Injen Intake installed

[mitch808]

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 I think I would pay the extra money for aesthetic purposes.

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[dannyboy7]

Well, you nailed it pretty good Mitch. I would like to emphasize about the noise, it sounds very good! I bet with the BOV, it sounds awesome! I really didnt want to take the bumper off either, I just went from under the car, and I scratched my piping up also, but its scratched on a part that sits in the fender, so no tears shed here. Anywho, I will see ya around. Oh yeah, let me know when your ready for the Whitelines

[redobs]

Would silicone around the fender hole help??

[wrxracer]

did you think to use tape? maybe some good 200mph tape in your favorite color would have done the job, or even better and grommet, these are used mostly in the aircraft industry to prevent wires etc.. from rubbing and such....thanx for this though...now when i put mine on this week i will make sure to mask the hole so i don't get any rubbing or extra noise...watch that area for rubbing it could cause rust if it rubs hard and long enough...just my 2cents..hope this helps out...

[TerenceT]

Damn!!

i freaked out when i push the gas the first time!!

one of the best bang for the buck, this is a true CAI, the rest just suck the hot engine air back in, given it's shorter, but it also means the piping is all nice and toasty when the hot air get suck it.

added bonus on top of the power: i got a blow off valve all of a sudden, yes, my stock dump valve is blowing off!!

wonder if there's a fix for it, anyone?

also, anyone have a fix for the gourment scratching the CAI or rattling? i set mine so it's center in the hole and i shook it alot and it didn't rattle, however, i am sure if i can somehow block the spaces, it will help on the cold air part too

question, did you guys still use the factory air duct? maybe blocked off the other hole also would help too?

[wrxracer]

well i installed my injen tonight...what can i say. it looks great and sounds even better, i have a aftermarket BOV and it just got louder...as far as performance goes it feels like it picked up some but not as much as i would have thought, maybe i need to drive it some more and let the computer get adjusted some...i only got around the block so after a day or so and some highway and more around town will be able to tell a difference...will keep you updated...

[mitch808]

Well since my accident I drove my car in the rain a little and on very wet roads WITHOUT the fender lining in place. The filter was not wet and only had a few splash marks on it. I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but I had no choice but to drive it to the body shop.

I think overall even with the fender lining your car is safe unless you submerge the filter in water for a few seconds with the throttle down enough to vacuum up the water.

This should end the debate of CAI's being prone to getting wet. That whole thing is all theory anyways as the people bitching never owned one.

[wrxracer]

i think your right mitch808 about the water problem, its not likely...but for those like me that don't like to take a chance just order and install the splash shield as i did...looks good also and ensures no direct contact unless submerged in water, also another i-clubber said his injen intake is to loud...not mine. just enough to let you know its not stock and i have a aftermarket BOV, now that sounds great with the intake...love it so far...

[Shinshiki-WRX]

Originally posted by redobs
Would silicone around the fender hole help??

In my experience with my Si and AEM CAI, you need to put something either around the intake pipe or along the edge of the fender hole. After having my AEM on the Civic for a year, when I removed it, there was a HUGE gouge cut into the pipe. Another 1/16 of an inch and it would have cut through the tubing creating a leak. Find some of that rubber surround stuff...it comes in a rubber or styrafoam 'hose'. Cut it in half and run it around the hole. I might not be describing it exactly right, but I hope you get the idea. You could also get some foam padding and wrap it around the pipe itself. It shouldn't look too bad if you do it right. You do want to do something though...after a while the friction between pipe and fender metal WILL cut through the intake pipe. My experience is from a Civic, but both cars and intakes have the same design in this matter.

Hope this helps and saves someone the trouble of diagnosing and replacing the intake due to a leak!!

[paul nieto]

Cut a slit down the diameter of a small vacuum hose,first make sure it's the same length as th hole then install. This should absorb any shock.

[Imprezed]

I put mine on the other day. I took the wheel off, and the fender liner. I really did not want to pull the bumper off. Just wondering what the gurggling noise is when I lift off the throttle.

Late,

[TerenceT]

Originally posted by Imprezed
I put mine on the other day. I took the wheel off, and the fender liner. I really did not want to pull the bumper off. Just wondering what the gurggling noise is when I lift off the throttle.

Late,

it's your stock "wastegate" becoming a BOV due to the larger amount of air between the intake and the throttle body.

enjoy