The install went well. I even took the front bumper off. To be honest I think spending the 20min to take the bumper off will help a lot when installing the CAI. I actually probably spent 35 min trying to figure out how to get the CAI in without the Bumper on, I can't imagine having to deal with the Bumper in addition to all the other stuff and still fit the CAI in. Probably my biggest mistake was trying to install the CAI without lifting the car. You really need the extra 5-6" to fiddle the intake into the engine bay.

Other than that everything was great. I didn't cutout the fake brake duct yet, but I think it's necessary because she seems to run out of air when you get above 7.5K rpm.

Low and mid power feels stronger and I think upper rpm power will get better with the cutout brake duct.

More later.

J

 

yeah you should definetly cut the fake vent out.... i took mine out the second day i installed the intake and i didnt feel any gains but, i do know that the intake takes in more fresh air because after a long drive i would stick my hand in the duct and feel an ice cold filter. oh yeah it also gets a lot louder because the filter is almost fully exposed to the rest of the world... im just concerned with water ingestion now..
MIKe

 

DJHohum,

Since you have cut your fake vent, could you feel the temperature of the pipe itself after a hard run? I installed the AEM and only cut the side of the undertray; near the engine, the pipe gets pretty warm. I am wondering if cooling the intake end of the pipe might make an improvement or if I need to insulate the pipe.

Tanq

 

Tanqueray, I too wonder about the pipe being a heat sink where it runs through the engine bay, maybe to a certain degree (no pun inteneded) defeating the whole purpose of the CAI. I have the AEM on order and have been thinking about ways to insulate it thru the engine bay.

Can anybody else shed some informed light on this question?

 

Yeah i noticed that my Intake pipe would get HOT too... usually it would get hot from the throttle body down to the midsection of the pipe near the radiator. after putting the hole it was definetly a little cooler, its now warm instead of hot. But the major difference in putting the hole in the bumper is that the lower section of the tubing (everything till the first major bend) is ice cold. Now i heard that the tubes temp does not affect the temp of the incoming air that much because the air is moving though it quickly enough that the heat isnt conducted. not sure if thats true though, but i think im gonna eventually wrap my header with some kind of heat insulator since its all scratched up anyway!
MIke

 

Have anyone considered drilling series of small holes in the fake air duct? I think this would look a lot better and also provide fresh air.

 

F1 Tech, I thought about drilling a series of holes into the fake duct. However the more air you can get in there the better and I'm not sure that the holes will be effective at high speeds when the air flow dynamics change significantly.

J