What are people's thoughts on this? Fix it or leave it?..

[inventiv]

Hi all, had a cold air induction pipe put on a few weeks back. Paid good money too and definitely got no discount, haha, looks like this:



Anyway I have run into a problem with it that is concerning me more and more..
This thing is starting to bore a hole through my heat shield:



The top of the pipe is touching the bonnet when closed, here is a shot of a couple of beads of weld slag with the heat shield residue around it:



The bonnet is particularly hard to close, you can feel the bonnet touching the pipe even when the bonnet latch is only on it's first latch.. I think the problem is that the pipe sits to high, and angled upwards towards the middle of the engine bay. Have a look at the yellow line (pipe direction) as opposed to the green line which is the top of the engine bay (clearly the pipe rises towards the middle):



My other concern besides the hole being made in the heat shield is that if you look at the image above again, you will see that the intake pipe and throttle body do not align flush inside the blue silicone hose. The red arrows point to the misalignments.. So this can't be good for optimal airflow right?.. The bonnet is hard to shut, you really have to press down on it, and I'm guessing this is where the give happens to make it possible to close.. Over the last few weeks it has offset like that so that due to me opening and closing the bonnet.

Anyway I'm thinking of taking it back to get it fixed. Wanna know what people think, am I being paranoid? Is this acceptable? I'm thinking that I don't want the pipe to work it's way through my heat shield up top. I thought about just removing it but then it would be fouling on the bonnet, scratching the hell out of it. Also I don't like the fact that the intake is that hard up against the bonnet, surely this is no good when the engine flexes under acceleration on it's mounts.. Oh and of course I can't possibly be getting optimal air flow with the pipe and throttle body miss-aligned like that.

I am thinking about taking the car back to get this fixed, I don't think it would take much to fix, just needs another bend downwards (large green arrow) to me more in line with the engine (small green arrow):



I reckon that would solve it.

What do people think?..

[aussiblue]

Pipe is too high. Get it fixed ASAP before the heat causes the outer bonnet paint to discolour and delaminate (clear coat will come off). In any event you might want to consider adding some reflective stick on foil heat shielding to that part of the under-bonnet area.

[inventiv]

I would if I had the space lol, at this stage the pipe would just foul any foil there.
So I wouldnt be asking much to get this fixed then.. ok I'll see what they say.

As a side note I mentioned this clearance problem to the technician when he was installing it. He said at the time that it won't cause a problem as long as he can get the bonnet to lock onto the first latch, despite him then needing both hands to press the bonnet down and lock it fully, lol.

[peterljohnson55]

Yeah, dodgy design and dodgy job regardless whether it is an off-the-shelf induction tube or custom made. Definitely a bend missing at green arrow as you say. Dropping the tube and raising the last straight section, to match, to correct alignment, and including that additional bend, which will only go thru a few degrees, should solve the problem provided it allows the top of pipe to be horizontal.

Here is a pic of intake with additional flex joint between 2nd and 3rd 90d bends. Notice the length of straight pipe before delivery to throttle - the longer the better as far as reducing turbulence and improving air-flow goes.

http://us1.webpublications.com.au/st...6/2647_4lo.jpg
also
see pic on Ford Forums thread here
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?p=4460596

[b2tf]

Is it a Difillippo one as a mate had one a while back from them and it did the same thing.

[inventiv]

Thanks for that, I've PM'd the shop owner, he's a member here so I don't want to stir the pot too much or drop any names - yet.

Let's see what he says. I'll keep you all posted.

Cheers

[EvilChief]

The TB is oval and will never line up 100% with your round induction pipe. When I have made these before i had to actually crush the pipe to go over the BBM so it wont foul on the bonnet.

[inventiv]

Hm.. well whatever works I guess - definitely no good as it is in any case..

Have a look at the last pic too, the pipe over the engine bay can definitely be lowered. There's something like 30mm between the two.

[peterljohnson55]

I would also back-charge the installer for the price of a new heat shield. Surely the installer would have known it didn't fit when he closed the bonnet - or maybe he left you to do that. Anyway, no excuse and repairs should not be at your expense unless you gave the installer the design.

[mik]

Nice clean and neat engine bay you have there old mate.

[inventiv]

Yeah she's a particularly neat example, hehe.

Got the car back yesterday and clearance is all better. I'll take a pic tonight and post once Pedders are done.

Cheers