NAPA AUTO----napa site--search-intake. i just did it a nd saw the whole list of pieces . i think filters are on a different page. tubes start at $11. !!!!!!

 

If it's indeed aluminum, go for it, but I bet you found the ricer stuff that's mostly painted plastic. With that said, alot of Cobalt guys are making custom intakes as described.

 

There is a fair amount of professional engineering that goes into building a quality product. While pieces and parts connected together with clamps and hoses every few inches may be what you're looking for, it's not likely to turn out like the professionally engineered products being offered. On the other hand, depending on your objective, you may get exactly what you're looking for (shiny, less expensive, whatever).

Having said all that, here are some pseudo-random comments on the value of hard IC pipes--

• hard IC pipes are relatively expensive for the immediate performance benefits. You're replacing plastic pipes with metal... so they're now heavier (nominally).
• metal sinks more heat (nominally, especially thanks to the charge speed).
• metal gives you a "round" cross-section, which, in terms of laminar air flow, is better than the stock pipes. However, under turbo pressure, the significance of laminar flow is partially mitigated.
• metal gives you pipes that don't "breathe" when they get pressurized, thus accelerating system pressurization (nominally, though the silicon hose connection points still do, also nominally).

... I'm tired of typing. That is all.

 

I'm not sure how this project ended up:

Home-Grown CAI

 

some things are over engineered and turn out to be junk . most anything that you bolt on has got to be better than that 20 pound boat achor thing that comes from the factory. like somebody tried to tell me that what NASA does with trillions of $ of our tax money is so important. he said they give us great inventions like TANG. i'd be willing to make a wager that the 1 the guy on here built in his garage flows just as well as any thing on the market , maybe better. i agree about the metal being more stable , if that is what you were saying, but metal is also effected by heat. GM did not put any metal in the stock breather, except there may be a few gromets and a couple of clamps. what you described about putting a few pieces together is exactly what came on it from the factory, even in the most expensive , and highest performance vehicles in the world, including NASA. i do understand that the stock breather is a muffler , just like the one on the exhaust. so the engineering was more for sound than performance.

 

IC piping..metal doesn't expand the same way as plastic under pressure..so the plastic acts like a damper..undesirable.

 

What's a little C gas, never killed anyo... oh wait... yeah it has. I think it's been said plenty of times but what's one more. Don't do it!

 

I know plenty of people who have fabricated intakes from all manner of plastic piping. None to my knowledge have every had any temperature related issues.

This outfit carries all manner of aluminum tubing, rubber elbows, couplers, humps, etc. to roll your own.

 

Something to consider when designing or purchasing an intake sytem. Yes I know this is pretty basic for many of you, but judging from some systems (aftermarket included) there are other folks that don't seem to get the basics of cold air intake. Here is one of many write-ups on the subject. http://www.kennebell.net/techinfo/ge...AirWARNING.pdf