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help identifying this part/legacy


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Can anyone help me identify this part in my '96 legacy (2.2, normally aspirated) --

 

sube-pic.JPG

 

The one with the yellow dot on it.

it apparently is supposed to connect into the fender, but as i discovered today, mine is cracked and just hangs there.

 

It looks easy enough to replace, if indeed i need to.

 

thanks

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That is the intake. The pipe sticking out from the fender cavity has been through a silencer, on it's way from the air filter box.

 

This would be a good time to remove the silencer and stick a velocity stack (intake trumpet) straight on the pipe from the filter box and get some cold air into your engine - and a nice sound during full-throttle acceleration!

 

Search around the site for more details.

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It puzzles me a bit why people keep asking about "cold air intakes" for the subies. As soon as the vehicle is in foward motion and any decent speed, all that goes into the intake is pretty much cold air, since that duct is open just behind the headlamp.

 

Are we all doing quarter-miles at the track, and need cold air from a standstill? Is the air inside the fender on a nice, hot, sunny day any cooler than the air at the opening of the duct with no forward motion?

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thanks for the help, everyone

 

i wonder if i can just use some electrical tape & tape the two halves back together again instead of replacing the part. I still am trying to figure out how the heck the thing cracked open like that! (my car isn't raced/abused/etc.. it's just an 'around town' sort of car.) Perhaps after 8 years the plastic just got brittle.

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What do you mean by "cracked"?

 

The part just 'snaps' onto the piece that you see coming thru from the fender. Take the screw out, hold it such that the top slips onto the part in the fender, then rotate downward and it will snap in place. You should find the screw hole lining back up. Put the screw back in. It's removable so that you can get at the headlight bulb and some other stuff in underneath there.

 

That is, unless there is an actual 'crack' in the plastic which is causing it to lose it's grip and come apart. If that is the case, you still might be able to hold it in place with a plastic zip-tie, or hose clamp, something like that.

 

Commuter

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thanks!

i didn't realize it was a two-pice part that snapped together.

 

it fit right back in after taking off the bolt.

 

I question how much that piece of plastic can do though -- one end goes into the fender, the other points straight down into the engine bay... i don't quite get it!

 

 

 

What do you mean by "cracked"?

 

The part just 'snaps' onto the piece that you see coming thru from the fender. Take the screw out, hold it such that the top slips onto the part in the fender, then rotate downward and it will snap in place. You should find the screw hole lining back up. Put the screw back in. It's removable so that you can get at the headlight bulb and some other stuff in underneath there.

 

That is, unless there is an actual 'crack' in the plastic which is causing it to lose it's grip and come apart. If that is the case, you still might be able to hold it in place with a plastic zip-tie, or hose clamp, something like that.

 

Commuter

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I have to disagree with you Setright.

 

That inlet is right behind the headlight. The canister is between the duct and the radiator.

 

I have to believe once the car is underway, the temp at the opening of the duct is close to ambient outside air temp.

 

If I can find a way to stick a thermometer there, I will check it out.

 

Tiny

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I put some thought into this myself. Still havnt figured it out...my guess was that it takes in a little cooler air that is drifting up from under the engine, since it isnt subject to as much hot air that has been pushed through the radiator and around the engine. Either that or the gap around the head light lets more fresh air in...who knows that those crazy engineers were thinking. Now that I actualy sit down write out my theory, I am more puzzled. We should figure this out!

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Just toss it. A common mod for N/A EJ engines with MAF sensors like yours is to just remove the whole silencer and just leave the airbox open to the fender well (where there is nice and cool air)

 

Here are some threads about how to do it:

 

http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113

 

http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167

 

I did it with my EJ18, runs much better without the silencer.

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Okay Tiny, I have to ask: Which duct? If there is one on your car, then I yield and accept that plenty of cold air is being fed at speed.

 

However, my BC7 Legacy had a silencer in the fender, and the intake opening was inside the fender too. That´s a good solution!

My GC8 Impreza has the opening just behind the headlight and any it draws in has passed through the radiator. There is no duct.

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Mine is identical to the one in Wolf's pic. The opening is on the underside behind the headlamp.

 

If I can find my A/C thermo tonight, I will drill a hole into the intake and stick the sensor end into the airstream about an inch back of the opening. Then check it at idle after 5 minutes, then on to rolling down the road to check it again.

 

I'll let you know what happens.

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OK, I tried it this afternoon. Put the thermometer in at about 70 degrees F here this afternoon. Installed it in the air duct about an inch back into it. It did read 70 before insertion.

 

 

After a 15 minute drive, the last of which was about 40mph, I pulled over, jumped out, opened the hood, and it read 70. As a matter of fact, the duct felt cool to the touch, which I never noticed before, on accounta I wasn't lookin'.

 

 

Closed it up and ran back home, let it set at idle for almost 10 minutes, then checked it- about 115 F.

 

 

Closed it up, ran it for 5 minutes, back down to 70 F at the last stop, but the duct felt a touch warm from residual heat.

 

 

This is about as scientific as I get, but it pretty much proves to me that cool air is entering the system. BUT, I may do the snorkelectomy in a few weeks, if for nothing more than a louder intake noise.

I remember the days we turned the top dish of the 4-bbl air cleaner over to really get the sound of those extra 2 barrels kicking in… to hell with the hot air and the 45 cents a gallon for ethyl!!

 

Tiny

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My 92 legacy has the intake from the side panel, but one flaw with this that I schemed up was the fact that on a hot day, after parked in a lot all day (say during work), and you just drive it home (say only a couple of miles) would the body really cool down so much as to "cool" the air? Wouldnt it be better to have the hot outside air than the super heated air being warmed by the hot body? I guess on those cold winter days, this could really help! But here in Kansas during the summer, the 100-105 really bakes your car. Worth pondering over.

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It also seems like it would be better suited to keeping moisture out of the engine with all the bends it makes compared to the cold air intake setups I have seen. But nobody here drives their Subaru thru deep puddles, streams, etc. :brow:

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I really am not sure what the engineers had in mind with the scuba "unit" inside the fender. I am going to look at it this weekend, but I am wondering if enough air can get into the fender while the car is running at 70mph or so.

 

The volume of air that the engine pulls in at that speed is something like a small shop vac.

 

I may pull the unit out, then run a duct from the air cleaner box, thru the fender, to the present duct behind the light assembly. Basically replacing the snorkel with a tube.

 

Maybe that would be the best of both worlds...

 

Tiny

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Tiny, you must use something stiff. I have been designing my own cold air intake, using PVC pipes, and the sound is pure :"Hey buddy, did you mod the intake using plastic drain pipes?"

They flex to much, ie. tend to cave-in during WOT and the sound tends to swing in frequency, and get's all echo-ey.

 

Replacing the main, straight, length of pipe in my system with a steel pipe created a far more cultured noise.

Now, I just have to get the whole system made from aluminum, and it should be top class.

 

WHY do I bother you with these details? Because you might as well not waste your time replacing the intake system with hoses or PVC pipes, the sound will suck! No pun, intended :-)

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I might be able to get hold of an old bleed air duct from our C130's that will work. Like I said, I'll look at it real good this weekend. It's not too much of a problem taking all the stuff off to get inside the fender, but I still only want to do it once.

 

I can get a 3" aluminum flexible duct in the states at home repair centers. If I can get some flanges made up for it, I'll be good to go. If I do use that, I'll insulate it as well.

 

Man, if that ABS unit wasn't in the way, I could come off the front of the filter box and it would be ultra easy.

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i just removed my air box from the fender, you can draw plenty of air from inside the fender at any speed, its not like the fender is sealed. there are plenty of places to draw air from inside the fender. i removed the air box after i installed a borla header, and magna flow muffler (center pipe is going in soon). i have noticed a nice increase in low and mid range power and irt sounds awesome.

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Thanks for the experiment Tiny. that realy helped me choose what to do with mine

I have been looking into intakes for my '00 impreza and I was thinking i would want a "cold air" intake, but it is obvious that the cold air itself wont be much different. but could the increased power from these mods come from a less restricted air flow?

I have the '00 OBS which does not have the snorkus in the fender. but it does have these different sized chambers coming off the the intake tube. Are they to silence like the snorkus was on previous years. or do they work acousticaly to help improve the sound? they are on the under side so theyre hard to see in this picture.

Would removing them and blocking off the holes improve my air flow and help performance without fabricating a whole new pipe? maybe also add a velicity stack up behind the head lamp to replace the actual boxy inlet.

post-3972-136027592614_thumb.jpg

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