i was just in the tech info section of the forum and was wondering what type of material would i use to construct a heat shielding box for my cai i have been without one since day one would i use plexiglass? cardboard ? fiberglass? further more.. how would i go about mounting such a beast?

In my opinion a fenderwell intake is the way to go. You don't need to hassle with trying to squeeze a box into the engine bay.

A fenderwell isn't as protected on the 92-99

It really a matter of choice as what ya want to work with. Reflectex is the easiest to work with. It'* the shiny stuff that comes on a roll from the hardware store.

True, but what is there to protect it from? Where the filter sits it is almost impossible for road debris to fly up in there unless going ungodly fast in reverse. I've been running a FWI for almost 2 years without any evidence of something hitting the filter.

What about accidently going through water that is just a little too deep??

I'm worried about that since I just installed my FWI at CEBF. Everyone seems to come to the conclusion that the oiled filter would keep the majority of it out.

downside of a FWI is that it gets dirty fast

I would hope a person would have enough sense not to drive through any water deep enough to totally submerge the air filter, the water would have to be several feet deep to even reach the filter. Even if a person were dumb enough to place their vehicle into a large body of water, you got to hold down the accelerator long enough for the engine to start sucking up enough water to kill the engine.

I don't totally agree with that. When I had the filter in the engine bay of the 98 it was nasty by 15k miles, sand, bugs, fuzzies; it was pretty much black.

The filter does not have to be submerged to suck in water and it does not take that much to stop, or stop and damage, a motor. There is a lot of suction through the intake. IIRC it'* enough to suck a column of water 20+ feet strait up. You only need enough water to get into a piston and lock it up on the compression stroke, doesn't take much. Yeah, the first bit will steam (steam is pretty powerful as well) but get a good shot of water and it can be bad. Best case the motor just stops, worst case you bend a rod as all that rotating mass stops suddenly. I wouldn't be worried if it is just getting damp from rain and road spray but a run through a good size puddle could be a disaster. Somtimes in a good rainstorm those puddles can grow big and can be hard to avoid.

Anyways...has anyone ever tried to fab a custom fiberglass box/shield? Would the heat be too much for the 'glass? I don't know much about fiberglass but if it would work I bet someone could make a wicked nice heat shield.

OK, back to your original question.

The best thing I can tell you is to do some searches here on this forum on "CAI". There are any number of possible solutions and different people have come up with different answers. I would hazard a guess that you can find examples of at least ten different ones here.

Some use Plexiglass and then insulate with Reflectex or similar.

Some have modified their stock intake boxes to cover.

The suggestion for a custom fiberglass cover sounds great, but also sounds like a lot of work for someone who has the talent.

Good luck and ask any other questions you might need answered here.

This would be true, IF a person were running an open element intake. If that were the case there would be a few other things to worry about as well. If my intake is strong enough to suck up a puddle of water that is almost 3 feet away on the ground I would be more worried about it collapsing my filter in on itself. Everytime it rains I have to drive through multiple puddles and I have NEVER experienced any hesitation or stalling from water entering the combustion process. In my opinion when it comes to debating a FWI there is a lot of panic mongering about the debris and water. :?
As I stated before I believe a FWI is quicker to do and gives better results than creating a boxed intake system within the engine bay.