Damn thing took forever...nothing seemed to work right...had to take the bumper 1/2 way off to get to 1 bolt holding the resonator in...finally got it in sounds pretty good i guess...now i gotta get my h and r's put on!!!

 

Yep just put one on my friends GSR and i know exactly what bolt your talking about. Getting to that bolt just killed my arm. Took us about 2 hours christmas morning mainly due to getting all the splash guards and such off and on. Oh well it was a good time and im sure youll be happy with it, it sounds sweet .

 

i didnt have to remove any part of the front bumper to put it in..

 

Are you guys talking about ITR's, GSR's or Lude's?

When I did the CAI on my 99 Si and 01 Lude all I had to do was make sure the wheel was turned full right. then I just undid the screw and fasteners holding the fenderwell splash guard and the lower splash guard. once unbolted/unfastened just peel them back and you can work in the lower airbox area.

NO removing of the bumper whatsoever. you can do it by removing the bumper, its supposed to be faster, but its harder to put it back on by yourself.

 

A case of beer and some friends makes these jobs go so much easier.

 

hell ya, case of beer and friends is always the way to go. Somehow our drunk a$$es got my friends on in like 1hr 15min or so.

 

Yeah its hard, but wait till you have to do your clutch or something!

 

putting a aem cai on a 00 lude is painful. I had to bust my *** just to take out the resonator and also the hole is so small i have no idea how some ludes put it on without cutting it. instaling it took sooooo long and soo hard, but it was worth it at the end, sounds nice

 

no need to take the bumper off, just take out the side marker and the hole is directly above that nasty little screw.

 

very true... I just spent 3 hours in a freezing garage getting the damn cai for an '01 to fit. Tell me why the one mounting point the have soldered on ends up at like a 45 degree angle to an original bolt hole. And why the pipe is bigger than the whole in the fenderwall to begin with not including the filter (which adds like 1/2") to the diameter. And lastly, why I had to relocate the intake butterfly controle module? Just venting... aem really has the crappiest fits you can imagine. I wonder what car they had it fitted on. Oh, btw... do I need the little plastic box running lines from the stock box to the intake manifold?

 

the worst is grinding your car to get the intake to fit behind the battery...*** that

 

can you just remove the butterfly control valve totally? the instructions at ntpog.org said you could..

 

you can remove the hose/box entirely but you have to plug the "golden" nipple it was attached to or you get a jumpy idle.

cut a 2 inch section of the vacuum hose ond connect 2 of the "golden" nipples with the 2" hose so you dont get a vacuum leak.

 

You think that was hard, try wedging a bigass turbo between your manifold and your radiator fans. All the extra stuff has to come out. Then again, it's always easier and usually necessary to take off a bunch of extra stuff on imports just to get a look at what your doin.

 

AIM is a breeze. I've done two 4th gen's. Pulling the head is a bitch.

 

Are all the CAI that just as hard to install? Also, does anyone use the Iceman CAI for their Lude? I have 5th gen, and want to put one on in the near future, but want to make sure I get the best one, besterfomance gain and ease of installation.

 

I just put a AEM CAI on my 4th gen VTEC last night. I don't know how much the task varies for a 5th gen, but from the looks of the NTPOG site it seems pretty similar. Anyway, I did run into a few snags that a very well thought out product would not have. I did manage to get the OEM equipment out of the engine bay without issue, but while trying to remove the resonator I found that there is a screw that lies behind the bumper. I removed a few screws from the bumper and pulled it out enough to get my socket wrench in there. Now I read that I could have pulled a light housing and accessed it through there. That was no big deal, but the directions AEM provided made no mention of how to access the hard to reach bolt. There are 3 bolts holding the resonator in, for those of you trying to find them all in the future. Also, I got confused by the AEM instructions explaination about capping off the vacuum line from the resonator. There is a line from the resonator that goes to a black box with a 2 wire electrical connector and another vacuum line exiting that goes to the intake manifold. THIS CAN BE REMOVED. They don't describe it well in the directions but they do say so in a round about way. Just be sure to cap off the nipple at the intake manifold with the cap AEM provides. Also, as everyone states, the AEM tube WILL NOT fit through the hole going into the fender area. I used my dremel to grind the hole about 1/4" wider, which was a touch more than needed but allowed me to stuff the rubber connection of the filter up higher on the tube, which will keep the tube from touching the edges of the hole. It may over time chew up the rubber of the edge of the filter connector, but will protect the tube. I do recall someone saying that their tube got a hole in it from rubbing on that edge so much so this will help mine. Also, My filter is pressed against the inner wall of the fender area where it sits. I figured it would sit in there not touching anything but it does. It seems to be secure and might hold everything tight from the contact. I will say that, if you are afraid of hydrolock, the lower end of my filter is not much more than an inch above the bottom of my bumper. That seems very low to me. It's gonna be a bitch. One thing that I'm disappointed in with AEM as well is this - They did not have any directions as far as maintanence. I'm sure that the filter will need to be cleaned but they did not suggest an interval or give any instructions as to how to clean. Oh, well. I'm happy with it and would buy it knowing what I know now.

As far as the end results. It took me about 4 hours working on and off to stay warm... It's cold here in Indiana. I reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and then took it out for a spin. I was in town so couldn't really push her, but the biggest noticable difference is the sound. I already have an exhaust (Thermal R&D) so my car was a touch louder than stock before the CAI. When you tap the gas you can hear a strong sucking noise for a second before the engine revs. It seems to have a meaner growl now but between the exhaust and intake it's hard to isolate each sound. I do like it. When accelerating to VTEC it is very obvious that the changeover happens. Before the intake I could hear a bit of a difference in the engines sound and I could feel it pull a bit harder. Now it is very obvious when you hit VTEC due to a drastic change in the sound. It's a loud growl but I like the sound too. In fact I don't feel that I can comment on the effects it has on power now because I was so taken by the new sound I didn't pay attention to anything else. I'm going for a drive now and maybe I'll pay attention to the pull she has now so I can evaluate that.

I got it from cementups who is a member here I think. He was great to do business with. I had it at my door less than 48 hours after paying by paypal and he beat everyones prices.


[Modified by BryanS, 6:15 PM 1/4/2002]

 

Cool, I hope you let us know as soon as you get back. I wonder if the Iceman Intake is any easier? I doubt it. This is what I have heard, the AEM looks way better, but the Iceman delivers more performance. I just want to make sure I wont F up the car while installing thing. And let me know if you think its the best bang for buck product, as in performance. I hope you get back soon, I am anxious to hear what you think of it.

 

Ok, i have been reading up about CAI sucking up water and killing an engine, now that would suck. I cant risk that, even for 10hp. How about AEM short ram system, is it any good? I know I wouldnt gain what I would have with the CAI, but it seems to alleviate the risk of water getting into the engine. Or should I just not do an intake period?

 

I just got home. I can't guess at numbers very well, but can say that it does pull harder. For example, I used to get about a 1/2 second chirp on first to second shifts. Now I got a bit over a second and it was hard to tell since the roar from the intake covered up the sound. I'd say this is a better investment than an exhaust if you just had to pick one.

As far as the iceman, I liked the AEM and rumor has it that it makes more power, but at high rpm. Rumors also say that the iceman makes more torque down low. I do know that the iceman is a short ram that has an extension to make it a CAI so you can convert back and forth with it. It should be about the same to install except, since the pipe is smaller around you may not have to grind the inner fender hole bigger. That's not a big difference as it was about 10 minutes of work to do. BTW - The pipe diameter is what is supposed to be making the high low end in the iceman and the lesser output up high. The short ram/CAI convertibility would be a good selling point... then again AEM offers the bypass valve that is supposed to prevent the hydolocking. I don't have one know but can add it later... I'm still thinking on that one. I hear both are made well. I just like the look of the AEM better plus I'd rather add the bypass than go to a short ram.

 

I recently cut my AEM intake in half. We were getting way too much rain and I was fearing hydrolocking.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=96319

Mike

 

Man, all you guys are afraid of a good challange! I'd hate to see you boys put a header on.

 

The CAI wasn't bad at all. I just thought the directions could be a bit clearer in spots. I'm doing a header as my next mod... most likely a DC ceramic. What makes them so tough to do?

 

They aren't hard...

Oh, and ever think about GReddy? They're having a group buy on them on groupbuy.com.

 

I actually did consider Greddy, but didn't know if they made a 4th gen... last place I looked only sold them for 5th gen. As far as a groupbuy, it would be nice, but I have so many hobbies that I'll be saving til June for a header.

I'd imagine that the worst part of doing the leader would be frozen bolts. It seems like all the work area is easily accessible.