The way the intake is designed to work on the DeLorean depends on the outside temperature. When the engine is warming up, warmer air near the exhaust manifold on the passenger side is fed into the intake via the silver stove piping. Once the engine warms up, there is a valve that the silver piping connects to that is supposed to increase the ratio of colder/fresh air from the inlet pipe on the rear passenger side pontoon.
I don't know of any way to test to make sure that the mixture valve is working correctly, and I just assume that after 30+ years that it is not working. If it's not working, that means that air is being drawn at all times from the stove piping, which is not only limiting the amount of air, but it also means that the air is always hot.
Upon another DeLorean owner's recommendation, I decided to remove all of these unnecessary components and create a more free-flowing air intake. I purchased a fresh air intake pipe from AutoZone for around $20 and was able to remove all other components. This is the pipe I purchased: AutoZone air intake piping.This is after I removed the intake filter/assembly and the stove piping:
I then removed the rest of the remaining parts of the old intake. Here they are sitting on the ground. I later removed the metal part that surrounded the exhaust manifold where the stove piping hooked up, but failed to take a picture of it:
I then hooked up the new intake piping to the air filter box and the pontoon inlet. It is going to look much cleaner once it's all put back together.
I also decided to restore the air filter assembly to its original glory. I haven't quite decided on how to make the plastic look dark black and as good as new, but I started by removing the old and original sticker. Yuck.
Nice!
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