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Just ordered K&N Intake + Borla Catback

15224 Views 51 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  oarngemig
I decided to try this combo since everybody has been using Joe-Z.

K&N was $265 shipped and I forget what the catback was $1300 or so.

Update:

Installed the K&N intake... Sounds MUCH better... Sounds like a V8 should. You can start hearing the difference at roughly 2k rpm and full throttle it really does sound like a race car. The car no longer sounds like chewbacca when accelerating. Did not really feel the difference however that might of been because I was distracted with the sound which was LOUD.

Got the Borla cat back installed today. It sounds beastly. I love it. There is drone, but that's expected on an aftermarket exhaust. The car turns heads when I go over 2k rpm, every time.

At full throttle there is absolutely no comparison from stock to aftermarket. It is LOUD. It idles slightly louder.

It was definitely worth it for the sound alone, it sounds good and can get really loud. HOWEVER, Borla is known for making poorly fitted exhausts, and I was the recipient of one... The installer basically told me Borla f'd it up and if I hear rattling to come back and he's going to try to work with it. He said the exhaust might start rattling when it warms up, and it did. He said some guy had one put on his Mustang a week ago and same thing happened.

...So I'll have to go back which I really hate doing. I'll get sound clip up / vid tomorrow.
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I think something is wrong with the car. In automatic it will sometimes lag in 2nd gear switching to 3rd and just rev high before it switches to 3rd. Extremely frustrated right now because I cannot isolate the problem....
that is normal, it is holding the gear for u in anticipation of u nailing the throttle. its great exiting turns after u been modulating the throttle.
suprajones, dyno's don't always tell the truth (especially with intakes) and can sometimes mislead as I feel has happened here. Maybe what you need to do is a few pulls against another IS-F with the stock or joez intake. That should make up your mind. Do a few pulls from the bottom of third gear so the factors of wheel slip or launching techniques are void. Of course make sure fuel level is about the same for both cars and see what you conclude. For even more convincing data, how about doing some pulls later with the stock intake back on the car and compare the differences. If you have access to IAT's that would top things off as you'd know for sure the difference in temps with and without the K&N setup and obviously the cooler the IAT's the more power you'll be making.

And sorry to answer your question: The reason you won't see any open air set-ups posted is because none of them have yielded results worth posting. More of an embarrassment and eye opener IMHO.
I agree completely with your advice on comparison runnings of the car mentioned above. I have a couple issues here- only 1/4 mile is in Darlington Motor Speedway(1 1/2 hour drive) and there is only 2 other ISF's in the state to my knowledge via hear-say. I have thought about buying one of the digital meters I have seen on some you tube videos (measures 0-60 time and g-force I believe) Have not researched thier reliability or $ yet,,Anyone have opinions on this device?
Since the intake has been on my mind today, I popped the hood and checked on the fitment to make sure nothing was loose or leaking. After 2+ hours w/engine off and parked in an open air carport the intake pipe was scortching hot, im guessing around 130-150 degrees along with all other plastic and metal surfaces I touched. (odd that I can guestimate heat by feel=yes, comes with my line of work). Led me to contimplate some type of insulation wrap, kinda like people used/still do put on headers. Just a thought.
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I agree completely with your advice on comparison runnings of the car mentioned above. I have a couple issues here- only 1/4 mile is in Darlington Motor Speedway(1 1/2 hour drive) and there is only 2 other ISF's in the state to my knowledge via hear-say. I have thought about buying one of the digital meters I have seen on some you tube videos (measures 0-60 time and g-force I believe) Have not researched thier reliability or $ yet,,Anyone have opinions on this device?
Since the intake has been on my mind today, I popped the hood and checked on the fitment to make sure nothing was loose or leaking. After 2+ hours w/engine off and parked in an open air carport the intake pipe was scortching hot, im guessing around 130-150 degrees along with all other plastic and metal surfaces I touched. (odd that I can guestimate heat by feel=yes, comes with my line of work). Led me to contimplate some type of insulation wrap, kinda like people used/still do put on headers. Just a thought.
Insulating wrap won't do any good. The air is rushing in so fast that it won't have time to heat up. The air that the filter draws in will pretty much be it, which is why we in no way want any of the engine bay air getting into it.
Perhaps we should wrap the headers then, to decrease the engine bay temps.. Better yet, wait for some after market headers to be made so wrapping them before they are installed will kill 2 stones with 1 bird.
Perhaps we should wrap the headers then, to decrease the engine bay temps.. Better yet, wait for some after market headers to be made so wrapping them before they are installed will kill 2 stones with 1 bird.

or you could just stick with the oem setup. Just sayin :cool:
I have a digital gauge to monitor IAT. If anyone in DFW (looking at you DFloreas :) ) would drive around for a bit, I can pull the data and post results of IAT vs ambient.
I have a digital gauge to monitor IAT. If anyone in DFW (looking at you DFloreas :) ) would drive around for a bit, I can pull the data and post results of IAT vs ambient.
Here we go. (thumbs-up)
Put the stock intake back on. Tank average moved from 16.8 to 17.3mpg just on the ride home. Floored it, got the chirp back from 1st to 2nd and even 3rd. Sure its not as loud accelerating, but the Borla catback does a pretty nice job of fixing that.

Getting the Borla re-fitted later today and then never touching the car's internals ever again unless somebody comes out with a supercharger.
Exhaust had issues with the heat shield and it was fixed. The Borla exhaust sounds good with the stock intake, it's a good v8 sound and the drone isn't bad , now that I've had it on for a few days.

I'll be selling the K&N intake for $100 if anybody wants to buy. I think that's a reasonable price considering it was only used for a week or so.
Exhaust had issues with the heat shield and it was fixed. The Borla exhaust sounds good with the stock intake, it's a good v8 sound and the drone isn't bad , now that I've had it on for a few days.

I'll be selling the K&N intake for $100 if anybody wants to buy. I think that's a reasonable price considering it was only used for a week or so.
Pm'd you on the intake.
I just bought the same intake from Michael. I live in LA so I did get taxed, but even so, the total was around $270. Great price, and he gets back to you real quick. I actually received the intake the next day, but this might be because they're not to far from LA.


Michael Agbayani
AutoAnything
9210 Sky Park Court, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92123
Tel: 858.569.8111 x623
Fax: 858.569.8503

[email protected]
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From experience with my other rides, an Evo 7 and an STi, if you have exposed intakes which are not properly shielded from heat, you might as well go drop-in. That's why I got the TRD which I believe is made by Pipercross. I have Pipercross filters in my other cars. For my STi, Pipercorss designed an intake which draws air from the outside thru the right fender. Everything is covered/surrounded by carbon fibre and the temperature in the intake is ambient temp. Versus one with no shield/encasing, intake temp is at least double than ambient. Not ideal. Unless F, JoeZ or whoever makes a decent heat shield/ram air, I will stay with my drop-ins.
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