CPE Intake Installed!
My goal with this mod was to liven up the engine bay and get some intake noise. I didn't get the ladder, but more on that in a second!
What I like about the CPE kit is that:
- it is a full 3" system (where care was taken to replace the hidden tube connecting to the turbo inlet)
- features a fully enclosed box that retains stock mounting position
- has a dry filter option (should handle all the snow that's going to be thrown at it)
- a snorkel at the bottom for additional air scavenging, and future fog light snorkel upgrade
- made with a sense of quality (mandrel bent aluminum tubes, silicone hoses, name brand filter options, CNC machined adapter/fittings/feet, etc.)
- compatible with the velossa tech ram air big mouth
- designed and made in the USA
At the time there was one thing I wanted to do before mounting this bad boy on the car. And that was to make sure the box is air tight. As you can see in the pictures below there are areas of the box where gaps can be found inside the margins of adjacent panels. Sealing these off should maximize pressure inside the box (from the ram air effect) and - in theory - push more air through the filter.
I went around and applied a bead of silicone sealer in every nook and cranny that I could find.
After a few hours of letting it sit out to cure, I went in to verify whether the silicone formed a good seal or not. I was met with a little disappointment. Turns out the silicone I used did not like the glossy finish of the powder coat. Too bad too sad. Have to move on. So back to the drawing board. I was not in a rush to get this installed so I let the project sit on the back-burner for a couple weeks. In that time I stumbled upon [MENTION=1313]BRGT350[/MENTION] 's post where he insulated his intake box with gold foil tape. Which is when I realized this was the clever solution I've been looking for all along. Seal the gaps AND thermally insulate the box + pipes? I can kill two birds with one stone. Perfect! I hopped onto amazon and immediately bought a four pack of the cheapest 2"x16' rolls I could find.
A couple of weeks later I got a few pieces of equipment (windex, a rag, a pair of scissors, exacto knife, and a cup of coffee) together and spent the better half of the day carefully cutting, applying, and later trimming, the tape onto box and every pipe in the kit. Kindof a tedious process but if you have some time to kill its well worth the effort. The final result was as follows.
Here is a comparison pic of the stock box vs CPE (with the snorkel installed and the crossover tube swapped over).
Here is what a 14-15 (left) vs 16-17 (2 piece on right) emissions pipe looks like. I chose to convert to the former my car being a 16MY. Install is super easy and self explanatory, if you do it right before you start putting parts back on.
I won't get into the install because CPE does a really good job explaining all you need to do with the included instructions. However I will note the five areas that proved a little challenging for me.
1) Don't drop your sockets into the turbo!! If you do a magentic pickup stick is your best friend. That was a home depot run I wasn't expecting. LOL
2) Installing the rear pipe. Not so much the 'getting it in place' part (that was difficult because I decided not to remove the cowl/strut bar) but moreso seating the connector onto the turbo inlet pipe
in conjunction with lining up the two manifold attachment tabs to their respective locations, shown below. The one on the right needs to slip over the stud from the top. The one on the left doesn't . But they both need to have the grommet and bushing installed ahead of time. So what you end up with is having to support both bushings from the bottom with the palm/fingers of your right hand hand (the'll drop out from ya if you don't especially going over the stud) and with your left hand maneuvering the pipe onto the inlet of the turbo with the other. The difficult part is that a fair amount of elbow grease will be required. You can't just guide them into place. You have to carefully force them into place. Two sets of hands will help. I"l just describe it as a 'dance' and leave it at that. Kudos to those of you who can spot the score marks.
3) Understand that the engine is going to move a lot. What I mean by this is that there's not a lot of room in our engine bay to begin with. The stock system does a great job of clearing the engine. But with the larger pipes, clearance space is brought to a minimum. You will need to adjust your hoses, pipes, and clamps to make sure you don't run into any clearance issues. I ended up with about 6 mm of clearance at the tightest pinch point. Not ideal, but so far so good.
4) You may need to modify the crossover tube. I grew the relief slots to help it snap into the fascia.
5) Be prepared to peel some stickers The stickers on the clear panel are a pain to remove by hand. Soak it in water or get some Goof Off to help ease the pain. (I have yet to do this).
Lo and behold, the final result!
Impressions:
- better throttle response
- engine more playful at top end of rev range
- no appreciable sound difference over stock (most likely due to the dampening effect of tape?)
![[offtopic]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_offtopic.gif "Off Topic [offtopic]"){kind=icon}
But, how is the drop top Z06 doing?
