Some reflections on intakes: LS-LT Focus

[ConradP]

Yeah with the old connector I just sliced the old hose down the middle and removed all of it from there and bashed mine on my bench until it got in, I think mine might have been slightly smaller or something it was such a pain to get in, quite literally 5 mins of hitting it on the bench.

[In Focus]

Originally Posted by DZFord

1. Yep, it's a lightweight unit so it can just hang off the hose, no problems there. Just make sure your hose clamps are done up tight.
2. Sounds good since it is all clamped up. Shouldn't have any problems there either.
3. Now hit the road and enjoy!

I am enjoying. I haven't fitted the cold air hose yet, as there is, as you all have realised, not much room to fit it. Hopefully, when I get the shorter elbow this will help.

One more dumb question, if I may... the new breather hose has a tendency to kink slightly, at least when idling, perhaps because it's a fraction longer than necessary and/or doesn't have much pressure in it. Is this a problem?

[DZFord]

If would be preferable not to have any kinks in your breather hose. So you might need to cut it down to size.

Also, you should really fit that cold air hose ASAP, otherwise you have a hot air intake!

[In Focus]

For future reference, I just had another look in there, and there is NO way the cold air feed can be used with the stock throttle hose. In fact, I'm not sure how any of you guys have managed to feed it anywhere. Hopefully, when I get the shorter elbow, options will open up...

[ConradP]

I don't know where i can put mine without it just sucking water whenever there is heavy rain, if i had of kept mine in last week my car would be dead, just having it hang down just wont work, and it's not flexible enough and there isn't enough space to bend it to the front of the car, unless you have no fogs or something i don't know where to put it.

[DZFord]

Each to their own I guess.

Here's how I did it: first two pics http://fordforums.com.au/showpost.ph...8&postcount=19.
There is plenty of space there for a cold air feed.

Drove around all of last week in the heavy rain, no problems. I even checked the bottom of the hose one night for curiosity, and it wasn't wet at all.

[HUNTER8]

If you take off the front bottom grille there is a wind deflector on the side of the radiator. The deflector is held on by one screw 1/2 way up it but at the back of it. You'll need a socket set with a star fitting to remove it.
It's a bit fiddly to get off!
Once that's off you'll see a fair gap where you can feed a hose through.
Use a hole saw and cut a hole in the deflector the size of your pipe.
Feed the pipe through the deflector and screw the deflector back in place.
You may need to pack the hole to hold the pipe in place....I used a piece of rubber edging.
Once done your pipe sits to the side of the radiator behind your grille.

[casabonka]

that's where my hose sits. seems to work fine!

[In Focus]

Well, I had another go tonight with the new elbow, and the best thing I can say is that the change of angle created has made the breather hose sit better - no kinks.

I'm still no wiser on a course for the cold hose. This was what I was looking at...



The big metal monstrosity at the bottom, and the electrical cabling that splits in two there are my problems. I just could not feed the hose down without snagging on the cable, which I was reluctant to do. The velocity stack on the end was the main problem.

Here you can see the gap. The only possible way I could see to insert the hose was above that loop of cable and into the area above the splash-guard in the middle of the picture, but as I said above the tube was kind of rubbing on the cabling, and I didn't want to force it.



I ended up getting rather p***ed off and chopped the hose right up, until it was embarrassingly short, and it still wouldn't sit in there in a way I was happy with.

I took a drive with the set-up as it was, Apollo minus any hose, and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed. i realise the cold air hose would probably improve the situation, but it doesn't seem to be that big an improvement over the cylindrical k&n replacement for the oem filter in the stock intake set-up. And it wasn't a warm evening either.

Hindsight suggests I maybe should have tried to feed the bare hose from below, then attached the velocity stack, but I had to tape it on as it was, and frankly i'd had enough of the whole thing. The other thing that occurs to me that might work would be to get a 50mm hose and a reducer to feed into the Apollo.

Maybe the LV is more different to the LS/LT's most people have been modding than it seems? Or perhaps the problem is the fact it's an automatic?

Overall, I'm disappointed with how it's all turned out. i enjoyed tinkering around with the car, trying something different, but I think I'll probably be returning to stock - sooner rather than later. To top it all off, the code I thought was the stereo pin wasn't, and the dealer i got the car from doesn't have a record of the code, so will have to pull the stereo out to get the serial number. This will involve them disconnecting the battery presumably, and potentially seeing a non-stock intake set-up.

For me, the payoff ultimately doesn't seem worth it, especially as I have a feeling I would have been paranoid about hydro-lock every time I saw a puddle on the road. And presumably heat soak will become an issue when the Perth summer rolls around again.

Don't let me put anyone off, though. I'm sure if you're determined enough, you'll find a way of doing this. Sincere thanks to DZFord and everyone else who gave me a few tips on this - it's not your fault I'm too dumb to get it right.

[DZFord]

Originally Posted by In Focus

Don't let me put anyone off, though. I'm sure if you're determined enough, you'll find a way of doing this. Sincere thanks to DZFord and everyone else who gave me a few tips on this - it's not your fault I'm too dumb to get it right.

Not at all! I see your problem now. On the LS Focus, there isn't that thick wiring in the way, with all that insulation. On yours, there is much less room to work, unless you didn't mind the cold air hose rubbing on the wiring.

[In Focus]

Originally Posted by ConradP

I don't know where i can put mine without it just sucking water whenever there is heavy rain, if i had of kept mine in last week my car would be dead, just having it hang down just wont work, and it's not flexible enough and there isn't enough space to bend it to the front of the car, unless you have no fogs or something i don't know where to put it.

Have you worked out anything yet, Conrad? Do you have the same thick braid of wiring that I have? The only thing I can think of is a smaller diameter intake hose, or perhaps one shaped differently, but that creates a need for couplers/joiners, and it can get complicated and prone to breakages/leakages fairly quickly.

I haven't removed the Apollo yet, because I haven't had a chance/I'm too lazy. But if I can work out a decent intake set-up, I might leave it in.

[ConradP]

Originally Posted by In Focus

Have you worked out anything yet, Conrad? Do you have the same thick braid of wiring that I have? The only thing I can think of is a smaller diameter intake hose, or perhaps one shaped differently, but that creates a need for couplers/joiners, and it can get complicated and prone to breakages/leakages fairly quickly.

I haven't removed the Apollo yet, because I haven't had a chance/I'm too lazy. But if I can work out a decent intake set-up, I might leave it in.

I haven't had a chance to get in there yet so still going without the hose, i'll get a pic later on of how mine is below the filter and of the crankcase line, i also need to shorten that by about 30cm

[In Focus]

My breather hose is exactly 80cm, and it sits perfectly now. That's with a 2 inch per leg length, right-angle throttle-body-to-Apollo hose

[Turbodiesel]

Don't know how much this will help with the petrols but this is how mine is mounted:





My pipe used to actually stick out more and it was sucking in water in heavy rain so I retracted it a bit.

[Conquest_Tsi]

Originally Posted by HUNTER8

If you take off the front bottom grille there is a wind deflector on the side of the radiator. The deflector is held on by one screw 1/2 way up it but at the back of it. You'll need a socket set with a star fitting to remove it.
It's a bit fiddly to get off!
Once that's off you'll see a fair gap where you can feed a hose through.
Use a hole saw and cut a hole in the deflector the size of your pipe.
Feed the pipe through the deflector and screw the deflector back in place.
You may need to pack the hole to hold the pipe in place....I used a piece of rubber edging.
Once done your pipe sits to the side of the radiator behind your grille.

Thats similar to what I have done.

Has anyone had any issues with the cold air hose coming off where it joins onto the filter mouth? Found mine was dislodged after some long driving on country roads. It does not seem to fit on there totally snug for my liking.

[DZFord]

Originally Posted by Conquest_Tsi

Has anyone had any issues with the cold air hose coming off where it joins onto the filter mouth? Found mine was dislodged after some long driving on country roads. It does not seem to fit on there totally snug for my liking.

I secured mine with a large hose clamp. It hasn't moved since!

[Conquest_Tsi]

Isnt the filter assembly plastic and the cold air pipe has the plastic ring bit also, wouldn't it crack with a clamp?

[DZFord]

Yeah I haven't done it up too tightly though. Just enough to hold everything in place. If you did the clamp up with enough force, yes I'm sure it would crack.

[Turbodiesel]

I just went once around it with electrical tape, there was no way the pipe would stay without any sort of support.

[ConradP]

I used clamps as well, not to tight as I figured it would just crack the plastic.

On another note, I spent the morning removing the plastic shroud over the strut towers, the windscreen wipers and the previous strut supports that are fitted to the car and replaced them with the strut brace from europarts. Bigger job than I thought it would be originally but I got it done!

I'll upload some pics soon when i find the cable to connect my camera.. that or I'll have to go buy a SD card reader, I took a bunch while going through and pulling each part off so can kinda give a description of what i went though to get it all done, the hardest part was the windscreen wipers, I don't have any kind of pully and didn't want to use any kind of grip on it incase i crushed the metal so had to ply it up by hand with a little help from the handles of something.

[vhcbm]

Sorry to jump in on a Focus thread but...Would the Apollo go onto a Fiesta Mk7? because the Mass Air Flow censor seems to be on the stock airbox. Where would you connect it with the Apollo

[In Focus]

No, there's a line on the instructions along the lines of "This will not fit in a car with the MAF fitted onto the original airbox."

Though maybe you can get a very short length of piping with an adaptor of some kind to fit the MAF? I've seen threads on other fora describing people doing that. Depends on how clever you are.

[ConradP]

The Apollo does come with a plug for the crankcase line hole, so if the MAF on the fiesta is something that is attached to the tubing before the intake it may work, but if it's in the airbox or not like a part of the tubing to the throttle body i don't know if it could work..

[vhcbm]

What a shame I'm not clever, finding it hard to find a decent intake for it...cones are illegal, stock box is pretty ordinary. Guess I should just live without it.

[In Focus]

http://www.pumaspeed.co.uk/showdetai...ctID=877&pic=3

What about this one? I wish they had something like this for the LV Focus, to be honest, because I'd be all over it.

[Velociraptor82]

OK so I have recieved my Apollo after DZ's excellent review together with a 60mm trottle body from euro-parts for extra goodness

Anyway stupid question coming from someone who rarely works on my own car. How do you undo the 2 clamps around the stock flexi pipe going from the trottle body to the filter box?

[In Focus]

Are you talking about the chrome-y silver hose clamps, as per the pic? You simply unscrew them with a regular flathead screwdriver.

[Velociraptor82]

Originally Posted by In Focus

Are you talking about the chrome-y silver hose clamps, as per the pic? You simply unscrew them with a regular flathead screwdriver.

image

Nah, they dont have a screw on them. Mine looks like you have to squeeze it together and then unhook however I can't seem to do that. I'm quessing that I'm doing it wrong.

[Velociraptor82]

Originally Posted by Velociraptor82

Nah, they dont have a screw on them. Mine looks like you have to squeeze it together and then unhook however I can't seem to do that. I'm quessing that I'm doing it wrong.

[ConradP]

If worse comes to worse, get some new screw down clamps and just cut/break your old ones off. They cost $2 each if that