Installing a Cold Air Intake and Pod Filter in your FTO

Basic Modifications Part 1:

COLD AIR INTAKE
The very first thing you should upgrade when thinking about performance is the air induction system. The standard FTO air intake box & filter is very restrictive compared to an aftermarket setup. There are varied opinions on the best way to do this, however the general idea is to replace the standard intake piping with a larger diameter pipe, high flow performance pod filter and to design the CAI with gradual bends instead of sharp 90 degree turns where possible. It is best to enclose the filter & as much of the piping as practically possible inside an airbox,and run a cold iar feeder pipe/s from the front bar directly into the box.

example using stock intake box, with feeder pipe & replacing stock piping & filter (K&N Performance Tray filter used)


You will find a more in depth guide and a better explanation of the principles behind building a custom CAI at;
http://www.ftowa.com/html/workshop/workshopart10.html
There are also a few posts littered around the site on building a custom setup, a quick search should give quite a few results.

One of the quickest & easiest and most beneficial ways to upgrade your CAI system is to purchase an off the shelf system & simply drop it in, this is also one of the most expensive ways to go about it. If you have the money and want to avoid alot of the hassle of making your own, UAS (Unique Auto Sports) sell an aftermarket CAI system designed for the FTO (among other things), these guys have already done the legwork in designing & testing the systems for best performance (This kit may no longer be in production).
http://www.uniqueautosports.com/pricelists/pricelist_fto.htm

If you would like to save a fair chunk of cash then you could design / build the system yourself, it may even provide better performance gains if done properly, and can look better ( which of course, is the most important thing )

Sourcing the parts;
If you have a very restrictive budget, you can drop into your local Bunnings & pick up some PVC pipe, or take an excursion to your local wreckers.
Ebay is a great source for piping, rubber or silicon joiner pipes, pod filters, heat shielding or any other gear you might need.
Autobarn/Repco/Supercheap etc sell a range of equipment from piping to pods.

Building the system;

There are a few ways to approach making the system, if you want to do it properly, you are best off moving the battery to the boot, purchasing a smaller sized battery, or getting a new battery tray & moving it over slightly. Best to have this done before you start, once the battery is gone you will have a much larger space to work with.

The Filter:

There are a lot of different opinions on what is the best pod filter to get. You can't go wrong with any of the name brands, HKS, APEXi, K&N, etc but in deciding what one to get you have to take into consideration what you want to get out of it - stay away from cheapo no name brand pods, or unfamiliar brands on ebay etc.



Of course, you will get the best performance out of it if you have no filter at all & an intake pipe running from the front of the grill straight into the engine, but you will most likely kill the engine pretty quickly with all the crap that will go into it.

While we're talking Air filters, you will find a list of available filters here;
http://www.mitsubishi-fto.org/parts/air-filters/index.html

Piping;
You can have the piping as large as you like leading up to the throttle body, I however would not go larger than 4" piping with 4" outlet on the Pod filter (the TB intake is only 3" - so there is no need to go any bigger than that for the piping), and no less than 3" piping & 3" Pod filter diameter.
If you are going with 3" piping, you will need a Pod Filter with a 3" outlet.

Alloy, Aluminium or stainless steel piping looks hot! and it actually is hotter.. rubber piping generally takes longer to heat up than a metal intake pipe and is used in the UAS intake system for this reason. If you're after every kw of performance you can get you would want to go for rubber piping, but when the shiny piping looks so good how can you resist?

to reduce the temperature of the piping you can put a wall of heat shielding along the length of the pipe and direct the hot air flow away from the intake system.

Airbox/heatshielding/Mounting the pod:

There are several ways to approach the design of the system, you can;

Choose to keep the stock airbox in place and put in larger piping from the box to the intake manifold and replace the factory panel filter with a high-flow panel filter (which you can find at http://www.rpw.com.au/ for around $100-120AUD)
Advantages / Disadvantages:
The stock airbox will provide adequate protection from taking in hot air from the engine bay, and better flow from the larger piping and filter, but you are still restricted by the amount of airflow coming into the airbox from the factory feeder pipe.

Remove the stock airbox, and replace all factory piping with larger piping & mount a high flow Pod filter (or similar) in the space where the airbox used to be.

example - my setup without enclosure;

Advantages / Disadvantages:
By doing this, you remove the restrictions caused by the stock airbox and piping, however, it is now going to be sucking in the hot air from the engine bay - so it is not much better than the enclosed stock setup... to achieve best results, you need to suck in as much cold air as possible. You can improve upon this by installing some heat shielding, or making a custom box for the pod / air ram pipe from front bar etc.

[you]Remove the stock airbox, replace all piping, and mount the high flow Pod filter lower down in the engine bay towards the ground or front grill.[/you]
Advantages / Disadvantages:
By mounting the Pod filter as close to the ground or front grill as possible, you will be sucking in the most cold air that you can, but with it being near the ground, you will also sucking in dirt, water, mud & road grime, which will not only cause you to have to replace filters more often, but you do not want to be sucking water into the engine. The air also would now have further to travel through a 3" pipe into the engine. There are some people who think this is a good idea, but IMHO not ideal.

[you]Keep the stock airbox in place or build a custom airbox, run a new larger feeder pipe into it from near the ground for cold air, put in larger piping from the box to the intake manifold, and mount a high flow Pod Filter (or similar) inside the airbox.[/you]

example #1 - Stock airbox, upgraded K&N panel filter, cold air feeder pipe & larger piping to TB


example #2 - Custom airbox, pod filter, CAI feeder pipe & larger piping to TB

Advantages / Disadvantages:
I have left this to last, because to me this seems like the most ideal situation for the FTO. You get the best of both worlds; cold air from near the ground or front grill is fed up into the air box through a feeder pipe, and any water/mud etc should not make it up to the air filter, (use as large diameter piping as possible), the air box shields the pod filter from the ambient heat of the engine bay, and the hot air being blown through the fans..)
This guide has come from ftoaustralia