i just bought a honda civic 1997 and everything was nice and at a reasonable price so i purchased it. he told me before hand it had everything but an air intake. so i said ok since those are minor and pretty cheap to buy. and when i drive my car it has a nice whistle air sucking sound like a turbo and it‘s pretty cool. so do i even need an air intake. what can happen if i dont put one in. what does it do anyway?
Have you ever seen a dirty air filter? Of course you have. If by chance not than search google images. Without a properly plumbed intake, you would be sucking anything and everything down into the engine including mice which happen to love engine compartments. Your compression rings would wear out rather quickly from combusting hard particulates that the air filter would have otherwise prevented from going down into the engine Your vehicle is not legal without it and is part of the emissions system too. Don't think they are cheap from the dealer by the way. Maybe from the salvage yard, but from a dealer the entire intake forward of the throttle body can be over 500 for your car and thousands for some others.
Copper becomes brittle when bent or stretched. You can anneal it easily with a propane torch. Heat it till it gets dull red and let it air cool. Then the next bend will not cause cracks. To make curves without collapsing the tubing you can buy a tubing bender at any good plumbing supply house or most good hardware stores. It is just a solid metal tool with a radius for bending electrical conduit, but it will work fine with copper. 1/8 copper is rather small for it though and you may wish to make tighter bends. In this case you need a mandrel, which is just a cylinder of the right diameter around which you bend the tubing. You can use a food can, a metal dowel or anything cylindrical. practise with a longer length of tubing until you get the knack. Be sure to anneal with the torch before bending.
Two things will happen. 1 is that it will suck dirt and dust and what ever else feel like getting suck in at the time. 2 is that it will suck to much air and will run to lean which will burn valves in the cylinder head. Although it sounds good the ringing of the cash register wont sound that crash hot when you get the bill for repairs.
If you don't you will be sucking in hot air, and possibly dirt/dust into your motor. An air intake just takes air and puts it in the motor. Motors run by using air and fuel in a mixture to produce combustion that makes your car move. So without an intake of some sort. Your hurting your car. It would be like you sitting in front of a heater and only using your nose to breath. You see how that would be difficult? lol p
