08inBama

going to do this monday..........I am running a open cone setup right now, but its probably not the best of ideas, with all the trouble intakes are giving people, i'm going back stock, I can't find the two push pins to put the snorkel back on right(only found one of them, lol), so looks like Matt's air box mod it is, lol

I also won't have to remove the wheel/fenderwell this time, since the hardware for the snorkel has already been removed, I can just take out the passenger headlight and have all the access I need, much easier than jacking the car up and taking the wheel off, etc...

RBC

Does it get any louder over what the K&N drop in already does(BPV/turbo sound)?

Zander916

I didn't notice it being any louder. Probably because the box is still in place. But it does breathe much better IMO. Very happy I did it.

08inBama

well I went ahead and got it out of the way today, haven't taken it for a drive yet, though I will take it easy until the ECM relearns everything


but yeah, the write up makes it simple and taking off the headlight and removing that black bracket underneath the headlight is the way to go for intake work, MUCH easier than removing the wheel/fenderwell... but with that being said, the snorkel was already off the car, so I don't know how hard it would be to remove using this route, may not even be able to, when I removed it, I took off the wheel and the fenderwell

also, I didn't cut the bracket off flush, I did a little bit of trimming until it was close enough without causing a hole, I was able to turn it so that even with part of the bracket on the tubing, it still fit in the small hole leading to the fenderwell, with the way the spacing work, right where that hole is was where the bracket was on the tubing, so it had to be turned just right(with the bracket on the left side toward the passenger fenderwell)... I also had to turn the hose clamps just right to where I could get a nut driver on them through the bracket

Also had to cut one of my couplings to be able to fit the air box in right so that it would connect to the snorkel but all in all, it was easy enough... took me about 45 minutes, and most of that was spent trimming the bracket, test fitting, cutting the coupling, etc.... now I could do one in about 15 minutes


I also need to invest in using silicone couplings, it was a bitch using those big ass 3" couplings from Lowes, lol

cobaltssoverbooster

you can still short ram it and cut off the snorkel and leave just enough on the box to attach the bevel tip to the box with a connector if you wish. this is a great cheap mod overall

08inBama

well I finally took it out tonight and well, my great sounding spooling turbo is now gone once again, but if its for the better of the car, I can live with it... the "blowing off" sound is also noticeably quieter and I don't remember how it sounded stock with the drop in K&N so I can't compare "before" and after with this mod.... because I've gotten used to the sound of the open cone/fenderwell setup

But with that being said, after about 30 minutes of driving it.........I actually prefer it like this, see before you could hear the turbo spooling pretty loud and of course the BOV was borderline annoying(I don't really get into that loud BOV ****) and now its a little more discrete, which I think I actually like more

Zander916

Sounds very similar to my experience with the mod. Although I had a silicone coupling. I used a tool made for removing trim pins to remove the snorkel. I had to figure out where the heck that pin was back there but once I found that out, it wasn't too bad.

So how about the performance? I never had an aftermarket intake to compare it to. Does it seem pretty similar as far as the breathing/power aspect?

08inBama

from what I can tell, I haven't noticed much of a difference, one thing I like with this setup is with the CAI the car sounded HORRIBLE at start up, it'd clear up after idling and all CAIs do that on these cars because of the direct injection... But it sounds MUCH better at startup now, I haven't went WOT with this setup yet, but I don't see there being much of a difference, especially with me being on the stock tune, in fact, it'll probably perform BETTER

ssyellow

pics work fine for me...well 1st one has some probs but my internet has been acting up. too bad i dont got a t/c tho

Zander916

Ohhhhhh... ok. Yeah on a stock tune you're just getting the learn down anyway. Ok, well thanks for your input.

celicacavy

08inBama you selling your old CAI

FRQ FLYR

iTrader: (1)

Side note: Regarding the "flex-section" of intake tubing near turbo-would eliminating that with a "smooth" coupler aid airflow at all? I was thinking it may cause turbulence/pressure drop (or something in that vein). Yes/no,anybody?

08inBama

it was a Spectre kit with a MAF adapter and an open cone, had the tubing ran to the fenderwell so it was a true fenderwell setup....used the stock turbo elbow with the stock vaccum line plug(so that wasn't an issue with it like "other" CAIs" are having right now)

it wasn't a vendors kit but it NEVER threw any codes and the car pulled just as hard as it does now, so I don't know of any "ill" effects... but with all the trouble vendors are having with CAIs, I decided to pull it off, was planning on going back stock, saw this and thought, what the hell, i'll try that

right now, until more research is done, i wouldn't recommend a CAI for anyone, direct injection is a whole different animal when it comes to modding, a lot will change in the next year as far as routes people are going modding, mistakes will be made, lessons will be learned

I have a feeling reading up more than one of these bad ass "tunes" are running pig rich, it'll be interesting to see how those come to be in the next few months when plugs start getting burned, etc...

to the guys out there busting their ass developing parts for us and doing research, I tip my hat.... you don't build Rome overnight and every car/platform goes through this

Matt M

Yes, we made a nice gain replacing the stock ducting between the airbox and turbo with an AEM silicone tube.

Terminator2

Too rich will foul the plugs not burn them. Lean condition causes burnt plugs. Tunes need to be richer than the stock tune which is way too lean for higher boost pressures, but not in the 11s like some have claimed. Mine runs 12.6 down low and 12.4-12.2 up high.

FRQ FLYR

iTrader: (1)

Ahah!----Sweet. Home-brewed mods FTW. Thanks for sharing.

08inBama

where would one get one of those AEM silicone tubes?

I googled it and...............found this topic, lol

Matt M

It comes with their intake. If you don't run the tubing, it connects to the factory airbox. I don't think they sell them separate.

08inBama

that is what I thought, yeah, not paying $300 for a silicone tube, lol

Terminator2

Unless you run the whole intake that is definately a huge waste of money.

mkriebs

Probably going to be doing this this week (trying to knock off about .09 from my 1/4 mi times...), do I need to take my bumper off for this?

Zander916

Nope, just the passenger headlight. This is a how to paint your headlight post that shows how to remove it if you need it. https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/show...move+headlight
I'd recommend removing a few pins on that black cover next to the headlight.
The intake snorkel has a bolt or a pin (I don't remember) straight down from the headlight. Then there is a plastic pin way back in there by the engine. It's hard to see and somewhat hard to get to. I used one of those tools for popping off interior trim pins.

cmiller8006

iTrader: (3)

See I have the dejon pipe, does anyone think this will be better than the short ram.

Zander916

I really doubt it. MAYBE in very hot weather because this is pulling in colder air. Probably not too much difference.
I do enjoy that this was practically free, easy to do, effective, and still looks stock.
It'd be interesting to get more opinions on it though, especially in comparison to a short ram.

boosted4dr

Until some restrictions are addressed in the factory air box (the next going into the turbo) the factory box will always have less power then an air intake setup. I've been looking at replacing the factory tubing with silcon piping (even ordered some up), if you could replace the factory piping up the factory breather hose assly, the air box would perform just as good as any CAI or SRI, as most performance is not in going to a "round filter" (though going to a filter that has more surface area does help) but the gains are also getting rid of the restriction in the factory piping.