Description
This is the image out the on the web for the part. But this is not the part I received. I will have to get legitimate pictures of my setup this evening. Its the typical "filter on a stick" setup. Long aluminum tube from the throttle body all the way to where the stock air box was. The quality and finish on the tube its-self appears very good. All the same ports and hook ups. The kit comes with a new semi-sealed air box and all hoses, connectors & protectors you will need.
The Bad
1. The intake pipe seems to be either slightly short, slightly off angle or a combination of both at the end that meets with the throttle body. Extra clamping force on the silicone connector and hose clamps seems to alleviate any problems. Mine fell off during testing but clamping it down harder seemed to eliminate that problem and compensate for the pipe not being a perfect fit.
2. Aesthetically it makes the front of the engine look like something is missing. Well, because it is. Since the stock intake pipe is integrated with a portion of the engine cover you lose that part of the cover. In this case, if you want looks go with an AFE that way you don't lose any of the cover pieces.
5. Support for the new air box is lacking. They skipped a lower mounting point for some reason so the box is firmly attached but seems like it could be forced downwards and bent easily.
4. The breather hose that connects to the intake tube is not a molded hose as the stock one. Just a long piece of rubber hose. Does it cause any issues, not that I could see. It make kink at some point. More or less an aesthetics thing. Being a Nismo product I would have expected a molded hose. I may, at some point, put a connector in the stock hose and add a length of straight hose to the end to make it fit. The connection would be hidden by the top engine cover.
5. Speaking of Nismo, the pipe just has some cheezy thick foil sticker on it proclaiming Nismo. Otherwise you wouldn't know that part as being anything from a taiwanese knock off. Which it very well may be. I would just hope not since I purchased from a dealer and it appeared to be sealed from Nissan along with all Nissan documentation that matched the other Nissan parts I've purchased. Oh, there is nismo engraved on the top of the airfilter.
6. I had forgotten one other problem. The Nismo airbox doesn't have enough nor the correct sized holes to mount a breather hose and a wire bundle. Both items have mounting clips that are meant to be inserted in roughly 3/8" holes. There is one such hole on the new box but the wiring bundle pops out because the hole is too large, the breather hose has a different style of connector so I'm, waiting to see if that one pops out. The items in question are circled in red.
Conclusion
Do I like it, yea, what the hay, sure I do. Is there room for improvement, of course. Will there ever be any, doubtful. But maybe if others post their experiences with K&N, AFE, etc, you'll be able to form your own opinion about which you want to purchase. I have no dyno printout to show and I have no butt dyno feeling to post. Going off any past independent report of an intake mod I'm sure it added something, exactly what is unknown. I will add my own pictures tonight.
