mitch808
10-16-2001, 02:53 PM
I had installed my Injen intake last night and WHOA! what a difference judging by the butt-o-meter.
Some gripes and tips on the whole setup process
1. The instruction sheet is terrible. It tells you to remove your bumper to make things easier and to remove the stock airbox. But no directions on how to do either. But let me tell you,
IT"S NOT NECESSARY to remove the bumper! You will have to flex the bumber a bit to get the pipe to fit down the fender but that is it. I already scratched my piping up a bit so this is a warning. Don't say I didn't warn you.
2. The pictures in the manual are in black and white and are terrbile, they look like the pictures are from a photocopy machine.
3. Where the piping goes into the fender, Injen should have included a rubber tube to go around the metal edge of the fender. This is to prevent rattles between the pipe and the fender, and to prevent scratching of the highly polished piping. I noticed this when I took out my car for the first time.
4. When removing the inner fender well this of course after removing the passenger side tire. Make sure to NOT damage the little plastic plugs that are used to secure the fender lining. It's really easy to do damage to these little guys.
5. I suggest you reset the ECU. I did on mine but the manual doesn't tell you to do that. In fact before you even work on the car, disconnect the (-) battery terminal. When done installing the intake, run the car for 20 minutes and start buttoning the car back together. Also, clean up the work area, this of course is to kill time while your waiting for your ECU to adjust itself. Also while your at it, put on the nice little Injen license plate frame they give you in the box. Once the fans come on go ahead and turn off the car, and finish cleaning up. Take the car and out and drive like a mad man.
Now on to the good stuff. Using my trusty butt-dynometer.
1. The mid range pull and highend pull is greatly enahnced. However it has been colder the past few days and that has helped make the car run better in everything from lowend to midrange pull. So my judgement is a bit off as I can't tell if it's the intake or the cold air. But the mid range and topend is there more so than before that I can vouch for.
2. The quality of the piping welds and design is very good. It should last a long time.
3. Using a K&N filter is a great way to keep the cost down and keep the parts universal incase something should ever happen to your filter. You could always put something more free'r flowing on like a HKS filter or something else.
4. The sounds coming from under the hood are a bit intimidating at first. You hear the turbo much much more now even more then just removing the silencer. You also hear a part throttle sucking sound at around 3k RPM when the filter is sucking in a good amount of air. It's a bit of a wooshing sound. I thought something was wrong with all the sounds coming into the cabin of the car. But I guess it's something I have to get used to.
5. There is no worry about water getting in the intake. It's in the fender well and unless your going into a 1' deep puddle for longer than 5 seconds, I wouldn't worry. Today I just drove through a very hard rain for abour 20 miles and no problems came about from this.
6. It is really going to clean up the under hood area. Your removing a lot of plastic boxes and such and it will look a lot better afterwards. It's a great time to replace some of the coolant hoses now with some dress up ones. I wish I had thought of this while I was doing it. But thats okay, it's next on my list.
If there is anything else I missed please ask. I won't post pictures as it looks just like the Injen website. There is nothing really different. I'm wondering what the AEM kit will look like, I bet the same just not polished. Either way, I feel that it is a potential mod that will blow away any drop in filter.
Also people will say that in the SCC article they had the 6 WRX's tuned by all those great tuners(APS9 Bozz, etc) and not one had a cold air intake only drop in filters. Well think about it, when the magazine issue first came out, there was no injen WRX CAI on the market yet. So there goes your theories on CAI's are no good.
Now to be honest there is no proof that there is a *huge* gain with the injen. But there is no loss from what I can see. If anything you paid 200 bucks for a fancy drop in filter. But it sure looks purty :D I think I would pay the extra money for aesthetic purposes.
Some gripes and tips on the whole setup process
1. The instruction sheet is terrible. It tells you to remove your bumper to make things easier and to remove the stock airbox. But no directions on how to do either. But let me tell you,
IT"S NOT NECESSARY to remove the bumper! You will have to flex the bumber a bit to get the pipe to fit down the fender but that is it. I already scratched my piping up a bit so this is a warning. Don't say I didn't warn you.
2. The pictures in the manual are in black and white and are terrbile, they look like the pictures are from a photocopy machine.
3. Where the piping goes into the fender, Injen should have included a rubber tube to go around the metal edge of the fender. This is to prevent rattles between the pipe and the fender, and to prevent scratching of the highly polished piping. I noticed this when I took out my car for the first time.
4. When removing the inner fender well this of course after removing the passenger side tire. Make sure to NOT damage the little plastic plugs that are used to secure the fender lining. It's really easy to do damage to these little guys.
5. I suggest you reset the ECU. I did on mine but the manual doesn't tell you to do that. In fact before you even work on the car, disconnect the (-) battery terminal. When done installing the intake, run the car for 20 minutes and start buttoning the car back together. Also, clean up the work area, this of course is to kill time while your waiting for your ECU to adjust itself. Also while your at it, put on the nice little Injen license plate frame they give you in the box. Once the fans come on go ahead and turn off the car, and finish cleaning up. Take the car and out and drive like a mad man.
Now on to the good stuff. Using my trusty butt-dynometer.
1. The mid range pull and highend pull is greatly enahnced. However it has been colder the past few days and that has helped make the car run better in everything from lowend to midrange pull. So my judgement is a bit off as I can't tell if it's the intake or the cold air. But the mid range and topend is there more so than before that I can vouch for.
2. The quality of the piping welds and design is very good. It should last a long time.
3. Using a K&N filter is a great way to keep the cost down and keep the parts universal incase something should ever happen to your filter. You could always put something more free'r flowing on like a HKS filter or something else.
4. The sounds coming from under the hood are a bit intimidating at first. You hear the turbo much much more now even more then just removing the silencer. You also hear a part throttle sucking sound at around 3k RPM when the filter is sucking in a good amount of air. It's a bit of a wooshing sound. I thought something was wrong with all the sounds coming into the cabin of the car. But I guess it's something I have to get used to.
5. There is no worry about water getting in the intake. It's in the fender well and unless your going into a 1' deep puddle for longer than 5 seconds, I wouldn't worry. Today I just drove through a very hard rain for abour 20 miles and no problems came about from this.
6. It is really going to clean up the under hood area. Your removing a lot of plastic boxes and such and it will look a lot better afterwards. It's a great time to replace some of the coolant hoses now with some dress up ones. I wish I had thought of this while I was doing it. But thats okay, it's next on my list.
If there is anything else I missed please ask. I won't post pictures as it looks just like the Injen website. There is nothing really different. I'm wondering what the AEM kit will look like, I bet the same just not polished. Either way, I feel that it is a potential mod that will blow away any drop in filter.
Also people will say that in the SCC article they had the 6 WRX's tuned by all those great tuners(APS9 Bozz, etc) and not one had a cold air intake only drop in filters. Well think about it, when the magazine issue first came out, there was no injen WRX CAI on the market yet. So there goes your theories on CAI's are no good.
Now to be honest there is no proof that there is a *huge* gain with the injen. But there is no loss from what I can see. If anything you paid 200 bucks for a fancy drop in filter. But it sure looks purty :D I think I would pay the extra money for aesthetic purposes.