BCH intake is in!!!

[Anonymous]

well, i'm covered in cuts and my back is killing me....but it's in!

first-off, let me thank oil, corkey, beanie and joe for helping out with advice and much needed pictures since, with spyderchat being down, i was flying blind most of the way - figuratively and literally since i couldn't find my shoplight and ended up using a big, heavy mag-lite flashlight........thanks also to the socal & mr2roc boards for providing me with alternate means of getting the info i needed....

relocating the battery makes a huge hole in which to work, but there are still a number of hoses and loom that make this a real PITA the first time......i made a lot of mistakes but i did learn a lot as a result...

now, my impressions...

sound - it is amazing at how quiet this intake is until you get it near WOT....it's a real sleeper - you can run 6500rpm a partial throttle with no increase in noise....but when you jam your foot to the floor...  s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

butt dyno - i'm dissapointed that i have no news from the butt dyno....but, honestly, at 300+ pounds my butt is not going to notice a few horses here or there.....but, that's what the dyno is for....however, i took the car out on "my route" and i was able to get the back end to step out much more easily powering out of the apexes.....also, the car lurches alot more on the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts, that is to say i was pulled back more violently on the upshifts, but that could be due to.........

......throttle response - most notable improvement...the car responds almost instantaneously with less hesitation than the stock intake.....the car pulls sooooooo smoothly in higher gears..........the reason i think the car's lurching on upshifts is because of the ever so slight (not powershifting)overlap between throttle and clutch - because of the increased TR the engine is reving more quickly when the clutch engages and i'm jerked back into the seat......it'll take a little acclimatization for that.........

idle - smoooooootthhhh as a baby's butt.....perhaps smoother than stock.......i would suggest supporting the intake though, as it rattles a little when soming off of the line with a "normal everyday" launch; there's no rattle when "hard" launching.....no CELs


now that i've done it once, i would say that this is an easier install than the aem, though i suspect the injen would be the easiest.....the only difficulty, really, is in navigating your way around/behind/through the various hoses and wires looms.....i also found a few techniques that i may ask beanie to ammend in his install instructions, and some pitfalls that i encountered that i want to share with others .......

i look forward to getting on the dyno and seeing some actual numbers, though i'm most certainly not looking forward to swapping the three intakes - i almost wish i was just a simple paying customer so i could leave the BCH intake on and forget about it...but the dyno duty calls.....

until then, i'll just keep on enjoying my BCH intake until dyno day arrives!  s:D s:D  

kev

[Anonymous]

Hey, thanks for the quick impression.  Before I respond to that, you said earlier that you didn't connect the emissions hose and I was thinking uh-oh because you'd be sucking in unfiltered air unless you taped up the hole.  That reminds me: my resonator doesn't have the nipple for that hose and shorter (but the same volume).  Corky couldn't find a place to buy 1.5" tubing so he said he was going to use 1.25 tubing and make it longer.  I don't know if this will make any noticable difference compared to mine, but probably not.

The sound:  I can't say that I remember what the stock intake sounded like, so you could be right that this is a "sleeper".  Also, I probably notice it more than you because I played with various things and am attuned to changes in it.  ALTHOUGH this is a possible indication that the tube isn't assembled the right way.  There should be about 1 1/8th inch from the left side of the MAF mount to the start of the rubber Y.  Please take a picture.  I can hear the induction noise at WAY less than WOT.  I also need to know if you have an aftermarket header or exhaust.

Throttle response: You are definitely right about that.  You have found that shifting gears is different (done w/out thinking, you've programmed your hand and feet) and this is due to both throttle response and (going out on  a limb here) power.  Yes, that's the whole point.  More power.

If it idles as well as you say, that's a good indication the thing is put together right.  Mine is very smooth, too, with both ECUs.

Thanks for getting this up quickly.

Forgot something: the rattle you mentioned.  I don't have that.  It could be the very end or bottom of the filter is too close to something.

[Anonymous]

where to start........??

1st - the rattle, it was the tip of the filter vibrating against the chassis, i move the filter about 3/4" and it's gone.......odd thing though, usually when the car begins to bog - while pulling away from a start or, in my case, driving at about 5mph through a parking lot - the whole car shudders....with the intake in, it would rattle but is was the only thing that rattled  s:?: :?: s:?:  .....in any  case it has stopped now......

2nd - noise level.....i agree with beanie in that we're probably hearing the same thing.....at 0-69% throttle the car just sounds like it has a little louder exhaust, with a little "twish" on throttle and a little sigh coming to a stop......but if you put your boot in it - 70%-WOT - it gives you a nice loud "whomp!!".......i'm used to hearing the ubiquitous aem intakes that "whomp" constantly, which is why i remarked that it was so quiet......btw, i drove it tonight for the first time with the top and windows up - you can clearly hear it and distinguish it from the exhaust note.......(it's so melodic, initially it just kinda sounded like any other CAI, but if i close my eyes i can almost hear a pair of twin-choke weber IDAs....that sounds kinda sappy huh? and i wouldn't recommend closing your eyes to listen to your intake at WOT  s:P s:P  )

3rd - power....remember, the ecu has been reset, and to give you an idea of how meaningful that is, my exhaust smells like pure gasoline and i've used half a tank of gas in the last 40 miles( 8O   s:!: :!: s:!:  )....so there is obviously a power gain in running that rich......that said, the car is definitely putting more power to the ground - even though my big ass doesn't feel it, the needle on the tach moves a lot faster and i'm getting the rear end to step out more on corners where i usually have plenty of grip...there's something there, we'll see soon enough....

4th - is there a "4th"?, i don't know.....

do i have pics? no, i don't have a dig. camera....

where's the resonator? towards the firewall almost parallel to the ground....but i'm going to be changing the orientation of everything when i pull it out for the dyno, i was a little too optimistic when orientating the MAF(can't get a screwdriver in there  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  )....i'm not able to get 1.25" to the left of the MAF because i'm running into a) the fusebox, b) the main wiring loom, and c) the chassis/body itself....

did i remove the STB?.....no, it actually didn't get in the way for either the battery box or the intake, but it was a tremendous PITA when removing the stock intake.......

filter? i kinda prefer the one that i have (spectre?) i like the white (easier to notice dirt), i think the dual cone design is probably better, i like the fact that it's not a wet filter, if it gets too dirty i can just toss it and buy a new one  s8) s8)  

am i satisfied with the two mods? absolutely! at first i was a little miffed at having to relocate the battery (as mentioned in another thread) but now that i've done it i would say that it's a worthwhile mod in and of itslef.....as far as the intake - worst case scenario, it makes no more power than stock; but, as mentioned in my original post, throttle response is improved, the engine bay is less cluttered, the cars idle seems to have improved, the car doesn't shudder when the engine lugs, it sounds glorious, etc......and, of course, there's always the possibility that it does make more power...  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  

install.........i found that it was easier for me to collapse the intake (like an accordian) and slide the whole unit into place, then start adjusting and tightening clamps from the throttle body left.......orient the the MAF as close to parallel to the ground as you can, this'll make it much easier to get to......attach vacum line to nipple before installing intake   s:P s:P  

as far as the battery, well, let me put it this way, since SC was down, i had no instructions or pictures to go by, and yet i still managed to do it with only a minimum or arc-welding   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  ......my install is exactly like that shown in beanie's pics, except that my battery is mounted upright.......advice, either clamp the battery down before you connect it or buy the optional brass posts (or both) - battery cables aren't very compliant, the screws are awfully small and easy to drop and it's a bit of a stretch to reach the battery once it's in place.........plus it's a really small freakin battery so it would only take small slip to short across it..........

that's all i can think of, any questions?

kev

[Anonymous]

I think the MAF was damaged somewhere along the way, as I said on Spyderchat.  I'll respond over there.  We need to get to the bottom of that first thing.  My mileage is perfectly normal.

[Anonymous]

and i responded to your response.....  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  

kev

[Anonymous]

Spyderchat is down this morning.  Blah.

[Anonymous]

What was your response (I'm assuming Spyderchat won't come back up for a while)?

[Anonymous]

What was your response (I'm assuming Spyderchat won't come back up for a while)?

i thought you'd seen it......there's nothing wrong with the MAF, most of that 40 miles was done the night of the install, and sense the ecu had been reset it was running rich.......combine this with the fact that my commute to work each day is two miles so i'm pretty much running closed loop all of the time.........

kev

[Anonymous]

So is your gas mileage the same as before, no gas odor from exhaust, everything else OK?

[Anonymous]

yup!

kev