Anyone care to address my question?

You already answered it. Either way you need a heatshield too. A rice pipe is better than a "stock" ebay intake, but of course it could be modified as you stated assuming the filter is K&N and not a water holding one. In my opinion I'd rather buy the rice pipe off the bat instead of trying to splice pipe together to extend it, thereby adding the possibilty of turbulence at each splice or however you set it up. If you want a perfect length, smooth intake with a good filter, your best bet is to go about our usual way Of course my intake is a tad different than your typical rice pipe on the club, but I'm happy.

Bends arent gonna do much against the flow of air.

Lets see. Rice pipe, if it doesnt have the hole for the sensor you have to extend your wires and buy a specially made K&N filter for that sensor, which you probably couldnt pull off any use on any other cars without ghetto rigging the filter. I paid $28 shipped for my UNIVERSAL filter.

Also, I think a small pipe w/ K&N is better than a long pipe with POS Ching chong filter wouldnt you agree? Filter is much superior.

And yes heat shield is needed of course. I'm gonna go with the half-intake block (use the bottom part of the stock intake box, let the filter reside way down in there and have it completely sealed off from the rest of the engine bay)

Actually an ideal intake would be perfectly straight, because every turn hurts velocity, but getting cold air is necessary and it'* almost impossible to do in a straight shot (unless you're Silverbullet )

Even the best filter sucking in HOT air could be worse than your stock setup. Again, the cold air is key. I'm not taking offense to your comment, but you might want to avoid the racial comments in the future too

thats wrong, i have my rice pipe and the IAT went to the filter without the need to extend it.

you would be surprised.
tell me which pipe do you think will flow better?
MINE with 45* bend

YOURS with 90* bend


you said you were going to mod your ebay one, well that is another argument against what you have. now you have a pipe that has a harder bend requiers the perchase of MORE pipe and coupler to modify it so that it wont be so close to the motor/ so far from the cool air sorce. not to mention they almost all come with a cheap "ching chon" filter (as you so put it)

where as, i only had to buy 1 pipe /coupler and a filter and mount it with no peicing together of other parts and maximum flow/volosity

I could just as easily cut up on my intake, grab a straight piece, coupler and have the same setup as you for a ton less money. or go straight towards the front. This leaves a lot of options open if you use your noggin.

So, Sinister, are you just wanting to argue in this topic or actually take the advice that everyone is giving you?

My advice is different from their advice, I'd prefer to call it debating, although there is no debating since apparntly the rice pipe is the way to go hands down

Not necessarily Sin.... I ran a gutted airbox with K&N filter until just recently. On my performance mods...most said I couldn't do it. I took a different road than most and tried it. Sure it worked, sure I cut a little rad support area to increase exterior effective flow. In the end..my car netted a better 1/4 mile time than Zilla.

Does that mean it'* better...nope. I recently listed my box/K&N in for sale as an FWI found it'* way onto my car. I haven't noticed an increase from the FWI yet as wintertime temps keep things cool up here anyhow.

Sinsister, the rice pipe option was built over 4 years of trial and error here. It'* not just because people 'think' it'* better. Our intakes have improved and evolved over time.

Your IAT won't reach because it'* shorter. 96 was the first year of the 'short' IAT harness.

The longer the intake, the more velocity it can achieve. You want smooth laminar flow. The least bend possible. And a heat shield. VERY important.

Too big of an intake pipe will hurt you sometimes too. Too small as well.