DmcL

bought one of the ebay special 3 inch CAI's. wont be using the filter that came with it as its cheap rubbish. the alloy pipework was what i was after.. its one of the ones that relocates the filter to behind the front bumper similar to this:



anyway what im wanting to know is should i be able to get away fitting it and running with it on the standard ECU until such times as the car is mapped? im aware that the pipework is larger diameter than the standard setup so i know that will mess with MAF readings a little but hoping id still be able to fit it in the meantime. filter wise ill most likely be using a 6 inch velocity stack with a 6 inch necked filter for the stack instead of the cheap rubbish filter that came with it.

and yes i know an intake is not strictly necessary and that the airbox works just fine but the CAI will pull cooler air as there is less of the intake system in the engine bay to soak up heat, also it wont be pulling air from the radiator area either so intake temps should be a little cooler and probably fluctuate alot less in traffic.

trevsjwood

iTrader: (2)

When I fitted similar to my blobeye the engine just wouldn't idle and kept cutting out, some don't seem to have any problems. I wouldn't fit until you are ready to map, it would be foolhardy to run any level of boost beforehand.
Trev

DmcL

have heard plenty of stories about how it needs to be mapped, etc. hoping a mapper will chime in here tbh.

if i can find no definitive answer why or why not i will probably fit the short pipe in the engine bay in place of te standard sensor housing and airbox just to see for myself. i could stick my wideband O2 meter in the exhaust and check before/after AFR's, if it doesnt lean the mixture out by any notable amount it should be safe enough though id be inclined to use slightly better fuel with it until the car was mapped as im fairly sure it would lean out AFR's just not sure by how much.