• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Home brew spectra cai????

Demonoid369

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Salem, OR
ymasugyn.jpg

esyzeren.jpg

Looking at the dimensions of the spectra unit it's 3"-4" coupler, tube then coupler again, unit is $80 dollars, filter is $30. So that's $50 used to make a shiny metal one :/ has anyone tried this? Make one out of PVC plumbing? Thinking about trying but unsure.
 
You wouldnt be the first person to make your own intake, although you're missing a bunch of parts there.
 
I'm not talking about the rest like the tb connection or the part to the cowl but the unit as itself. I've been searching and searching and it seems like everyone just buys the whole spectra kit or the filter/canister unit but I haven't seen anyone try and make their own
 
Not for XJ's, but I have seen this attempted on other vehicles.
{The PVC ends up outgassing when it gets hot.

I would just avoid it, the stock intake works just fine
 
...why would they bother? That unit isn't very expensive, and doesn't have a very good filter.

If you are okay with a crappy air filter and just want a cowl intake, you might as well just buy theirs.

If you are going to do work, there are a hundred ways to do something better.
 
...why would they bother? That unit isn't very expensive, and doesn't have a very good filter.

If you are okay with a crappy air filter and just want a cowl intake, you might as well just buy theirs.

If you are going to do work, there are a hundred ways to do something better.

The filters $30 and it would cost me about $10-$12 to make the PVC version, that basically half the price of the spectra, sounds to me like a win win. Have you tried their filters?






{The PVC ends up outgassing when it gets hot.

^ what do you mean by this? And I don't have a stock air box, that's the reasoning behind this, I have a K&N cold air intake but since its under the hood, I doubt its really getting cold air, heckle why I want to try this. What if I wrapped the PVC with some heat shield? I plan on putting some already between the manifold and header
 
Also, you are showing ABS plastic in the picture.

There is a difference between a cowl intake, which I think is what you are talking about? Once it heat soaks from running across the motor it will not be a cold air intake anymore. Maybe 10 minutes and it will be worthless as far as dramatically cooling the intake air.... a true cai diverts things away from hot stuff and usually in water ways and places that ruin filters and motors. Not over the top of the entire engine...

Also the heating and cooling of the ABS will make it brittle.over time. Leave some out in the sun over the summer and whack it with a hammer, it will shatter. You can monkey with it and make it, but id rather spend a little extra money and have a kit that bolts right up.
 
Well the plan was to wrap it with heat shield(2000deg) and its going to connect in to the driver side cowl, so it wouldn't be over the engine, yes I know my master cylinder is there and wires but I see an opening that'll work.
 
Well the plan was to wrap it with heat shield(2000deg) and its going to connect in to the driver side cowl, so it wouldn't be over the engine, yes I know my master cylinder is there and wires but I see an opening that'll work.

master cylinder and wires .. and exhaust. Thats the hottest part of your engine bay..
 
Also, you are showing ABS plastic in the picture.

There is a difference between a cowl intake, which I think is what you are talking about? Once it heat soaks from running across the motor it will not be a cold air intake anymore. Maybe 10 minutes and it will be worthless as far as dramatically cooling the intake air.... a true cai diverts things away from hot stuff and usually in water ways and places that ruin filters and motors. Not over the top of the entire engine...

Also the heating and cooling of the ABS will make it brittle.over time. Leave some out in the sun over the summer and whack it with a hammer, it will shatter. You can monkey with it and make it, but id rather spend a little extra money and have a kit that bolts right up.

Problem is that the way I want to set it up, there is no kit, mine is a 97' Cherokee and theirs goes to the passengers side, and the renix version loops over the engine before going to the driver side, mine is literally going to go from the tb to the driver side, like 24" max distance I think?
 
The filters $30 and it would cost me about $10-$12 to make the PVC version, that basically half the price of the spectra, sounds to me like a win win. Have you tried their filters?

My ex roommate used their filter. Has to clean it after driving to work..


Way too small for a 4 liter.
 
master cylinder and wires .. and exhaust. Thats the hottest part of your engine bay..

Hence the heat shield, also I mentioned earlier that I plan in putting hear shield between the manifold and header which should also drop the temp down more
 
Problem is that the way I want to set it up, there is no kit, mine is a 97' Cherokee and theirs goes to the passengers side, and the renix version loops over the engine before going to the driver side, mine is literally going to go from the tb to the driver side, like 24" max distance I think?

I don't think their design is "the problem" its just done that way to utilize space. I can see where you'd like to run it to the drivers side, haven't seen it dome, don't know if it will work or not? But really anything under an xj Hood is going to heat soak short of running a tube directly forward and down to fresh air... I was just hitting on the facts of its not a cai, at all. Its done to have a little extra protection when water becomes an issue, about 4" or so difference. And ABS or PVC will get brittle from heat cycles in the engine bay, ABS can even melt.

I did plumbing for new buildings in Las Vegas for about a year and any time we dropped off ABS on a job site we had to.cover it from.the sun if it sat longer than a week.

Experiment with it, or buy the kit.... its funny how threads like this start asking if people have done it and when people point out negatives the op fights to say they are right to save $20... go build it and report back in a year
 
I don't think their design is "the problem" its just done that way to utilize space. I can see where you'd like to run it to the drivers side, haven't seen it dome, don't know if it will work or not? But really anything under an xj Hood is going to heat soak short of running a tube directly forward and down to fresh air... I was just hitting on the facts of its not a cai, at all. Its done to have a little extra protection when water becomes an issue, about 4" or so difference. And ABS or PVC will get brittle from heat cycles in the engine bay, ABS can even melt.

I did plumbing for new buildings in Las Vegas for about a year and any time we dropped off ABS on a job site we had to.cover it from.the sun if it sat longer than a week.

Experiment with it, or buy the kit.... its funny how threads like this start asking if people have done it and when people point out negatives the op fights to say they are right to save $20... go build it and report back in a year

Not saying I'm right, never done it so I can't know and since it looks like no one else has either, they can't know either, right now its a matter of bouncing ideas, because I've still mentioned using heat shield between manifold and header. And wrapping the PVC or what ever the material it is in heat shield also but I haven't gotten a answer to that,that's the problem lol it seems like you guys are reading it as I'm just straight piping without trying to avoid or lower the heat soak.
 
I don't think their design is "the problem" its just done that way to utilize space. I can see where you'd like to run it to the drivers side, haven't seen it dome, don't know if it will work or not?
I never said their design is the problem, they did it the way the bodies are made, the renix I do believe has the master cylinder sitting lower allowing for the cai to be mounted on that aside but I think H.O. And later master cylinder is sitting higher so the cai had to be routed to the passenger side, as far as I can tell anyway. So they're not flawed or the problem, just not how I want to do it.
 
I'm thinking about doing it just so I can run a second battery and run my winch off of it, but my renix has like 5 hoses that runs into the air box that I would need to figure out where to put them
 
I wish we could get away with this in the people's republik of Kalifornia. The smog stormtroopers don't want us to do anything they have not approved even if it makes our rigs cleaner running. I effing hate CA sometimes.
 
Back
Top