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For now, we’re going to assume it’s OK to use a different filter and as long as we satisfy those 2 requirements we mentioned earlier we should be smog compliant when it comes time to visit the referee.
Our easiest option for building an intake was not building one at all and just using an off the shelf option a company like K&N probably already had among their gazillion applications. As it turns out their 2010 Camaro intake looked like it would suit our needs perfectly!
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| K&N’s 2010 Camaro intake uses a simple elbow shaped tube that we could probably flip to either the right or left of our engine bay and cut up if needed to make fit. It already had a MAF boss molded into it, a fitting for our crankcase to ventilate to and it had the 6 inches of straight 4 inch diameter tubing we needed—perfect! |
Unfortunately, once we unpacked it and tried different configurations it didn’t appear there was any way we were going to be able to make this thing work and close the hood at the same time. With the power steering pump in place the driver’s side of the engine bay was out of the question and even with the lower profile K&N filter on the intake the hood couldn’t close when we flipped it over to the passenger side of the engine bay.
Stealing an idea Justin Samberg (of Samberg Rod & Custom) uses in his radiator kits that integrate a shrouded filter in FRONT of the radiator, we thought if we could cant our radiator setup back a little bit we might have enough room to do the same thing.
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| As I type this I just realized Samberg Rod & Custom is now Samberg Performance Fabrication! Anyways, here’s his radiator kit in an LS1 FD we saw at the Motion Show in Long Beach a couple of weeks ago. |
Justin’s kit is bad ass and a super good deal for what you get! Spend a little over $1,200 with him and you’ll get an efficient dual pass radiator fully shrouded front and back with 2 SPAL fans, the integrated cold air intake setup with a carbon fiber K&N filter, radiator hoses, intake hoses all the way to the throttle body and even a remotely mounted expansion tank for filling and bleeding the cooling system! There’s even provisions to mount a readily available condenser should you also be adding air conditioning to your swap. We would use the Samberg kit in a heartbeat but don’t think we can while still meeting those aforementioned setup requirements to get by the referee… Maybe after we pass though!
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| A worm’s eye view of Samberg’s shrouded radiator. |
Taking another look at what else K&N had that might fit in front of the radiator we found a Z06 Corvette 57 Series FIPK intake setup that looked like it might just about fit in front of the radiator if we tilted it back far enough. We took a chance and ordered it up and while it didn’t have the 6 inch long section of 4 inch tube, that looked like something we could add to it fairly easily.
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| K&N’s Corvette Z06 intake also happens to be CARB legal unlike the Camaro intake we were using before–not that it should matter for us, but it comes with an EO sticker which can be a handy if Johnny Law pulls us over and is trying to decide whether or not to give us a referee ticket! |
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| The carbon fiber filter K&N included in the Z06 FIPK is probably the nicest air filter we’ve ever seen! |
