Hey All,

After poking around on the forums of other Members carving out the interior of their air boxes, I decided that myself (given the amount of free time I have) shall take on this modification.

Tools Used:
- Dremel
- Cutters
- Foam pieces
- FatMat sound dampener (kinda like Dynamat)
- Eye protection! (chips of plastic fly all over the place when you use the Dremel)
- Gloves (I burned my right hand a few times from the hot plastic)


Used a pair of cutter to first break, then cut out the checkerboard fillings on the interior of the intake box. Eventually got fed up with the time consumption of cutting each piece out, so I started crimping and bending with the cutters to break the pieces off. Picked up a Dremel with the sanding bit to sand down any pieces that didnt break...then evened out the base of the box as much as I could. I only had leftover 600 grit, went over the interior of the box a few times.



Next, my roommate made this small rectange of foam pieces glued together (not sure why), so I took parts of it, wedged them together, and stuck them in the bottom gap of the box to fill it up. Did about 3 layers of foam here, didn't really care if there were small gaps as all of it was going to be filled up with the FatMat.





I laid down a first layer of the FatMat to fill in any air holes or pockets. This layer wasn't that important to me since I planned to lay down at least 3 layers of FatMat. I would have used some strong adhesive tape, but I have a whole bunch of this FatMat stuff laying around, figured it was smooth and sticky enough for the mod.



Templates were made for each section of the airbox using the paper-backing peeled off from the FatMat. Just took the paper and cut the lines accordingly with the blade. Eventually got a near-perfect fitting for each layer...




2nd layer went, then the 3rd. I laid down the big middle piece last for a clear pathway to the filter, didn't want any jagged edges to slow down the path.



Viola! Thats it guys, took me a couple of hours to do...planning on doing the top portion of the airbox next week, replace the filter with a BMC or K&N, and wrap the exterior of the box with the remaining FatMat; maybe even making another hole like the Dinan setup.

Again, I take no credit to the originality of this modification, just simply posting my version.

 

Nice, you cut all the plastic pieces that makes the waffle. Now, Diamond did some driving and get the MPG up a little, can you let us know how's the MPG and the sound? This is getting really interesting. Thanks!

 

I went for a test run last night but I couldn't really tell if I got better MPG. I'll have to drive around for a bit to see if theres any difference...haven't gunned it either, I'll try it out later.

 

Thanks for doing this, it really gives me and I'm sure other members some ideas if they want to go this route. How about sound? Is it louder you know?

 

Isn't this really similar to what Miguex and Brabus did to make their DIY "Dinan" box? Theirs was more involved though since it included larger sized piping, plus it was for a V8.

 

Haven't heard anything noticeable yet, but then again I haven't really floored it. Stuck in traffic this morning, bummer.

 

I think my avatar picture justifies my car of having a V8.

 

I suppose it's the same idea, just box different between I6 and V8. I could understand this more since it's for our model, 530. Redeyejedi, did you try the DIY?

 

No I haven't tried to DIY, but maybe John(Brabus) or Miguex could chime in on their feedback using the modified box.

 

Melvin's would be different because he has a 545 as well, we have 530's so I was thinking of trying Diamond's air box mod. Might do it this weekend since I have to drive to Vegas for business next week. That would give me a chance to see if the MPG claims are real or imagined (I really hope they're real)