fve

I have done the search and have come up with nothing, so i am sorry if this has been addressed before.

the last time i changed my oil, i pulled out the airfilter housing (or whatever it is called, part 996.110.021.90) to check my airfilter and lo and behold half the box was filled with leaves and other debris. There may even have been small rodents (deaf ones) nesting inside. I had been driving like that likely since the fall. After cleaning all that crap out i could definitely hear a big difference in the induction note.

My question is: are there or has anyone made any screens to prevent crap from getting into the airfilter housing. It would be easy to put a screen in between the airfilter housing and the decklid, but debris would just block airflow then. I thought that a screen over the deck lid holes would be superior and easier to clean. just like the screen for the front radiators (always prying leaves and small squirrels out of them). If i am not mistaken, the 997 gt3 have such screens (part number 997.512.436.90). Would they work?

thanks for your time. fve

va122

Go to home depot, the 997s wont work.

fve

thanks.

How did you wind up securing them? i have a bunch of screen left over from doing the front last year.

fve

va122

Dude, I'm in san diego. we have none of those worries.

Same way as the cup nose i guess. I don't know, silicon or liquid nails.

fve

Well, that was what i thought and it is always good to have someone concur. Now, not sure how helpful this will be to those that live amongst tumble weeds and palm trees, but for me this hopefully will do much good. I am constantly picking things out of my front screens and i am just stunned at home much crap can accumulate in the airbox. So here is my ghetto solution....

roberga

move to a nicer climate. The 997 GT3 comes with the screens. Do not know if they would fit.

Carefree

All too funny, I recently did my service and found all sorts of goodies.
I cleaned it and moved on, I sent the small children to Obama for re-distribution and rodendts to Clinton for "well, I'm not sure".

fve

I tried to break this up into 3 posts to make it easier for me to correct and modify. Hopefully the photos illustrate what i am talking about. First. I started off with a large sheet of mesh from Home Depot. It was about 10 USD. I it galvanized steel and started life as a sheet that was cut in staggered section then stretched. This makes it light, strong. Depending on how it is oriented, it can also provide a very small surface area w/r to airflow and should minimally affect it. I already had used a large portion of the material for the front screens and had a great deal left over. Heck, i have material for numerous replacement screens. Much more economic than purchasing pre-made ones.

Photo 1: sheet with caliper for reference.

Photo 2: i elected to make the screens as one piece, figuring it would be easier to secure. I measured the dimensions of the air vents: roughly 26" x 1.5" (66 cm x 4 cm). I cut a piece that was a bit larger, roughly 27.5 " x 3 " (70 cm x 7.5 cm). The extra material is helpful to secure the vents.

Photo 3: As noted above, screens positioned properly present a low profile w/r to blocking air flow. This photo illustrates this angle. If one shapes the piece incorrectly, the mesh will present a large surface area and block air flow. This should be readily apparent by examining the material.

Photo 4: since the rear cover is one piece, access to the area immediately below the vents is limited. Removing the fan facilitates access. As i recall, they are 10 mm bolts.

Carefree

Gordon, what "climate" have you moved to?

It must be south, AZ, or CA????

fve

the cut piece of mesh has lots of little sharp daggers. Instead of cutting them, i compressed those piece, along with some of the material to essentially form a frame for the mesh. This will be clear in subsequent photos. Some of the photos below illustrate the trial and error approach: some of the steps can be alleviated if you trust me

Photo 1: I shaped the pice by hand to conform to the shape of the deck lid.

Photo 2: As i tried to assess things. i secured wood shims to the mess. the shims were roughly the width of the air openings and i ctu them down to size. Secured, for now, with zip ties as i assess the fit.

Photo 3: The air vents are not completely straight. The shape of the deck lid is also slighty concave w/r to the surface that the vent opening form. (sorry cannot find a better way to describe this: you can take the geek out of the university, but you cannot take the university out of the geek...) Bottom line: does not fit well.

Photo 4: This is remedied by cutting about 3/4 of the material from the caudal aspect (sorry, again see geek reference above). Ends again bent and crushed down to form pseudo frame.

Photo 5: The free ends are matched up, used some of the mesh to lock the two ends. resulting shape illustrated.

Photo 6: the end result is now a good fit.

fve

The wood shims secured with zip ties were temporary until i got the shape that i wanted. Removed shims. Painted: i did it cheap/easy: primer, several coats of flat black spray paint.

Once that was done, i drilled holes in the wood shims. I placed bolt through the holes and secured the bolts to the shims with nuts: this kept them in place as i positioned the screens. to secure all this to the bottom of the vents, i cut 4 pieces of shim material, length about 2.5" (5.5 cm) and drilled holes through them as well. The bolts then fit through the holes in the 4 wood pieces: nuts as they are tightened provide nice and even pressure from below the screen and push it nicely against the bottom of the vents.

the purpose of the shims is two-fold. First by having shims roughly the size of the air vents, i can pull up on the shims and apply even pressure to the screens. Second, the shims cover most of the opening to keep the silicone off of most of the screen material. Wood was picked cause it is easy to work with and should not scratch my little angel too much.

Photo 1: This allowed me to secure the entire screen/shim assembly. This is viewed from above.

Photo 2: this is viewed from the underside of the deck lid through the fan opening.

Once the screen is well secured one can reach in and shape the screens a little more to conform the the surface.

Now the completely ghetto part. Slather silicone. Some sections are easy to reach, others not so much. I erred on teh side of caution by using more than i thought necessary. I used roofing silicone since it was in the garage. Oh, and it is black to hide my slopiness and it is made to withstand high temps. (not sure if it really has any different properties from regular silicone or just another packaging gimmick.) Did not take any photos of the bottom surface with the silicone, but it i assure you that it is not overly photeogenic. but more importantly, it is functional.

photo 3: installed. does not look 1/2 bad.

photo 4: looking "head-on": looking parallel with airflow, the mesh of the screen present minimal surface area. One can even barely see them at this angle--had to really tweak the photo so that they could be visualized.

Spent about 5 minutes cleaning up excess silicone. Also, touched up the paint on the screen a little by hand. I have driven around a little and everything seems to be secure. Pushed on them with some force and the silicone is holding. Will really know how good this is once i give it some track time.

Photo 5: time to enjoy.

Hope someone, anyone, benefits from this.

fve

fve

for whatever it may be worth, i have had no problems with this so far. Car up to about 100 mph (i really on think i was doing 65 mr officer sir).
fve