Tony Schulz's Review of the Injen Intake

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Name: Tony Schulz
Email: [email protected]  
Product: Injen CAI
Model:
Store: Zoofactory
Price: ~$250
Car: '96 240SX SE
Worth_it: Absolutely
Difficulty_Rating: 2
Date: 06 March 2000

Problems

    Filter orientation: Some have pointed it straight ahead. But that blocks nearly all the airflow if you also have fog lights. So I started with mine angled toward the fender slightly so part of the element was directly in the airflow. But within a few hundred miles I had picked up lots of debris and black soot on that one spot of the filter. So I cleaned it and now have it turned 90 degrees, straight at the fender so it's almost against the well liner.

Tips

    Trim the supplied vacuum hoses for an easier fit.

    Hood clearance: If you have a '96 or newer, the EVAP canister has been moved to the rear and you can snap off the 6 vertical tabs on the fan shroud that used to guide its lines to get more clearance.

    To mount the air temp sensor properly: Use a small screwdriver to pry off the metal plate from the air temp sensor. Pull the rubber gasket off and put it on the sensor for a good seal on the new pipe.

    The install is much easier if you remove the left front wheel. Especially if you have the chin spoiler because it blocks one of the screws on the plastic liner so you can't completely remove it.

   
Thoughts

    Everything fit very well and it looks cool under the hood. When cruising it sounds nearly stock. Open it up and the new sounds put a wide grin on my face... worth 1/2 the cost alone. The increase in power is very noticeable... easily worth the other 1/2. ;)

Other

    I took the car to a dyno shop to get some solid numbers on this thing since there where problems with the run Injen performed; like a car with other mods in place and the strange wall of power at 5000 RPM. Not that they where trying to pull something, but it just was not a good run.
   
    Three baseline pulls were done on my car (stock from intake to exhaust tip) to make sure we were getting a good reading and the engine was not too hot or cold. Then two more runs where performed after installing the Intake. Both runs here are labeled "BASELINE" because the guy forgot to rename it after the install.
   
    As the chart shows, there are strong gains in the lower range, as high as 10hp near 3400 RPM. There is a very slight loss from 3700-4000 followed by slight gains till around 5200. From there till redline power is increased about 5-6hp.