How's this for a DIY job:


I'm thinking of making a heat shield to prevent hot air going into my engine. I bought the cone off of ebay and attached it to my throttle body. Then found some black tubing from my work and made cold air feeds. Any other advice? I still have some spare black pipe

i think i know what people will say

Its going to suck hot air in as it is on to of the engine

Fiatpuntomk2b said:

i think i know what people will say

Its going to suck hot air in as it is on to of the engine

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Yeah I know that, that's why I suggested making a heat shield

The air comes in through the radiator so a heat shield wont make an ounce of difference.

It also looks horrible and the 2 pipes are bypassing the filter element so the engine will be breathing grit from the wheels. Apart from that its great.

May aswell of just drilled holes into your original air box.

move the filter to the cold air, don't try and do it the other way around it wont work.

TBH the filter can be anywhere in the line but the intake must be cold and holes in the filter defeat its purpose. You may well find it makes absolutely F-all difference apart from making the car slower and more noisy.

Puntodriver1991 said:

May aswell of just drilled holes into your original air box.

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And that would help the engine how? I know it's not the best air filter in the world, but for less than a tenner, it's not bad...

and its going to be a bugger when its cold in the moring, the whole point of the hot air feed from the top of the manifold is to help emmisions and running. Removing that heat source at cold start up surely aint a good thing. And it also looks like the robot from lost in space has got freaky with the engine.

its hardly ever cold enough in the uk for that flap to feed air from manifold to work

I think i can see what your trying to achieve and where people might be getting confused.

There are no holes in the new cone filter thus it will work the same as the old filter.
The cold air ducts are placed either side of the radiator so wont get the warm air from the back of it.

What i cant see from this though is are the cold air feeds facing forwards to force the cold air through to the filter when the car is moving? When not moving the filter will just draw in the warm/hot air as normal.

Also what have you done with the crancase breather pipe as this really needs either feeding back into the inlet or at the very least a catch tank and filter?

I won't give my honest opinion on that current setup but....

It would be much more beneficial to bring the filter to the front of the car or at least away from the top of the engine. Heat WILL affect this current setup, esp in traffic because of where it is. You may even have poorer fuel economy.

You would have to find a suitable cover for the tb assembly, connect a pipe to this and the filter at the other end. Another pipe is then used for bringing cold air to the filter. Voilá, this works much better and is much safer. Those pipes can melt and catch fire if the temp is high enough. And ive seen this happen in the reality, theres a Punto in a scrapyard near me that caught fire ova a bad insulation tape job.... Engine bay completely gutted

Dayjw said:

... I know it's not the best air filter in the world, but for less than a tenner, it's not bad...

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There is a reason GSR induction kits cost £177, they work. If a few BHP costs £177, what makes you think a tenner will IMPROVE bhp? The origional filter costs more than tenner.

You have spent a tenner on engine damage, loss of power and shoddy looks.

AFAICS you have 4 choices with Punto inductions:

1. Leave it alone
2. Get a GSR
3. If its just for noise and the same performance buy a focus induction kit
4. Buy a k&n replacement panel filter for the origional airbox.

BTW, how much did your insurance add to your premium when you told them you had a DIY, bodged induction, or do they not know?

smokeyjoe03 said:

There is a reason GSR induction kits cost £177, they work. If a few BHP costs £177, what makes you think a tenner will IMPROVE bhp? The origional filter costs more than tenner.

You have spent a tenner on engine damage, loss of power and shoddy looks.

AFAICS you have 4 choices with Punto inductions:

1. Leave it alone
2. Get a GSR
3. If its just for noise and the same performance buy a focus induction kit
4. Buy a k&n replacement panel filter for the origional airbox.

BTW, how much did your insurance add to your premium when you told them you had a DIY, bodged induction, or do they not know?

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It might be a "bodged" induction, but it's not a permanent thing. Funds are low and a wanted a bit more engine noise. And I haven't told my insurance YET as, yet again, it is not a permanent thing.

I wanted a bit of advice tbh and preferably make my own, as I have alot of stainless steel tubing at work I could get my hands on and funds aren't exactly at an all time high. Is there anything I could use to cover the tb and then connect a piece of tube to the filter, like the GSR?

OK, so we've character assassinated the OP's original idea. For now put it back to standard and think about your stainless tube and silicone system.
1 It will need to be securely mounted but flexible enough to not snap with engine movement.
2 The tube bore needs to be at least as big as the original Fiat air pipe.
3 In terms of flow resistance every 90 degree bend adds another meter of pipe length.
4 Dont forget to tune the correct length otherwise you will get standing waves that reduce the air flow and sound horrible. For that you need a dyno and some fancy software.
5 Dont use corrugated ducts they have a horrendous effect on airflow

On balance a GSR would be cheaper and it wont sound almost exactly like the filter pipe just fell off.

TBH you would get more performance by servicing the brakes, engine oil, and radiator coolant.

PS Dont forget about the engine breather pipe - its currently dumping oil on the road and fumes into the car.