Well, I ordered an AEM CAI yesterday (comes in on Monday)... sucky thing is, is that it's a polished one (only colour availble from the supplier on short notice), so I need to sand it, primer it, and repaint it...but at least I'm gonna paint it the same colour as the car I think...make it look more low-key/custom than leaving it alone.
The question I have is, since I have the MBRP, will the CAI make the exhaust louder, and if so, by how much? The guy at the shop said only a little bit louder under hard throttle, and obviously there will be the sucking sound under the hood too...I just wonder if the AEM is gonna make the car sound even more agressive...any thoughts?
Its not going to change the sound much, if at all. A short ram intake changes the sound much more.
Offtopic i've got a brand new AEM airbypass valve if you are looking to buy one for cheap...pm me if you intersted.
The Intake has no sound affect on the Exhaust.
Thier 2 diffrent parts of the Car.
I have a AEM CAI and a MBRP.
The Intake on its own sounds Great, Loud sucking noise from Under the car.
Get a Sheild and ByPass, Trust me youll need them.
Are we taking short ram or the full CAI? The short ram does have a nice sound because the filter is right at the back of the motor and you can hear it sucking in the air!
Whoever told you about hard throttle is right. You'll hear a difference right away, but it will be louder when your going WOT.
It stands to reason that a CAI would make the exhaust a tad louder, because my 3" K+N definitely did make my stock exhaust louder at the rear.
What you are hearing is Intake Noise... Thier is no links between the 2.
1 Sucks the other exhales.
Chromey,Mar 20 2005, 05:29 PM Wrote:What you are hearing is Intake Noise... Thier is no links between the 2.
1 Sucks the other exhales.
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yup, what he said.
I found the short ram intake didn't make the exaust louder...just gave it more of a snarl rather then a purr. The db's never went up. My magnaflow is pumping a 66db rumble at idle and at 4500rpm it puts out 89db's...but thats when its humming crazy loud. I tested it again after the K&N filter install and the stats never changed.
Like I said...not louder...just more agressive.
Well, I got it put in last night...took a while...shop hadn't done an AEM CAI on a Focus until mine (it's an almost brand new shop here in Brantford). Anyways, we decided to leave the finish of it alone since it was nicer than expected...the system did in fact bolt on easy, and rather well...only complaint I have is that the instructions for instal are pretty crummy. Yes there are a few pictures, and the written instructions are good, but they should have had better diagrams (or have some period) on the mounting locations. Well, after putting everything back in, and reconnecting the battery, I fired up the car and let it sit idling for about 5 mins or so, so the car could run through it's diagnostic stuff before moving it. After letting it run for a bit, I blipped the throttle a few times, going from 3000-5000 rpm...yeah, there was a sucking sound, and there was also that raspy intake sound too. After packing up the OEM intake, I went out and did some driving...yes, the car was noticeably faster, but I found the car was actually quicker, and keeps getting quicker today after driving it some more. I guess the computer is sorting things out more as I drive, so that's cool.
I can say that the car does pull harder in all of the gears, and it didn't make the exhaust any louder. Only new sound is the raspy sucking sound at 3/4 throttle, and is most obvious at WOT like you guys mentioned. So, I'm happy that the exhaust remained the same, and I'm loving the fact the car has more pep to it in the mid-range, and it accelerates harder at highway speed. Best way to describe the difference in power is that the car feels lighter almost...I mean, the acceleration istself feels lighter and effortless compared to before...so I wonder just what sort of a power gain I got from that intake. Sure AEM claims upto (and over sometimes) 12hp and 12 ft lbs, but even if it was really only like 4-8, it's worth the money. Plus it adds some "bling" under the hood since it's polished...lol!
I think that the AEM CAI and MBRP exhaust are a nice combo...now I just need to get a bigger TB...hehehe...
Oh yeah, one more thing...the car still runs smooth as dead stock...pretty sweet...
*thumbsup* way to go man! Congrats!
Sound clips? :D
The intakes add a little "throat" to the car.