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The other option for a conical filter intake is/was by PasswordJDM.....as I have one on my car and the sound is increible! It is/was nowhere near as expensive as the GruppeM....I am unsure if they are still available for sale or if they were limited production. Here are some pics, Enjoy!
That intake doesn't seem to grab air from the fender area
That intake doesn't seem to grab air from the fender area
Lou
Lou, it has a larger mouth than the OEM.....that pulls from the front grille area....it also pulls from the fender area from below as OEM does. Which is directly below filter.
Thanks Kramer. Looks awesome. Wish that option was still available. The company Password no longer exists. Looks like they went out of business. Thanks.
The more I wait, the more the anticipation is building up. Still have another 3 weeks or before the AFE Power Stage 2 CAI order arrives. Hope it will be worth the wait.
UPDATE: The intake is arriving this week to my city finally after 2 months. I will pick it up and will install it next weekend, hopefully. PIctures and review will follow.
Will be picking up the AFE stage 2 cold air intake on Saturday. Meanwhile, last night I gutted the intake on my RCF and loosened the intake manifold so that I could drag down the two hoses where they will connect to the new place in the AFE elbow.
Took a picture. Now, it is easy to just put the new intake in.
For anyone wondering, this is how the packaging looks like. Quality of parts is incredible given the price. Really top notch stuff. I will install it tonight
Installation was complete last night. Was fairly straight forward. Did not run into any issues. Build quality is great and a lot of attention to details. Especially how the coupler is so tight that you have to muscle it to put it on the throttle body, but it is great for prevention of vacuum leak. Also, the clamps do a great job at tightening the throttle body with the coupler as well as the pipe with the intake box. I am really paranoid about vacuum leaks as my Corolla XRS had a vacuum leak years ago with the Injen intake and it was a nightmare to find.
Anyway, I drove it a few times before forming my opinion. I will write them here in case it benefits any other RCF owners looking for more airflow to the intake. This is my unbiased and objective review. My driving was entirely in sport+/manual mode.
Choice: I picked this one because it maintains the sealed stock airbox design and replaces the pipe and filter with more free-flowing velocity stack and a bigger, smoother pipe. I picked the pre-oiled version, which has a slightly better airflow than the dry one. However, whenever you clean it, it needs to be oiled again. I have no issues with that considering I drive my RCF only 3000 KM per year and in only dry conditions.
Installation: Like I said, the installation was very straight forward. About 20 minutes start to finish. The space is tight in the engine bay so when installing the pipe to the intake and throttle body, you have to muscle it on both sides to get the pipe to fit on both sides, but quite straight forward all in all. Only need a 10 mm socket and a flat head screw driver. That is it.
Design: Quality is incredible for the price. It is not an expensive mod, but they put a lot of thought into the materials. Pipe seems like aluminum since it is metal, but very light. Lighter than the stock elbow. Packaging was great. Everything was wrapped like the most fragile piece in the word. Very impressed. The only thing I hate are the decals. I will take a hair dryer and remove the decals to make it look clean. I don't like to have aftermarket decals anywhere on my car.
Sound: I had to drive it a few times to really understand how to interpret the changes. I had seen dramatic changes in the sound in other cases so I did not know what to expect. The tone/pitch of the intake is not much different than stock especially with me having a full exhaust. It pretty much sounds similar to stock except it is amplified by about 10 - 15% . I was hoping it added a little more metallic tone to it, but it is all good. You simply hear more of the intake on the driver side. Most likely, the passenger side has a more dramatic change because the intake is on that side. I have a habit of not lugging the engine. I downshift generously so in that case, you hear the intake snarl between 4000 rpm and around 6500 rpm. However, noise wise the biggest difference I noticed is when you lug the engine. For example, you are cruising at 75 mph and are in 4th gear. If you suddenly apply a lot of throttle, you will get a very deep snarling/growling noise. It was absolutely fantastic. Overall, it simply amplifies the stock sound properties by about 15% or so. That is not a bad thing. I was worried if it will add any unnecessary resonance or rattling noise while lugging or sound like a cheap tin can or something. None of that. It maintains everything that is great about the stock airbox and simply amplifies it by about 15%. From 6500 rpm to rev limiter of around 7450 rpm, the exhaust starts to take over a lot more in my case, but definitely the sound of the intake is quite a bit louder than stock.
Throttle response/Transmission shifts: Definitely more sensitive to throttle changes and I really wanted to make sure it was not a placebo effect. The shifts in sport+/manual have more "snap" and very noticeable at full throttle. The whiplash effect is stronger since I put the intake on.
Power/torque differences: Other than throttle response, I feel the midrange is noticeably stronger from 4000 rpm to 6500 rpm. If I gun it in a higher gear/low rpm, the car pulls with more authority despite not being in optimal gear. My car already has an exhaust so it is just under 500 HP, adding a few more HP of around 8 whp or so is not going to be very noticeable at high rpms. Therefore, after 6500 rpm to rev limiter, it is hard to tell since it used to pull the strongest and still does. The midrange and throttle response are very noticeable. However, high rpm performance difference are hard to tell. That is all good. I was just hoping I don't lose torque or the car feels sluggish at lower rpm. So far, it does not. I reset my ECU to see if there were undesirable effects, but found none. I would not recommend anyone disconnects the intake baffles in order to get more sound below 4000 rpm.
Summary/value: Overall, I am happy with this mod. It did not cost a whole lot of money and was easy to install in my garage. I just wanted to make sure I don't end up with less and I did not. If you have the right expectations, it does not disappoint. It is not going to change any drastically. Simply adds 10 - 15% of what is already there. I can say for sure, it does not cause any power loss anywhere in the rpm. It just improves the throttle response, sound experience and snap in the shifts (sport+/manual mode) by around 15%. That is totally worth it. I have a few more weeks left of driving the RCF and then I will put it away for the fall/winter. I will update this, if I discovered anything that is a negative. So far, there are none. I know some intakes on the RCF cause torque loss, but this one does not from my experience. It retains everything that is great about the OEM airbox design and then adds more smoother airflow and higher volume. The intake pipe remains quite cool as I drove straight for about 45 minutes and then touched the intake pipe metal. It was still pretty cool in around 75 F driving temperatures. All in all, very happy with this mod. Totally worth it. I just wanted more sound without adding any unpleasant rattle, resonance or unrefined harshness and it did not. All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who wants a simply mod that enhances the existing RCF driving experience by a bit and it is very easy to install so you don't have to pay anyone to install it either. It is a win-win in my book.
Like I said above, those big decals will be gone soon. Rest of it is great in terms of quality and fitment. A+
Took out the decal. Looks so much cleaner. I left the little red one (at least for now) on the airbox because it does not mess up the clean look.
Hey Rolla - what did you use to remove the decal from the intake tube? I like this look better.
Makes me a bit mad - the Takeda emblem on the box portion of mine is starting to peel up. I think I am going to remove it and replace it with an "F" logo.
09-03-20, 04:36 PM
