DIY in cabin air filter

[LS1toNSX]

I was cleaning out my smelly ducts today and I was wondering if anybody did a DIY cabin air filter. It looks like it should be easy enough to fab up something to get a filter to sit on the square inlet piece.

Ive seen the downforce piece you can buy - but I just don't have the cash laying around to spend hundreds on the filter adaptor piece right now. I know the piece you can buy looks like it has a very large surface area so it can afford to be a HEPA filter. The piece I had in mind was probably a coarse filter just to trap larger particulate matter like dust.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

I actually have this on my list of DIY projects.

What I plan to do is find some small cheap in cabin air filters. Then fiberglass a tray around the filter and into the duct. Then figure out how to create a grill on the plastic cowl. Pretty easy fiberglass job IMO. Ideally the cowl will have a removable piece to make replacing the filter easy as I think once every 30k miles is not enough.

My other cars filters i change them out about every 5-8k miles and they are filthy. I cutout furnace filters and keep my costs down to about $2-3 per filter vs $20. So that will be a last resort if I can't find a reasonable filter to work with.

I wonder if it's safe to blast my leaf blower into outside duct to clean out the vents. Anyone know?

 

[LS1toNSX]

I actually have this on my list of DIY projects.

I wonder if it's safe to blast my leaf blower into outside duct to clean out the vents. Anyone know?

It may clean out the air inlet, but I imagine you risk damaging your blower motor if the leaf blower spins it too fast (as I am sure its going to be flowing a lot more CFM than the max setting on the blower). I don't imagine it would do anything for the vents.

 

[slamstrom]

I was cleaning out my smelly ducts today and I was wondering if anybody did a DIY cabin air filter. It looks like it should be easy enough to fab up something to get a filter to sit on the square inlet piece.

Ive seen the downforce piece you can buy - but I just don't have the cash laying around to spend hundreds on the filter adaptor piece right now. I know the piece you can buy looks like it has a very large surface area so it can afford to be a HEPA filter. The piece I had in mind was probably a coarse filter just to trap larger particulate matter like dust.

Can you post a picture of where this filter may be install? I would like to know. Thanks.

 

[comtec]

Can you post a picture of where this filter may be install? I would like to know. Thanks.

Here is a pic of the Downforce filter.

 

[slamstrom]

Thanks Mike.:smile:

 

[SWIFTVISION]

What about a piece of cloth?

 

[Maximus_NSX]

I think Mike has every cool gadget known to the NSX world on his car. Such a pity that his car is LBBP though. What a waste.

 

[LS1toNSX]

What about a piece of cloth?

One of many possibilities, the main thing is to design something that will not create too much resistance and something that will not be sucked into the blower inlet. Heck, I figure fabbing up a piece of cloth and coathanger could make a functional, reusable filter that is much better than just taking straight unfiltered air. It doesn't seem too hard to do this, it just seems that it hasn't been addressed by DIY'ers yet.

I was going to look for similar sized car air filters and see if I can stick one in the hole wiht a little cutting. I didn't measure the hole but its like a 6"x8" rectangle with rounded corners. I bet I could stick in a fram filter if I found the right size. The early 90's camaro's had some small square filters that were similar to this size.

 

[Aero]

I think its 4.5" x 6" internal measurements. I have the measurements at home. I've been looking at this too. There's some HEPA filters out there that are real close to that size but not close enough.

One of many possibilities, the main thing is to design something that will not create too much resistance and something that will not be sucked into the blower inlet. Heck, I figure fabbing up a piece of cloth and coathanger could make a functional, reusable filter that is much better than just taking straight unfiltered air. It doesn't seem too hard to do this, it just seems that it hasn't been addressed by DIY'ers yet.

I was going to look for similar sized car air filters and see if I can stick one in the hole wiht a little cutting. I didn't measure the hole but its like a 6"x8" rectangle with rounded corners. I bet I could stick in a fram filter if I found the right size. The early 90's camaro's had some small square filters that were similar to this size.

 

[comtec]

I think Mike has every cool gadget known to the NSX world on his car. Such a pity that his car is LBBP though. What a waste.

I don't have this one. I don't think i drive it enough to need this.

 

[LS1toNSX]

SOLVED:
Cut a Fram or cheapo equivalent 1998 Buick Regal GS (supercharged) engine (not cabin) air filter in half and it fits perfect.

*flows plenty of CFM
*filters out large particles without increasing resistance greatly
*large paper filter media area
*secure rubber to plastic seal, no rattling around
*easy to vaccuum out or cheap to replace

No pics, sorry, no questions until you try it yourself!