check out my "homemade" power pipe!

finally got some time to put all my pieces together that came in over the last week. Took me a total of 30 minutes, 25 of that was cutting the pipe with a coping saw.

Here is a break down of the parts used

1)3.5 inch aluminum pipe with a 90* bend in the middle. Pipe length was a total of 24" inches. Eyeballing the engine bay I thought I could possibly go with a smaller pipe, but the 24" length is important. Pipe cost was 19.00 plus shipping from ebay.

2) I opted to go with rubber couplings rather than silicone to save some money. A silicone coupling was running 20.00 and up. Rubber couplings of the same size(3.5") were 5.00 a pop and came with band clamps, I scored these from ebay as well.

3) 87mm PRO-M maf. I scored this for 50.00 off the classified boards and it came with the adapter bracket for the flange and an air filter. Depending if your intake set up is stock or not you may need to factor in the cost of a flange adapter and/or cone filter.

So total cost for me including the MAF since I have recently done the conversion on my 87 was 85.00 with shipping. Just the pipes and rubber elbows were 35.00. The cheapest used power pipe I have seen went for 115 with most in the 150 range. The price for a 4" system is roughly the same price so for anyone needing bigger plumbing it wont cost much more.

The first step was to put the rubber elbow on the throttle body. I am using a BBK 70mm that came one my Edelbrock intake. 70mm if you convert to standard is close to 3". The 3.5" rubber coupling fit a lot tighter than I thought it would and held on nicely after I tightened down the clamp.

The second step was to lay the pipe next to the rubber elbow and measure how much would need to be trimmed in order for it to fit through the hole in the fire wall. In my case it was 4.5" and this was the only cut I had to make.(well I made it twice since I had a hand saw and the blade walked on me and I had to clean it up) A band saw or sawz-all will shave 19 minutes off of my time.
After putting my newly cut pipe into the 90* coupling on the TB it lined up nicely with the hole in the firewall.
The third step was to widen the hole in the firewall. The hole is nearly big enough to accomodate the 3.5" pipe. With some heavy pushing I am sure I could have shoved it in there, but that is hack.
I used a pair of heavy Klein plyers and from inside the wheel well I gently crimped the edges of the hole. Using small movements and pulling towards me I had managed to widen the hole enough for the pipe to slide in easily in about 2 minutes.

All that is left now is to re-run the maf wiring to the fender.

Here is a pic of the pipe mocked on the table and one of the engine bay side of the car. There is plenty of room in the fender well and my tire does not rub at full lock.
Dont mind the engine bay. Its a work in progress.

Now that I have time to sit back and admire my handy work I am not happy with the couplings. They work, but they bend on the inside is too sharp and the rubber hits the IAC when the pipe is installed. It works for now, but I will be replacing them with something else in the near future.

I know this is super super old, but what did you use to cut the 4" hole? And is this still working out good for you?

I used a pair of crimps to work the edges of the hole that was already in the fender. Go slowly and it will be fairly easy. Pipe still works great.

Ahh I see, I welded in all my holes lol

4" hole saw. That's a 40 dollar bit though

Not at harbor freight!

Let's hope that harbor freight tool gets it done the first time. It's garbage after that.