I'm the proud owner of a 92 Honda Civic Lx, so far my is stock, however, i would like to start customizing it. As many of you know this hobby can quite expensive. Since i'm enrolled as a Mechanical Engineering student i was wondering if it would be a good idea to design my own parts. As a first project i want to design my own air intake. It is a simple design and it is feasible. I have the proper design software for this task. I just wanted to gain some insight into some other people's experiences with designing and creating their own parts, since it is a very good way to save some money.
Thanks

 

well if you have the time and money then do it. you never know, you might make a better intake than aem or injen.

 

Yeah, by all means, you should try to design your own stuff. A header and exhaust should be pretty simple to design, but to actually make it could be a bigger hassle, since there will be a lot of welding required. As far as designing the intake, you don't need any special knowledge or software. All you need is to take correct measurements for the pipes. I made my own intake before on my older car, and it turned out pretty well, besides the fact that it looks crappy (gray aluminum)

 

Thanks for the advice, but i'm not actually gonna build it myself i just wanna design it and send the plans to a company to get the aluminum bent. If you actually sand aluminum you can achieve a very nice and shiny finish. It looks very similar to chrome. What do you guys think of coating the inside of the pipe with a very smooth metal finish for better flow.

 

I heard that it helps. I don't know if it is true or not but I have intake which I am going to repaing and coat inside with ceramic pain.