Cold air Intake? - Not a Joke or Noob question

wonder if I could work that boot on the filter, if it was flat would make a big difference that's 3 inches tall by itself, van't weld rubber thou, any ideeas?

 

3" Black Cone Short RAM Cold Intake Tapered Heat Shielded Meshed Air Filter New | eBay

just ordered it hope it's smaller, it was cheap enough

 

man how big are this dudes hands? those filters should be about the same size as mine , maybe I should ask him
3" High Flow Dry Cone Air Intake Filter Blue Chrome Turbo Cold Air Intake MAF | eBay

 

might have a winner here: Universal 3” 76mm Air Intake Racing Clamp on Washable Filter Narrow Cone Blue | eBay
too bad it's in china itwould take a while to get here

IT GETS BETTER 3 inches 3" 76 mm Cold Air Intake Cone Filter Quality Red Jeep | eBay

THESE NAROW ONES ARE AN IDEEA TOO, AFTERALL I NEED THE SPACE 3 5 inches 3 5" 89 mm Cold Air Intake Cone Narrow Air Filter Blue Mazda | eBay
ordered rhis one too 3" Universal High Performance JDM Mushroom Cold Air Intake Short Mesh RAM Filter | eBay
could have had a custom made k$n by now

 

"crankcase venting hoses"

 

Good Job on the housing creation! I know my woman wouldn't let me cut holes in her hood. Good luck with that!! lol - probably better luck with that Greddy looking blue air filter you ordered with the lower profile.

 

figured your googleing skills would come in handy, now what about the little one in the back of the tb, looks like a vacum and goes to a sensor, does this engine employ a map sensor too? I thought it would be one or the other, heard of setups with both never seen one before, I'll tell you where I am going with this, in my other project I have to drill a nozzle for 2 map signals, if that what this is might just tap into it, got more pics, I just finished putting a couple coats of grill paint on it, I may paint it blue on top of that but it will probably flake off if it gets too hot
one last thing what is the storry with those fancy maf sensors you boys are running? thought I blew mine in the process turns out just got dirty, but I might as well look into it.
I also ordered this : kindof girly, 3" Universal High Performance JDM Mushroom Cold Air Intake Short Mesh RAM Filter | eBay
the narow ones I did not get, I may but from what I seen they are 6 inches tall, I was looking at mine today, held it in hand, and it's not that big just everything else under that hood is that small makes it look huge, looks like the elements are fitted to the flange and top with some sort of hotglue, anybody know anything about that? wonder if I could shorten it a couple inches, still waiting on the ebay stuff to come in

 

According to TB cleaning the yellow arrow is pointing to the hose that connects to the vacuum switching valve.. part of the EVAP system.

As far as I'm aware the Gen1 still had a MAP sensor - the Gen2 has pretty much the same thing built into the MAF sensor.

From what I've seen of other LPG installs (haven'ts seen many) I've seen the manifold tapped right behind the TB for most likely the 2 MAP signals your wanting.

Might be able to tap into the HCAC

 

just read through the links you posted, I try not to absorb too much or the lid would pop, I did notice something that may be of interest, looking at a coolant skematic, those TB hoses apear to tap into the cabin heater circuit, I read somewhere this car has 4 coolant pumps, so far I counted 3 , point is there is a coolant control valve and a heater pump, if these lines come from the cabin heat they would be off anyhow when the heat is off and open when heat is on, I don't know if you all did anything bypassing the TB, my concern since I live in Michigan is there continuous flow to the TB or not, I need to tap into the heat somewhere, most paralel to the heater core for constant flow. thou on this car even that seems pointless, anybody else ever looked at this?
I realise that this should be discussed elsewhere, thou in this case, did you guys actualy "downgrade" by bypassing those hoses? if the TB is only heated when the heater is on! thou that does not make much sence either, I need to look further

 

well boys and girls I have an upate for you, more pics and some findings.
My Fleabay filters were all delivered today and I could not get off work fast enough.

there's a pic side by side, now you may not notice in the pics but for $9.25 delivered they are all assembly line rejects, exept for the foam one that's just a bad Ideea put together well, they are all good filters otherwise, but $5 was likely shipping from cali to michigan, most of the rest shipping from china to cali. they all have a metal base and a snapon rubber boot, the blue one the short ram typesimmilar size as the $20 spectre, shorter boot still too tall can't use it just yet, if you notice in the pic it's also a bit crooked, and that is at a good angle, that's why it got kicked off the assembly line, a good filter otherwise and I would not hesitate using it just not much I can do with it on this project.
the black one, well that is actualy pretty cool
it'a defect the round chrome cap was screwed on crooked ( don't care, probl wont use it ) and the base is real loose on the snap boot, not sure if it was ment to be this way, likely a defect too. bit taller than the foam one just about as wide as all of them 6" about the perfect cross between the motorcycle Ideea and a full size 3" I think this one is my best bet.
now the blue foam, well made thou like I said bad Ideea, I think the add said stainless, go figure shiny plastic, can't say I did not see it comming but the whole Idea abut buying these filters was that they are cheap to experiment with ,there are better ones, and the holy grail HKS, this is a cool ornament at best, and it was the first one I tried, since it had the lowest profile I could easily close the hood on top of. I'm not even going to coment on filtering capabilities, likely crap, but again these are just to get a feel for size.
here is my sortof finished custom handmade air meter built to factory specs to the best of my driveways capabilities, I'm sure I am off a fraction here and there, a lathe or cnc could do better (if any of you have access to such equipment I'd be interested to find out what can be done), but I don't have one laying arround in the garage, never used Cad to design parts either, I was born with such built in.
one thing I noticed, food for thought for you boys running the aftermarket cnc mount, there are a few holes at the bottom of the sensor, they may be breathers, for the sensor does not overheat, from what I could see in your pics you are covering them, not sure how good of an Ideea that is, works for now I guess, also much larger contact surface, aluminum is a dam good heat sump too, chack and see how hot that pipe gets after a good drive

 

figured I'd break this up, lost a good mesage earlier. here it is mounted, dont look bad at all from a couple feet away

and here's a shot with the girly plastic filter on, notice the focus here is to showcase all the room I have now ( reason I tackled this in the first place)

 

now I removed the rubber strip on the hood to alow some air to sneak up under and we went for a drive, returned the red $20 filter, and a piece of conduit, I could not use, some mixed city drving and a few freeway miles at 55, just to make sure it works up to operating temps, only about 15 miles but so far no codes, I'd hate to jinx it but I think that is where the exact meter diameter comes into play, could not tell you more till further testing, not sure what was going on on the setup without the permanent filter, the different media? who knows, my vacum exhaust carbon activated 3" pads are not here yet.
Now I never drove this car so there was no sense me testdriving it, the wife did all that, here's what I can tell you for a fact you draw your own conclusions, I just realized I should have had my scaner pluged in, I'll check it tomorow, with our routine lately we have been getting a pretty solid, 47.5 mpg, 10 mile drive one way, most stores are within a mile, you could tell when the wife went shopping just by the crapy mpg from all these 1 mile trips. Since this project started we've been running arround town to find just the right pipe, logged a few more miles than usual on one warm up, before this setup there were 48.6mpg showing over aprox 220 miles since reset, at the end of the test it showed 48.7 over 235 miles since last reset, as long if it doesn't do something stupid like 44 I'm ok with it, if it keeps going up I am even more confortable.
now there is a simple explination for all this if you care to know, the wife is not very mechanical, I don't think she understands what those filters do, thow we know eachother since we were kids, even than she did ask is this supposed to change the performance? I said sure, how bad is it? just slightly not enough to write home about wasn't sure I should say something, I asked her how it compares to the new C she testdrove last fall, again she says: I almoast wanted to mention that it drives almoast like a C, that was her complain with the C felt lazy, likely the underpowered electric setup rather than the gas motor in that case but she would not know better.
Now here's my take on it so far: The air meter is working just fine, I did not notice this before, never paid atention, those of you that believe the prius has a stock warm air setup keep telling yourself that, who knows it might become true one day, truth be told the stock intake is no warmer than the best K&N cold air intake setup regardless of what make and model car we are talking about. Have a close look at this pic

 

I feel retarded for not looking at it for myself before, spent enough time under that hood this week, but I remember some posts early on debating weather the prius can cope with a cold air setup, that the car is not build for it, I don't know what that was all about but thats just as good as a "high end top of the line" aftermarket, notice the snorcle is pointed backwards away from the rad fan and it's shielded? that's just as good as a K&N setup, these cars pull air from behind the headlight, stock, and I don't care what anybody else has to say about it.
Now personaly, I don't consider this a "cold air setup" and as far as I am concerned neither is any comercialy available kit, but that is what they are refered to.
now this is a cold air setup:
back from my younger days, bit of a ram air too dont you think, that is a custom made fiberglass air box, bolted to the motor, there is a double wide airhog in there, plummed right into the throttle body, it's a stickshift too, and it rocks with the motor, I got into so much trouble with that truck I ended up giving it to my dad, and he's the coolest substitute teacher in the Detroit metro area, ask your kids. and that's only a 4 cyl that got many people wondering what's in there, granted, reaction time adds a few horses, double cluching and all that good stuff, lost count how many daddys boys in borowed camaros did not know what hit them, did that setup make a difference? tell yourself whatever makes you sleep at night, not trying to sell anybody on it. Dont care much to advertise that's my old truck either that was a while ago, let's just say I found that picture online.

 

now back on topic, why did I lost some power and got better mileage, well I changed a "cold air intake" into a warm air, less dense, my meter works like a charm, noticed the difference gave it less gas, lost a few horses and got better mileage, that's what that "Fuel cracking myth" is all about and there is plenty of "proven backyard science" on you tube about that (look who's talking), and that's why the car drove like a prius C in eco mode, and no I did not dino it, nor do I plan to, and this is about as scientific as it's going to get. ( I couldn't tell you why the one setup with the backwards drain elbow yelded much less gas mileage, bit of a contradiction, pretty flat arround here I could see how one could destroy mpg on a hilly terain).
now did I see this comming? what do you think? thou I did not pay atention to the snorcle before, I did mention a few posts back a box was in the works, also there was talk about cutting the hood ( maybe a pulsar intercooler type ), bottom line I was planning on a cold air in the first place, never much understood what the fuss was all about, misinformed I guess,
so what was I doing tonite? just testing filters and my airmeter, and so far so good, I gave it $hit for air, ran like $hit, as a sideefect, lightened the wifes right foot and got a little bit better gasmileage and I did not expect a dam thing different, was it more efficient? now don't get things confused, I'm not saing that truck was faster while the gas mileage got better either.
aywho back on the pretty filter, car is blue wife has blue eyes, it was a good Ideea, and I'm not certain, I was in a bit of a hurry to try it, did not pay much attention before, but I did notice some cracks in the pretty "stainless" after the 15 miles, I think the heat was getting to it, like I said a bad Ideea, built well thou, that rubber boot might be the ony thing under the hood grade on it, and I may be able to use it.
at the end of the day I threw the small red one on it, just to compare apples to apples, see if it throws a code or something I do expect it to run just as bad, well might be ok for a second till it gets up to temp if anything, I was planning to use it anyhow as it's the smallest one and likely the best fit cfm wise if you will, got enough room left and the hood closes even with the silly cap on, it's just covering the crooked threaded hole right now, one bad thing about this one , it has a simmilar rubber boot on a metal flange loose as can be the dam thing would almoast spin in the wind like a windmill, this would take the smallest box, and at the end of the day that was the goal, make some room without destroying performance nor gasmileage, made some progress but I am not there yet. One thing I can say about removing the Honney comb, my understanding it is between the frame and fender (did not take any of that off yet) That is absolutely the best "intake upgrade" your average joe could do to a prius, those that done it acomplished a better cold air intake than K&N makes as they are drawing air from the fender as the original poster thought that's where it comes from stock (wrong but good Ideea), however it has been mentioned once, and nobody thought twice on it, that is a bad spot, a decent splash and you hydolocked the motor, the old chrysler minivans had a simmilar setup stock and they were notorious for that. Same goes for those of you running a cone in there, easy on the puddles, I would not run it like that period, I'd rather have the stock whith out the honeycomb at best.
As for the intake noise it was not too bad with the pretty filter thou it sounded chocked to me, the wife had to run to work tonite for an oncall, with the red filter, noise is lowder, car ran better but not as good as stock, keep in mind we had it parked for a few hours, the hood was up for a bit, that engine bay cooled off and it's only 10 miles to work, where it was pretty hot in there earlier, still no codes yet too soon to say thou, box is in the works no doubt, and if you care to know 20 miles later the display is now showing 48.8 mpg but I could have told you that a couple days ago, some would not believe it then, nor now and that is fine call it what you will I can live with it, there is no gain in performance yet, no better throttle response it's actually slightly less than stock, and that is perfectly normal however I do expect it to meet or exceed stock once the air box is in place, stay tuned, I'll keep you all posted.

 

I have a bit of an update and I could also use a bit of input to move further,
We logged a few more miles today on the red cone, that silver cap deffinately touches the hood insulation as there is a dent in it, but it wont be there much longer, now this one is a real filter and I do believe it's just the right size, logged 10 miles at 8 am to work, a short chore at about noon and 10 more home just now, I checked the filter and my meter and they are cool to the touch thou the intake and TB is pretty hot, my trusted testdriver indicated a clear lack of power, not enough to write home about deffinately much better than the blue ornament, not as good as stock but just bearly enough to notice, I had a look at the plastic cover over the rad bracket, and it apeared to raise the profile about 1 inch so off it went now there's 3 things in the way that I would love to do away with, at least the rad reservoir cap I would love to lower an inch or so, to where the vent hose is just below the rad brace, I can cut that tube down, no big deal just have to figure out how to fit a new cap and vent on it, I am not familiar with imports maybe a different model has a tank that would suit me better?
the rad fill cap same thing, but that is a high pressure high temp piece of plastic, no joke there, now have a look at this pic
now that looks like an oring fitted with a clip, I wonder if a corola or something might have something shorter, Justdidit this is where your crossrefrence skills come in, I could use some help here, there is also a bracket for an AC line bolted there, but that's metal I gor that one I took a picture with the hood poped you can see the filter through, tried it with the hood down too but the pic don't show much
now I could work arround all that or just leave it as is, it ought to be pretty close to stock by now, but I am not one to leave well enough alone, I will hit the junkyards see what can I work with but this is michigan not known for an abundance of imports. oh and as for the mpg display it went up another point it is now at 48.9, now mind you before all this running arround our daily routine yelded a pretty solid 47.5, at the time of the experiments started with 220 miles on the clock at 48.6, I know exactly why that is and it makes perfect sense, it's in no way more efficient, so don't get the wrong Ideea, but it deffinately gets better gas mileage, and you can duplicate the same result by lightening the right foot.
any input, leads would be apreciated I'm off to ebay for Ideeas

 

2004-2007 TOTOTA PRIUS 1.5L 4CYL 1ROW PERFORMANCE ALUMINUM RADIATOR UPGRADE KIT

have a look at this, I don't care to go thet far but just a shorter fill neck would be nice

 

Found this PDF of the P0171 code - interesting info...

 

thanks.

 

I have a bit of an update too, meant to write it up last night but passed out, bought some cheap cardboard at dollar store couple days ago and last night had a chance to play with it and mock up a ram box which I intent to mount under the hood, took some pics but did not get to upload them, in the mean time I am running the plain filter warm air just like you all last saw it and the new tank yielded an even 50mpg, never had that before, granted weather got a little warmer and that may have something to do with it and my trusty test driver can't tell the difference any more just the intake noise.
my 3 " carbon filters were delivered too, took a while but I shall experiment with them shortly,
I cut down the expansion tank neck and it is below the upper rad support now, also shortened the rad blow nipple to free up some room and done away with the bracket for the ac line ( that I may built a different one and bolt it under the rad support)
no cel yet, and I do not expect one anytime soon nor would it be welcomed, still have no clue why the setup with the stock box no carbon throws it, I went the extra mile to make sure I duplicate the stock meter as close as handmade can get, if anything in the process I got the maf sensor dirty and it threw a similar code, couple squirts of cleaner took care of that, and it has not complained since, wonder if when you swapped boxes you also swapped sensors, I am starting to think the carbon filter is not the one triggering the code.

 

^Agree..