CP-E MAFci kit install

[dominoSLEV6]

Halfway done with the install. I've removed the stock intake, and installed the new one which looks better than I thought it would. I thought it might looka ittle goofy compared to my injen but it's pretty sweet. Now I have to get to the ecu by the glovebox and play with all the wiring harnesses to get the tune in the ecu, and I'm good to go.

Overall without having test driven the car, I'm pretty impressed. They have some money into this operation and their work is definitely very quality. Solid welds and machining, and materials. Good instructions as well with nice pictures. Injen don't got a damn thing on the attention to detail put into this product overall. I have little to no complaints thus far. We'll see how everythign goes with the wiring as I'm an electrical retard. I should be done in an hour or so god willing and then I'll put some pictures up tomorrow.

-chris

[DatSRBoi]

Pics?

[dominoSLEV6]

Well it's all in and operational.

Total redbulls consumed: 3
Total satisfacation so far: 8.75 (I'd rate my old injen a 5.5-6)
Total hours spent: including breaks and deliberation over things, about 3
Total attempts to back into garage just right avoiding immovable obstacles: about 15
Total tools used: about 8
Total times I considered calling it a night: 3
Total working lightbulbs PwNt!!11 by gravity: 2

It's hard to really feel the hp it gives you as the stock 5spd V6 throws you back as is be it a launch or a rev match in 1st or 2nd and slamming down the gas. I went to my little road strip that I test my car on when need be and took it through 1st 2nd and 3rd. It felt like I may have hit my trap speed slightly sooner than normal. There was a noticeable difference in playnig with the gears between 2k and 3.5k in 2nd. I don't doubt that the system is giving me close to the numbers CP-E says it does, but it's impossible to sit in a car after adding a mod and going oh yeah this gave me 7 hp or 14 peak difference you know?

So that aside... it sounds naaaaaasssssssstttttttttyyyyyyyyy! And I mean that in every good way of the word. I like the sound better than my injen. It honestly scared me the first time I floored it pulling out of the neighbor hood in 1st. It's hard to describe but it's less of a whine than the injen and more of a "wah". Definitely like that better. If and when I ever go SC I was this intake system to accompany the blower and exhaust sound for sure.

I'm going to try and get it dynod in the next week or two to see the true difference of the intake with numbers and a graph.

Pics coming tomorrow hopefully, and a video/sound clip sometime not long after that.

The only complaint I have is the lack of direction with the electrical work. I'm automobile electronics retarded and I was kinda scared when I was doing a few things. I'm better at looking at things form a mechanical standpoint, and electric is like another language to me with gauges of wires etc.

There was a slight lack of direction in removing the glovebox to get to the ECU, but it wasn't bad. The way it works is you have to use these nifty little connectors made by 3m that kind've slice into the wire and have a plug on them. The MAF tuner box connects to a cable with 6 different wires coming off that connect to these little splicer things. They recommend soldering these connections, but I found when testing the strength of the connections that that is rather unneccessary. The only deal they leave out of the directions completely is where it is you put the box that this all connects to and any direction about connecting it at all. I just ran the wire over and into my glovebox, which I don't like as it can move around in there. Also I have two little screws with an allen key head I believe that was no use of in the instructions.

Anyway, I'm tired.

-chris

[jhenty]

I also installed the cpe intake last week and had the same impressions about the construction. It is an impressive and high quality piece. The difference is noticeable and at times you dont realize the newfound power because it is so smooth across the band. power now seems to hit at 3500rpms or less rather than higher up. The ecu part was really easy to follow and simple (I've never done this kind of work and had no problem). I will get pics up asap too. Great product and I highly suggest it.

[StockSolara]

Nice. . . sounds good from your impressions. . . you should really test out stop and go traffic. . . I want to see if the heat shield is as good as they say it is

[SleeperSolara]

That good on impression.
You lucky bastards........
Will get mine later hopefully.
Sounds like it better than INJEN.

[2002greenhornet]

I just got mine installed too. The quality and engineering is really impressive. Powder coated aluminum intake and electronics that clearly took a lot of work to perfect. I'm Gen 1.5 with and auto, and the power difference is very noticeable. I have no doubt that I'm feeling the power gains that they claim on the web site. The sound is absolutely beastly when you gun it. Can't help but be with the amount of air it's sucking through that 3.5" pipe. I also have confidence that the gains will remain (proportionately to the norm) when the weather turns hot--but we'll see.

The pre-programmed map is extremely smooth, with added power across the band. These guys are engineers, for sure, and it shows in their work. I got the programmable MAF option, so if and when I do more modifications I can tweak it. The only issue for me is a bit of vibration at high RPM, but I'm working with them on this. I'm so far the only person that's noticed this phenomenon. We'll be experimenting with different vibration mounts. The ones it comes with are soft, so tightening that up should mitigate it. I'll keep you posted.

Overall--awesome and worth the money. This ain't your average aftermarket intake, it's a complete system.

Click here for info

[Ian]

That is very nice. I wish they had a one piece cold air version that would go into the fender well.

So if I understand this correctly, when you plugged up the MAF, the preset program did not require any tweaking. So it's safe to say it is plug and play?

[2002greenhornet]

Yep, plug and play.

[Sp33d]

wow..a hefty $600.

-mark

[hskrsolara]

That mounting bracket looks really clean. Looks pretty high quality to me!

[dominoSLEV6]

Hornet, out of curisotiy, what did you do with the maf tune box?

And let me know how the tunable thing goes, I'll hit it up if it's worth it. For some reaosn I think that may benifit the manuals more because the system WAS tuned on an auto, and things ARE different between the cars. I even noticed a few differences in the wiring harnesses in the ECU.

Like I said I think this will defintiely be more noticable with the auto than the manual because the manual is already throwing you back so just a little more is hard to notice. I'm going to try and get it dynod as soon as the weather cools down a little more because it's warm out right now and I dynod at 69 degrees with 35% humidity, and I want the conditions to be as close to the same as possible.

I haven't noticed any vibrations at high rpms, but then again I haven't had it up that high for long because I bang through the low gears pretty fast and I'm not in the high gears at that high of an rpm all that often. Make sure you tightened the vibration mounts for the heat shield right, that rubber makes them hard to install nice and tight, but with some patience it'll get nice and snug on there.

I'm going to try and borrow a friends video camera soon to get a sound clip up for everyone to hear.

-chris

[2002greenhornet]

Chris,

There's a spot to mount the MAF right next to the ECU. It slid in there pretty nicely and zip tied it up. I won't be doing any tweaking any time soon. The preprogrammed map is perfect. The tunable MAF offers you the option of having two fuel maps and being able to switch between them. The harness for it includes a toggle switch and an LED indicator so you know which map you're on, and a serial interface with cable so you can hook up a laptop to it. I was thinking of maybe creating a second map for highway driving on long trips to maybe improve gas mileage. Just a theory, and of course would require a dyno or track to program.

Since I live close to CPE, they offered to let me install the system at their shop. Being the first Gen 1.5 to get it, I took advantage of that, both because it's freaking cold outside and because, should there have been any wiring or mounting differences, being right there would help with clearing any such hurdles.

As it turns out, there was one difference under the hood and no difference in the wiring. Josh checked the wiring before we tapped into anything. The diff under the hood (which they are updating in the instructions) was that one of the vacuum lines has a solenoid inline which isn't there on the Gen 1. No biggie.

Regarding the vibration, it's not all that bad (a lot of people might not even notice it so much), just something I'd like to resolve. The nuts are definitely tightened correctly.

[dominoSLEV6]

Hmm, ziptying may be the way to go, I didn't even think of that and couldn't think of a sturdy place to keep it up under there so I routed it to my glovebox. I'm thinking of just mountin it in there with velcro, but I have a lgiht concern about having friends in the car, I get out to get gas or somethign and they start pulling on it and next thing I know the connections come loose. It would just be a bitch to rip out the glovebox again just to zip tie the thing.

Another question. Since you instaled it there did you solder the connections or no? I didn't see much use in it as they feel pretty sturdy to me, but it was recommended so I was wondering if you actually did.

I talked to my friend about using his camera, I should have a vid of what the car sounds like tomorrow or the next day, as I have them both off work.

-chris

[solaraN8]

Any of you have any CEL issues yet???