I made a short ram a while ago and i had some extra aluminum sheet so im gonna show you how to make a heatshield. The aluminum isnt very thick, easily bendable but not paper-ish. A heat shield can cost anywhere from 20$ on ebay to 80$ for brand name... maybe more. They all do the same thing. Some just look prettier. I made my Intake out of aluminum instead of pcv so i had some left over. (which looks much prettier I might add. This project cost me 0$. You can get aluminum pipe (like duct piping) or aluminum sheets from your hardware store, or home depot for under 10$ (should be around 7 bucks). I hate home depot, they always give me s**t.
Youll need, an aluminum sheet, mine was 24"x12". -depends how big your filter is
3 screws
a drill
tin snips (or whatever to cut through the aluminum, with this stuff you could probably use scissors (good scissors))
and your intake filter
I used to smoke alot of green so you might have to reread some parts lol.
i have the 25$ spectre filter from autozone which is 4" in diameter (inlet) and about 7" long. The circumference of the base is about an inch or so larger than the inlet. (about 5.5in) so this was about how long my piece needed to be to go almost all the way around the filter.
First you will need to bend the sheet from top to bottom in 1.5-2" INCH increments. Looks like this when you are done (dont mind the bend at the top, ill get to that next): mine are more like 2"
Next: match your filter up to the sheet. (this all depends on filter size so this is general.) The way i did it was to slide the bottom of the sheet in between the rubbet inlet on your filter and the metal base of thefilter itself. Itll slide in about 1/8 of an inch. Then bend it down over the cone just to get an idea of where you are going to bend the rest. (look at the picture above to get an idea)
Bend the top of the sheet at the mark as straight of a bend as you can. DO NOT make a hard crease, you really just need a 90 degree angle. Then on your new bend, with your tinsnips, cut along your previous bends to make something that looks like this:
this is sitting on its own:
Then wrap your sheet around your filter, sliding each of the ends you cut in between the rubber inlet and the metal base of the filter.
It should look like this when you are done:
they will overlap, thats okay, just try to get them as far in as you can.
because of the bends in the aluminum, itll try to slide out, shouldnt "spring" out though. Hence the next step...
Drill 3 holes, evenly spaced through the aluminum and into the metal base of the filter. BE VERY CAREFUL that you dont drill out or in, just directly down. Otherwise youll be pokin holes, you dont have to use long screws, just long enough to go through your heat shield and the metal base to hold it there:
It should look like this when you are done:
Now just install it on your intake pipe and you are done!! If it seems like the shield is going to hit the filter, just bend it back, its screwed in its not going anywhere. I had an extra strip of aluminum so i bent it down good and slide it over the top edge to give it some structure. I suggest you do the same.
Thanks for reading, i hope i wasnt too hard to follow!
Finished product:
REVISION: cut two lines and bench all the 3 folds back , creating an open filter, which also deflects heat
Originally Posted by matt5112
