First off, purchasing. I bought the intake during the super small group buy several months ago. October was it? Took me forever, but decided the j's was what I wanted for my car. The intake was suppose to come in november but like all jdm parts, it came late. Arrive about 3 weeks later than expected, but it didn't really make a difference since the car was in storage.

I was amazed how light the box was despite its size. Everything inside was packed nicely. Mainly newspaper + styrofoam. I was a bit intrigied by the newspaper though. I thought the intake was direct from japan, but the newspaper was CLEARLY a chinese paper. Wondered what went on there.

Parts - Everything seemed fine for the most part. I did run my hand inside the intake though. I was able to chip off a few flakes of resin or whatever it was inside. Probably a good idea to make sure nothing would fall off and get stuck in the throttle body. Another thing was the filter. I got a K&N style filter, but it's definately not a K&n. If you go to the ATS site you'll see that on the installed intake, you have a "style" filter while on the product picture you have a k&n.

Install - The install was straight forward. Just like any other short ram. Things I did come across was trying to put the filter onto the intake. It took quite a bit more force than i expected but it went in. Next was trying to fit rubber onto the intake manifold. That took a bit of effort. In the end, I used the mysterious jdm L bracket for leverage. That made it a lot easier. I ended up not using the tube that connects the valve cover to the intake. It was rather ghetto pipe that looks like it came from home depot for plumbing. I reused the stock one. Looks better that way and fits well too. The intake is VERY big for the area it fits in. The top rubs the strut bar, bottom rubs the ac lines, right side rubs the plug wires and the left side rubs whatever cables are there. You'll see int he picture I have some shop towel in there temporarily until i put something else between the strut bar.

driving impressions - LOUD. That about says everything about this intake. I've driven the car without the resonator and without the filter box lid, but that was nothing close to the volume it's at now. Deinately a head turner. Throttle response was exactly as everyone said. Instant. On the highway I kept on just punching it and letting off because it was so fun. Power gain? Not going to bother.

Overall/cliffnotes: Great throttle response/sound. Fitment too tight. Filter/that tube thing/L bracket are either crappy or not used. Wish i just bought a cheap plastic imitation if it did the same thing because jdm + cf = $$$

 

sorry to hear that you're not really impressed with it. i was thinking about getting it but i dont think that i will now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by aesthetics82 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sorry to hear that you're not really impressed with it. i was thinking about getting it but i dont think that i will now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's not that the intake design sucks. Just that the benefits of cf doesn't justify the price difference between that and the imitations. Except if you want bling.

 

Sorry to hear that. Slap JDM on something and heads turn.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stock R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

It's not that the intake design sucks. Just that the benefits of cf doesn't justify the price difference between that and the imitations. Except if you want bling.</TD></TR></TABLE>

if you look at the inside, it is actually fiberglass. the thing is mainly cosmetic cf. there is probably just one layer of CF on the outside.

so why did you buy it?

Im pretty happy with mine, I just think the construction/filter/mounting setup sucks ***. i was i guess one of the first people to get it. I got the gen 1 j's with a lower quality filter and mounting hardware (the lack of)

I have added some ghetto cold air stuff if you are curious about making more power with that intake...
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=450315
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=443182

This weekend I took off the power steering belt to see the power increase (if any) is worth not having any PS. there is a big difference in throttle response. the respons is even more imediate now

 

good review intake looks pretty good but like you said its most likely not worth it if you want to look at the performance gains to cost ratio.

 

How well does it perform against a traditional intake system with a consistent OD?

 

review

 

We have to repackage them when we ship (Newspapers are from Ming Pao Vancouver). If it wasn't repackaged there will be big chances for UPS to damage it .