In spite of the nice write-up from 4dr4life! in an earlier thread, if you buy this premium-priced intake you will be very pissed off, and you'd better have the skill to do some precise cutting of various materials. The designers and fabricators of this intake were very lazy and short-sighted. The premium price of this intake is not justified by the poor fit under the hood.

The intake tube assy. is made from two 90 degree aluminum elbows welded together to make an "S" shape. In order to get the filter and heat shield to fit squarely in front of the battery and have the throttle body end fit flush and square with the throttle body, you must cut 1/2" off the throttle body end of the aluminum tube, and cut 1/2" off the rubber sleeve that seals the aluminum tube to the throttle body. The aluminum tube ells are dead soft, and will bend easily when being clamped for cutting. Also, the supplied rubber tube that connects the crankcase vent to the intake tube has an i.d. of about 3/16", but the connection on the intake tube and the crankcase vent tube are about 3/8" dia. The hose supplied in the kit fits, but just barely after soaking it in boiling water and stretching it to the breaking point to get it over the 3/8" dia. metal tubes.

The photos used in the installation instruction sheet are poorly done with indistinct details and appear to be done in mirror image- the photos look reversed from what you see under the hood. For the high price of this intake, you should not be expected to modify anything at all to correct dimensional problems from the factory. Also, installation requires the complete removal of the battery (not indicated in the instructions), and the battery will have to come out again when you need to clean or replace the filter. For less cost, you can buy a Fujita Short Ram that gives easy access to the filter for removal and cleaning, based upon reviews and photos from earlier threads on Fujita.

I did not take or post any photos of the necessary corrective modifications for this intake because I don't want to encourage anyone to waste their time like I had to. I would bet that other competitors like Injen and AEM do not have the dimensional mistakes of the K & N. I have been a fan of K & N products for many years, but the mistakes in this system and similar custom-fitting modifications that were necessary from my last K & N intake for a Ford F150 V-8 have destroyed my confidence in this manufacturer.

You people don't know me from Adam, and I could be the most ignorant and ham-handed fool in the world. Nothing could be further from the truth, but you don't know that. Buy this at your own risk, and you WILL be mad as hell (IMO).

 

yea i know what you mean man, i had a typhoon on my STi for about a month... piss poor fitment, and by the pics on the other thread, it looks like they haven't beefed up there QC.

 

I had some difficulties with the install to, but looking over & over at the manual I came up with my own install.
As for the battery removal I didnt have to remove mine, all I did was angled the heatshield and slid the filter on

Overall how do you like the filter besides the install & tweaking? Is your FIT manual or auto to?

 

After flaming this product in my original post, I decided to post some photos after all so that this group can see the piece that I had to cut off and see the fitment after the install was done. This will show how impossible the install would have been with the extra 1/2" of tube length still in place. I just have to wait for a little more sunlight to get clear photos without the shading from a flash. Depending on weather, photos shuld be up in a few days.

I would not have done the required cutting and custom fab work if I did not already have very good experience with high flow intakes on other vehicles.

Now that this one is finished, throttle response is quicker, the engine growls nicely at full throttle, and I feel better acceleration- but that may be a little over-imagination after so much work and disappointment in the quality. I expect to see a little improvement in fuel economy, but am not depending upon that. These advantages will almost certainly be true with any brand of Short Ram intake. It will be hard to find another brand that fits this badly.

Get this-- I chose Short Ram because I did not want to reach behind the bumper to service the filter as is the case with the various Cold Air intakes. Now I have to R&R the battery to service the filter. NOT PLEASED!
Dave

 

guys pls post your photos for us to view at least we can see the problem 1st hand ! hehehe

 

Soon- be patient, but don't buy this intake unless you want to pay to much and work too hard to install!

 

so much for that idea...you convinced me

 

He might be refering to this part



As for improvement in gas mileage I think I average the same when I had my K&N drop in , but I'll give it some time first. It's only been a week since I have this SRI. I like the throttle response & the growl at high rpm.

 

4dr-
You are absolutely right. Your photo shows the aluminum "S" intake tube touching the face of the throttle body but at an angle. I had to cut the aluminum tube off about 1/2 way between the end and the socket at the top for the air temp. sensor. The fact that the tube is too long is proven by the fact that after cutting it, with all other installation procedures completed, the K & N supplied bracket that holds the entire intake assembly rigid, bolts right into place with an exact fit. If the intake tube had been left in its original length, the bracket would be 1/2" too short.

Another point- your crankcase vent tube appears to be made of copper and appears to be about the same diameter as the i.d. of the connecting hose supplied by K & N. The vent tube on my engine is chroime plated, and is at least 1/8" larger in diameter. It is exactly the same diameter as the port on the side of the K & N intake tube (about 3/8") which is twice too big for the hose to fit properly. You'll see this in my photos. It appears that there has been a design change or two between your car's production and mine. If K & N used your engine on which to base their intake system design, even the small changes between your car and mine make the intake installation more difficult, and the printed instructions more full of errors.

For the rest of the readers, I will post photos that will clarify what is being discussed here.

Dave

 

4dr4life!

You could do K & N a big favor by contacting the person there who borrowed your car for the design project that resulted in this system coming to market. Ask him/her to follow this thread. They will get more details and beneficial info. from this than they will from a phone complaint from an angry consumer (me).

Assuming that they are not aware that they have a problem with this new system, this will help them to eliminate the problem.

This is just a suggestion, and I'll bet that K & N will appreciate your help.

Dave

 

4dr-
Mine is AT, and this kit should install without regard whether MT or AT.

 

Will do today, 1/16.
Dave

 

I've been thinking of pulling off the kit and cut 1/2" off were you mentioned. I was looking at SRI the other day and noticed that the heatshield has been hitting the insulation on the hood

Now that you mentioned about the bracket to hold the system together does seem short. When I tried to tweek the shield from sitting close to the radiator cap there was alittle gap between the bracket & the tube.

I havent heard back from the R&D director since the install but I'll foward him this thread.

 

damn... this intake fits all F'ed up!!!! i think its safe to say that if you really want a short RAM, go with a PB,T1R and the Fujita is on a budget.

 

Checked out the SRI on my lunch break






Looks like I might end up cutting 1/2" off

 

let me borrow your car for about a day and ill make a better heat shield for it. you won't have to cut a thing if the heat shield and mounting hardware were made right.

heres something i fabed up for a 06 spec V
The V Board :: View topic - custom G35 airbox

and heres how i fixed K&N's mistake from the start... i had to refabb there whole air box on this one.
So i got bored today (K&N typhoon custom airbox) - IWSTI.com
scroll all the way down for best pics.

 

I wish it was that easy to lend my car but its my only transportation.

I wonder how it'd run without the heatshield

 

It's come to my conclusion that the piping is a defect! After pulling everything out and trying many, many position AGAIN the inlet pipe on the SRI does not flush with the throttle body (as you can see in the pictures). If I make it flush then slowly rotate it to mate with the heat shield, the heat shield gets into an angle.

Flushed to the throttle body


Flushed at the throttle body but crooked at the heat shield


When I start rotating to match up with the holes the heat shield becomes even more impossible to flush well




I did not get a chance to email the R&D Director about this but will first thing tomorrow morning.

*Edit
I tried to make a video while rotating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88VmTk67DeY

 

[IMG][/IMG]
This ring is the piece that I cut off the throttle body end of the intake tube.
By adding the saw blade thickness, the total cut off was about 1/2". I should
have cut a little more, but wanted to be sure that I had enough intake tube to get a good seal with the rubber sleeve that joins it to the throttle body.

This shows the fully installed system. The intake tube is flush and square with the throttle body face and the filter/heat shield are parallel with the front side of the battery.

Note that the right hand end face of the filter only has about 1/8" of space before it touches the edge of the radiator support as it curves around to join the right side fender. With the original factory length, this whole assembly cannot fit within the distance from the throttle body face to the curved edge of the radiator support/fender joint.

This is the support bracket that runs from the engine to the intake tube. It would not have fit if the intake tube were 1/2" farther away from the bolt hole that mounts the left end of the bracket.

This may not show this clearly enough, but the metal tubing (2 tubes close together) right in front of the intake tube, are shiny chrome plate. The upper metal tube is the crankcase vent tube that the K & N instructions call a "hose". 4dr4life's tubes are copper colored and appear to be smaller in dia. than mine. The K & N supplied hose that connects the metal crankcase vent tube on the engine to the smaller tube in the side of the K & N large dia. air intake tube is TOO SMALL in diameter to fit these two ports properly.

ONE convenient advantage provided by this intake system is, without the factory air box in the way, you have PLENTY of room to reach down to pull out the auto trans. dipstick. Convenience for a mere $232.00. Yay.

 

4dr-
If the radius of both of the 90 deg. bends were reduced, and the overall length of the "S" were shortened by at least 1/2" on the throttle body end, everything would fit perfectly, and you would have room to remove the filter for cleaning without having to disconnect or move things around. As this design stands presently, the intake tube is "defective" due to bad planning and poor measurement.

This tube would be better if made from ABS plastic, like K & N's FIPK (fuel injector performance kits). That way you would have more heat insulation than you get with this system's aluminum tube, and the curve geometry could simply be molded to the required dimension. However, molds are very expensive to make, and K & N's market for Honda Fit SRI's is only a fraction of their market for FIPK systems for Detroit-made trucks, autos, and SUVs, where they do use molded plastic tubes as well as mandrel-bent one piece metal tubes.

If you fasten a stainless steel band clamp on the throttle body end of your intake tube to use as a cutting guide, and clamp the tube carefully with padded jaw bar clamps to a 2X4 mounted in a vise, you can accurately cut off 1/2-9/16" from the tube. Then your fitment problems will go away for the most part. Also, leave the mounting stud on the bottom of the heat shield loose- don't tighten the nut all the way.

It's a good thing that you got your intake system for free. I had to FIX K & N's mistakes AFTER paying full retail, and shipping, and tax!

Good luck-
Dave