2004 Saturn Vue Project: 3.5L Custom Cold Air Intake DIY Overview ($200 Budget)

I misspoke on the length of the longest pipe. it is basically a foot 11.8 inches. not sure why I said 24 inches. Don't rush or your mouth will betray you. lol
I just wanted to briefly go over the DIY Cold Air Intake I made for my 3.5L Vue. There is an offering from K&N for it that walls off the filter in the engine bay, but I wanted to take it a step further & route the filter into the empty cavity below the headlight. i could not justify paying btw $350 & $400 for the K&N only to still then need to modify it.
The parts are all generic 3inch aluminum piping, with mstching sized red silicone 4 ply couplers. The U bend coupler was sourced off Ebay, as were the short straights. The longest of the AL pipes came from Amazon. I just got what was the most cost efficient at the time. The Spectre/APC vacuum sensor adapter was also found as a close out on Ebay. The main kit came from Ebay, but is a cheesey kit you can get from Alibaba or the like. They are junk air filter intake intercooler kits that copy the ones you used to find in parts stores to design your own. I bought the version without the filter. The couplers are plastic & line up with grooves that have rubber o-rings. I don't suspect they will handle much abuse.
My final solution to hold the piping firm was to get a 3 inch diameter bracket designed to hold off road LED light bars to a front bullbar off Ebay. It wrapped around the 3 inch piping & provided a mounting hole that I lined up with the engine bracket the original duct mounted to with a rubber bumper that press fit in it.
All total including buying a new filter for the DelSol to steal its cone filter, I invested $160.00 with tax on the ducting. I used hose clamps I had on hand though, so your cost may vary. Throw in another $20 for the bull bar bracket. So all of it for under $200.
That cost is not bad when you consider the K&N kit is, at the lowest, $350. It ends where the stock airbox sits. Then the original Injen kit that basically went from the stock airbox location out under the headlight was $275 before it was discontinued.

[@redraif]

Made an error in the vid. The longer pipe is 11.8 inches...