Installed Intake, now some questions

[JustinVGT]

I received my Injen CAI yesterday. I ordered it Sunday night and got it less than two days later. I did not realize that PTuning is actually in Manassas, VA, which is only about 30 miles away from me. The pictures that Injen included in the instructions are pretty bad, being small, black and white xerox copies. Lancer's install guide on his base Vibe really helped! Thanks Lancer! The most difficult part was sliding the filter on. It took me around an hour. There were times where I almost had it, but it then slid off as I tried to tighten the clamp. At first, I just snapped open the fender well and could barely get in. After a lot of aggrevation, I finally took off the front wheel and that gave me some more room. It seems like Injen needs to bend the end of the CAI that goes behind the bumper, down at a sharper angle. I could not get my filter to attach parrallel to the pipe. It is at a slight angle pressing against the fog light. Is this how most of your's are?Another question, after trying to put the filter on so many times, I actually bent the filter a little bit (and scratched my intake moving it around ). I'm attaching a picture so you can see what I mean. I do not think it should affect the performance of the filter much. What do you all think? My last question is, after I installed it, I let the engine idle for about 10 minutes to allow the computer to reprogram itself. I then went for a short drive. I didn't get to test it out a whole lot, but I loved it thus far. During the drive at a red light, no one was around, I just wanted to hear the engine. I sat at the light, put it in neutral and revved the engine. Now, when I revved it, the engine only went to about 7k RPM and it seemed as though the rev limiter kicked in. Shortly before this, I drove taking it to 8k RPM. Is it bad to rev the engine in neutral? Is it better only to rev it that high when in gear driving?Now, this morning, oh man I got to try out my intake a bit more. It is so awesome, I love it. I can feel the power all throughout and it is unreal when I hit 6k RPM! When I merged onto the highway, wow, I got up to speed so quick! I love the sound and the power! No check engine light and my idle is just like normal, around 800-900 RPM. Thanks for all the help,

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[Triton]

From the way your filter looks, it's not pushed up the intake tube far enough. The bottom of my filter actually touches the top of the fog light housing. You have to push the filter up for it not to bend like that. It will not affect performace at all. The intake is actually designed for a Toyota Matrix which the fog lights on a Matrix in a different position than the Vibes.As far as revving the motor up to 7000 RPMs at idle, I don't think I would do that too often. I'm not sure how harmful it is to your engine doing that. I hope this helps.

[Triton]

quote:Can't help you on your questions, but I'm sold, I want one too now!They are awesome AtWork! The sound is intoxicating and you can feel the difference. I definately recommend it to anyone considering and intake.

[JustinVGT]

So how far do you push the filter on? I put that piece of masking tape on the pipe to give me an idea how far it is on. I installed it about 1.5" or about however long the lip of the filter is onto the pipe. Should I push it on another inch or two?Thanks

[JustinVGT]

quote:Can't help you on your questions, but I'm sold, I want one too now! ((Change your signature - the intake is no longer "on the way" ))I fixed my signature, thanks . Almost forgot, I just didn't have to wait long for it at all.

[NovaResource]

quote:Now, when I revved it, the engine only went to about 7k RPM and it seemed as though the rev limiter kicked in. Shortly before this, I drove taking it to 8k RPM. Is it bad to rev the engine in neutral? Is it better only to rev it that high when in gear driving?Yes. Revving an engine very high in neutral is not a good idea because there is no load on the engine.

[Triton]

Well, I'm not sure of the exact distance, but I think it is like 3 or 4 inches total. Like I said, the bottom of my filter touches the top of the back of the fog light housing. The filter will not be bent at all. I would definately push it up another inch or two, whatever it takes to make the filter sit on top of the fog light. After you get it up there, take a pic and I'll let you know if it is sitting like mine. After that, take it for a test drive and you will see that there is no difference.

[JustinVGT]

quote:Yes. Revving an engine very high in neutral is not a good idea because there is no load on the engine.Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking. I had maybe only revved it that high once or twice in neutral. Last night afterwards, it occured to me that it is probably not good without the load on the engine. Thanks for confirming that.

[QUIKAG]

Trying PULLING the intake filter up higher from the top. Access it from the engine bay through the little hole. Get a neighborhood kid with small hands to help you. The intake is the best mod for power, sound, fuel economy at light throttle (yeah right!) It really sounds stock when you're just cruising around, very quiet and smooth. But give it a lot of throttle and for the GT cars, kick it past 6000rpm and the sportbike ripping sound begins. So, are you happy you installed it before your road trip?

[JustinVGT]

quote:Trying PULLING the intake filter up higher from the top. Access it from the engine bay through the little hole. Get a neighborhood kid with small hands to help you. The intake is the best mod for power, sound, fuel economy at light throttle (yeah right!) It really sounds stock when you're just cruising around, very quiet and smooth. But give it a lot of throttle and for the GT cars, kick it past 6000rpm and the sportbike ripping sound begins. So, are you happy you installed it before your road trip? I'll see if one of my younger brothers can help me out with the filter. I am so happy I installed it before my road trip! You are right, just cruising around the sound is pretty much like stock. When you hit past 6000rpm, oh man that is so awesome! I also like the humming sound at idle and the hiss when you shut it off.Do you think the filter's performance is being affected by being slightly bent (I'm talking about the actual screen section) as you can see in the picture? I highly doubt it, but just wondering.Later,

[QUIKAG]

No your filter performance is fine with it being slightly bent. You will notice no performance increase once you get the filter on right. Glad you're enjoying the CAI as much as the rest of us who have installed one. I really love the sound at high rpm, it's very addicting and sounds very exotic which is very surprising considering the rather mundane looking car it's coming from.

[JustinVGT]

The section I am trying to describe that is bent in addition to the actuall entire filter, is the finned screen filter material section. When pushing it onto the pipe, you can see I slightly crunched it. That shouldn't affect the performance of the filter should it?

[QUIKAG]

No. I wouldn't make a habit of crushing the air filter, but if you pushed in the 'fins' a bit on a part of the filter, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[JustinVGT]

Yeah, I mentioned I opened up the entire wheel well splash guard, then even took the wheel off to have more space. The filter did not go on easily, it kept sliding off because of the bad angle. It also got a little crumpled from twisting and pushing it on to the pipe so many times.

[JustinVGT]

Anyone know of a way to remove some scratches from the intake? Is there a good polish that can be used to remove some minor scratches?Thanks,

[Triton]

I have a couple scratches in mine as well from installing it, but mine is blue and it scrathed the powder coat. There is no way to take those out unforunately. I just put wax over the scrathes to protect them.

[drunkenmaxx]

i was able to reach to put my filter on by *slightly* bending the plastic molding in the front and reaching it from there (with a guide looking from the wheel well to help me)

[JustinVGT]

Hey Silver, how did you get your's to slide on so easily? I had to push and twist mine pretty forcefully for it to slide into position. That is why my filter got deformed, arrgghh

[ragingfish]

I installed the filter before I installed the intake. Here's what I did:Dropped the pipe in from the top and let it hang there.Scooted underneath, slid the filter on until the pipe hit the bottom of the filter.Went back out to the top, installed the pipe into the throttle neck and secured it down to the vibra-mount. Went BACk underneath, pulled the filter off until it had about a 1/2 to 1 inch clearance between the top of the foglight housing and the bottom of the filter. Then I tightened it down.Not sure how I'll get it off to clean it...may have to remove it from the throttle and the vibra and essentially uninstall and reinstall the pipe. But I still have about 5,000 miles, so I'll wait until then to worry.

[JustinVGT]

This morning I slid the filter up about another inch or two to get it above the foglight. Looks great now.People who are concerned about the CAI becoming hydrolocked shouldn't worry. I was wondering about that back when I was researching on here about getting a CAI, but now I see how high up above the road the filter is. You sure would have to drive through some very deep water to become hydrolocked. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking it's probably around 18" above the road, being above the fog light. Since I installed my CAI, I haven't been listening to my music as much . Whenever I'm accelerating, I turn down the volume LOL. Oh, I love the sound! I wish you didn't have to drive it so hard to hear it so you could hear it more often. With the traffic around here, I don't get to use lift all that often. Then again, it's good that it sounds stock a lot of the time. I can really surprise people . Later,

[MadBill]

You could always record the sound and then power the recorder to play it back via a microswitch under the gas pedal, set to about 1/2 throttle...