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Okay, so I had to be the guinea pig and give this gizmo a try! I’ve heard about them for years, but never owned one. I’ve heard the good, the bad, and the ugly, so I thought I’d break down and give it a try! Besides, David gave me a really good deal, so I told him I’d do a nice write-up on the install!
First off, the install was a piece of cake! The actual taking everything apart, installing the part and reassembling of everything really only took about 15 minutes! While there were more steps, it was actually easier to install than the AirAid Quick-Fit Intake!
First off, I have to confess and tell you I downloaded the installation instructions and did a dry run removing everything and reinstalling it last Saturday, so I knew what I was up against! So to save the rest of you some headaches, this is what I did:
They tell you to disconnect the Negative Battery Terminal, much as they do any install. During my dry run, I noted that I wouldn’t have to disconnect any electrical components during the installation, so I skipped this step!
I loosed the hose clamp closest to the Throttle Body (they big round silver part) and the hose clamp closest to the Stock Intake tube, then disconnected the crankcase vent from the back of the stock intake tube (the piece with the Nissan Logo on it).
Next remove the two bolts on the front of the engine cover (this is the piece with the V6 logo on it) and pull straight up. There are two rubber bushing that pop of bolts attached to the engine, I grabbed the piece at these two points and gave it a good upward yank and it comes right off.
Next remove the two bolts at the back of the stock intake tube and remover the tube.
Now you’ll need an Allen wrench to remove the 4 bolts that secure the throttle body to the intake manifold. Once these are removed set them aside, you won’t need them again unless you remove the TBS and put it back to stock. Mine are in a zip lock bag in the glove box! The Throttle body will kind of hang down by the fly-by-wire harness, but that’s okay. It will become pretty obvious which direction the TBS goes, because there is a gasket that goes on one side and the other is flat. You’ll also notice an orange gasket on the intake manifold, so it’s apparent the flat side of the TSB goes against the Manifold gasket, and the throttle body goes against the TBS gasket, and of course, the PowerAid sticker goes up top!
There are 4 10mm bolts and washers that come with the kit, use these to secure the throttle body and TBS to the manifold and snug them down good and tight. I was surprised there were no torque specs because the original bolts were on there pretty tight. (NOTE: If you have a K&N, Volant, or similar Intake, you can skip the next step!)
Now get the two aluminum tabs and the two dark Allen head screws. You see a beveled recess in one side of the tab, so it’s pretty obvious the Allen head screws seat into them. Attach them to the lower portion of the bracken (where the stock intake tube was bolted) just hand tight so the aluminum tabs have wiggle room.
Next, reinstall the stock intake and snug the hose clamps. Using the original bolts you removed, line up the aluminum tabs and start the bolts. You can snug these finger tight, then tighten the Allen head screws the rest of the way and finally snug down the bolts on the intake tube.
The last step is to reattach the engine cover piece and bolt it back in place. That’s it, your done! Now for the test drive…
First impression is good! It looks nice under the hood, but I couldn’t hear that whistle that says its working! I hope mine is even without the whistle.
I’ve only been up to the gas station thus far, and haven’t been over 45 mph. I zeroed the MPG Computer and every other thing in the computer as well, so we’ll see what happens over the next week as far a gas mileage is concerned. It’s been holding steady at 16.2 MPG over the past three days, and it will probably take at least that or a couple more days for it to settle down to a fairly consistent reading. So maybe about this time next week, I’ll know if gas mileage has improved.
Performance wise, I noticed it most between 20 and 45 MPH. Again, I haven’t been over 45, so that’s still uncharted territory. I also didn’t notice much of anything starting off from a stop. But the lower mid-range, from 15 to 20 and up it definitely feels stronger. Stepping on it at 20 mph definitely kicked it in the seat of the pants! Those with stock exhaust or smaller diameter exhaust may feel more. I say this because I feel I lost a good bit of my low end grunt when I swapped from the stock exhaust to the 3” Banks Monster Exhaust with a straight through muffler! Granted, highway performance and WOT are great, but getting off the line left you wanting more. My hopes were to recapture some of that kick in the pants off the line. I haven’t punched it off the line (I’m actually trying to improve gas mileage) so I can’t attest to how this feels, but I’m sure the urge will over come me soon and MPG will go to the wind for a bit of fun! So, overall impressions are good! It looks good, was easy to install, and restored some of my lost torque in the lower mid range. As I put more miles on it, we’ll see about the claims of better gas mileage!
Here are some pics of the install:
First off, the install was a piece of cake! The actual taking everything apart, installing the part and reassembling of everything really only took about 15 minutes! While there were more steps, it was actually easier to install than the AirAid Quick-Fit Intake!
First off, I have to confess and tell you I downloaded the installation instructions and did a dry run removing everything and reinstalling it last Saturday, so I knew what I was up against! So to save the rest of you some headaches, this is what I did:
They tell you to disconnect the Negative Battery Terminal, much as they do any install. During my dry run, I noted that I wouldn’t have to disconnect any electrical components during the installation, so I skipped this step!
I loosed the hose clamp closest to the Throttle Body (they big round silver part) and the hose clamp closest to the Stock Intake tube, then disconnected the crankcase vent from the back of the stock intake tube (the piece with the Nissan Logo on it).
Next remove the two bolts on the front of the engine cover (this is the piece with the V6 logo on it) and pull straight up. There are two rubber bushing that pop of bolts attached to the engine, I grabbed the piece at these two points and gave it a good upward yank and it comes right off.
Next remove the two bolts at the back of the stock intake tube and remover the tube.
Now you’ll need an Allen wrench to remove the 4 bolts that secure the throttle body to the intake manifold. Once these are removed set them aside, you won’t need them again unless you remove the TBS and put it back to stock. Mine are in a zip lock bag in the glove box! The Throttle body will kind of hang down by the fly-by-wire harness, but that’s okay. It will become pretty obvious which direction the TBS goes, because there is a gasket that goes on one side and the other is flat. You’ll also notice an orange gasket on the intake manifold, so it’s apparent the flat side of the TSB goes against the Manifold gasket, and the throttle body goes against the TBS gasket, and of course, the PowerAid sticker goes up top!
There are 4 10mm bolts and washers that come with the kit, use these to secure the throttle body and TBS to the manifold and snug them down good and tight. I was surprised there were no torque specs because the original bolts were on there pretty tight. (NOTE: If you have a K&N, Volant, or similar Intake, you can skip the next step!)
Now get the two aluminum tabs and the two dark Allen head screws. You see a beveled recess in one side of the tab, so it’s pretty obvious the Allen head screws seat into them. Attach them to the lower portion of the bracken (where the stock intake tube was bolted) just hand tight so the aluminum tabs have wiggle room.
Next, reinstall the stock intake and snug the hose clamps. Using the original bolts you removed, line up the aluminum tabs and start the bolts. You can snug these finger tight, then tighten the Allen head screws the rest of the way and finally snug down the bolts on the intake tube.
The last step is to reattach the engine cover piece and bolt it back in place. That’s it, your done! Now for the test drive…
First impression is good! It looks nice under the hood, but I couldn’t hear that whistle that says its working! I hope mine is even without the whistle.
I’ve only been up to the gas station thus far, and haven’t been over 45 mph. I zeroed the MPG Computer and every other thing in the computer as well, so we’ll see what happens over the next week as far a gas mileage is concerned. It’s been holding steady at 16.2 MPG over the past three days, and it will probably take at least that or a couple more days for it to settle down to a fairly consistent reading. So maybe about this time next week, I’ll know if gas mileage has improved.
Performance wise, I noticed it most between 20 and 45 MPH. Again, I haven’t been over 45, so that’s still uncharted territory. I also didn’t notice much of anything starting off from a stop. But the lower mid-range, from 15 to 20 and up it definitely feels stronger. Stepping on it at 20 mph definitely kicked it in the seat of the pants! Those with stock exhaust or smaller diameter exhaust may feel more. I say this because I feel I lost a good bit of my low end grunt when I swapped from the stock exhaust to the 3” Banks Monster Exhaust with a straight through muffler! Granted, highway performance and WOT are great, but getting off the line left you wanting more. My hopes were to recapture some of that kick in the pants off the line. I haven’t punched it off the line (I’m actually trying to improve gas mileage) so I can’t attest to how this feels, but I’m sure the urge will over come me soon and MPG will go to the wind for a bit of fun! So, overall impressions are good! It looks good, was easy to install, and restored some of my lost torque in the lower mid range. As I put more miles on it, we’ll see about the claims of better gas mileage!
Here are some pics of the install:
