methods you choose, but it’s better to stick with the second option, because... Extra holes in the body can lead to unnecessary problems.

Now you know that manufacturing and installing an air intake, although labor-intensive, is doable. Be patient and don't panic if things don't work out as expected. After all, all imperfections can be corrected; mastic will perfectly disguise them.

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