1st mod: BLF CAI
The car only has 2233 miles on it, but I am already tearing into the engine bay!:blushing: Honestly, though, if it weren't for all the great info on this forum and the responsiveness of the vendors and the way they handle the group, I probably would have deferred this until much later. But with confidence I have dove in head first.
I decided to go with BLF for a couple reasons. One the dyno'd power output at 10whp. I had also considered the Takeda, but was a little jaded over the reports of rattling and such. From a design standpoint the BLF just resonated with me.
The install
This will be a verbal description until I have more time later to add a few pics...
First let me say, if you are just doing the SRI this is a piece of cake. The CAI, for me at least, was way more work than I anticipated. The instructions are very good with lots of helpful pics, but there is nothing in there about removing the lower bits, I think it is called the resonator. And since the instructions were based on a MT, there were no helpful hints on doing this with a CVT. I hope I can fill some of those gaps here.
After you take out the two 10mm screws and loosen the intake clamp you also have to remove this from that resonator below. There was nothing in the instructions about this. There is a rubber housing that fits over the plastic resonator below, with a little wiggling and pulling it will come right off.
Now came the fun part: how to get that resonator out? Again nothing in the instructions so for what it is worth here is how I did it. There are four bolts holding this guy in. One is on top and obvious. Another can be seen behind the battery. The other two are on the bottom and you will need to remove the plastic covering under the engine to get to the first one. The other one can be had by coming through the wheel well. If this sounds like a lot of fuss, it is, but you have to remove these bits to get the CAI in anyway, so its no extra work.
After getting these four bolts off you are faced with the task of pulling a grapefruit through the eye of a needle...getting that resonator out was fun. It won't come out through the top. The only way I could work it out was to pull it over in the direction of the wheel well. There is some wiring coming through there; if you pull this out of the way it will give you that extra 1/8 of an inch that you will need to get this thing out. Just keep working and it and it will come out. IMO, this was the hardest part of the install.
The other part where I struggle a little bit was getting the CAI piping installed. You have to do this from under the car. I don't have a lift, so I jacked up the driver side to give me some room (actually already did this to remove the resonator). I have a CVT and there are trans lines which make this a little more "interesting". It wasn't obvious to me where in relation to these lines I needed to start feeding the pipe, but after a few tries (and a some scuff marks) I figured it out. You really need to start feeding the pipe from the far left (driver's side) beyond the trans lines. If you look you will see there is much more space to work there any way and after you get the pipe up in there it will not be pinching the trans lines and will be completely clear of them. It's a little tight, some cuss words may be heard, just follow the instructions and it will go. One other tip, the instructions tell you to install the coupler and clamps before feeding the pipe. I decided to leave these off until I got the pipe in. If you leave everything untightened, it is a simple matter to install the coupler and clamps from above and it makes routing that pipe a bit easier.
Getting all those covers and fender well back on takes some time and fussing. I had to rotate the clamp on the filter to get everything to line up...again it is a tight fit in there.
Driving Impressions
I am really pleased with the product. After letting it idle for about 5 minutes (per instructions) I gently drove it out of the neighborhood and for about another 5 miles to let it warm up and get the ECU in tune with the new air flow. Then I started to open her up. Econ mode feels more like Normal. Normal has a bit of Sportish pull to it. But, man, the Sport mode! Very noticeable power in Sport mode. The butt dyno is very happy indeed! :grin: I also noticed a little bit more grunt coming from under the hood. Not loud by any standards, but I like the sound of it. All in all, despite the work involved, I am very pleased with the product and believe I made a good choice.
Pics coming soon!
The car only has 2233 miles on it, but I am already tearing into the engine bay!:blushing: Honestly, though, if it weren't for all the great info on this forum and the responsiveness of the vendors and the way they handle the group, I probably would have deferred this until much later. But with confidence I have dove in head first.
I decided to go with BLF for a couple reasons. One the dyno'd power output at 10whp. I had also considered the Takeda, but was a little jaded over the reports of rattling and such. From a design standpoint the BLF just resonated with me.
The install
This will be a verbal description until I have more time later to add a few pics...
First let me say, if you are just doing the SRI this is a piece of cake. The CAI, for me at least, was way more work than I anticipated. The instructions are very good with lots of helpful pics, but there is nothing in there about removing the lower bits, I think it is called the resonator. And since the instructions were based on a MT, there were no helpful hints on doing this with a CVT. I hope I can fill some of those gaps here.
After you take out the two 10mm screws and loosen the intake clamp you also have to remove this from that resonator below. There was nothing in the instructions about this. There is a rubber housing that fits over the plastic resonator below, with a little wiggling and pulling it will come right off.
Now came the fun part: how to get that resonator out? Again nothing in the instructions so for what it is worth here is how I did it. There are four bolts holding this guy in. One is on top and obvious. Another can be seen behind the battery. The other two are on the bottom and you will need to remove the plastic covering under the engine to get to the first one. The other one can be had by coming through the wheel well. If this sounds like a lot of fuss, it is, but you have to remove these bits to get the CAI in anyway, so its no extra work.
After getting these four bolts off you are faced with the task of pulling a grapefruit through the eye of a needle...getting that resonator out was fun. It won't come out through the top. The only way I could work it out was to pull it over in the direction of the wheel well. There is some wiring coming through there; if you pull this out of the way it will give you that extra 1/8 of an inch that you will need to get this thing out. Just keep working and it and it will come out. IMO, this was the hardest part of the install.
The other part where I struggle a little bit was getting the CAI piping installed. You have to do this from under the car. I don't have a lift, so I jacked up the driver side to give me some room (actually already did this to remove the resonator). I have a CVT and there are trans lines which make this a little more "interesting". It wasn't obvious to me where in relation to these lines I needed to start feeding the pipe, but after a few tries (and a some scuff marks) I figured it out. You really need to start feeding the pipe from the far left (driver's side) beyond the trans lines. If you look you will see there is much more space to work there any way and after you get the pipe up in there it will not be pinching the trans lines and will be completely clear of them. It's a little tight, some cuss words may be heard, just follow the instructions and it will go. One other tip, the instructions tell you to install the coupler and clamps before feeding the pipe. I decided to leave these off until I got the pipe in. If you leave everything untightened, it is a simple matter to install the coupler and clamps from above and it makes routing that pipe a bit easier.
Getting all those covers and fender well back on takes some time and fussing. I had to rotate the clamp on the filter to get everything to line up...again it is a tight fit in there.
Driving Impressions
I am really pleased with the product. After letting it idle for about 5 minutes (per instructions) I gently drove it out of the neighborhood and for about another 5 miles to let it warm up and get the ECU in tune with the new air flow. Then I started to open her up. Econ mode feels more like Normal. Normal has a bit of Sportish pull to it. But, man, the Sport mode! Very noticeable power in Sport mode. The butt dyno is very happy indeed! :grin: I also noticed a little bit more grunt coming from under the hood. Not loud by any standards, but I like the sound of it. All in all, despite the work involved, I am very pleased with the product and believe I made a good choice.
Pics coming soon!
hyeah:
