I'm not trash talking Frankencar parts in anyway, but I'm constantly reading posts about people who've "ordered the Frankencar intake!!!", "my Frankencar is in the mail!!!", "the Frankencar is freaking incredible"!!!!", etc, etc. I've got a news flash, a Frankencar intake with the midpipe is going to sound NO DIFFERENT or make ANYMORE POWER than any other POP intake with a midpipe. People act as if this particular intake adds substainial sound and gains above any other intake. It doesn't. A WSP POP with midpipe sounds like my HKS POP with a midpipe which sounds like a Stillen POP with a midpipe which sounds like a JWT POP with a midpipe which sounds like a Place Racing POP with a midpipe.

Sorry, just had to vent.


Dave

it also sounds like my weapon R that comes with a midpipe.

they were backordered for a while, everyone is getting them at the same time, everyone who gets one loves it, simple as that, and i do agree with your startement that all hybrid intakes will sound more or less the same.

Hey dave, this is a little o/t but have you got your VI on yet? I cant wait to see your times, especially since your an experienced track driver. MUCH respect. ~Steve

I don't think they were backordered. The 4th gen ones came out recently(last month?), and it is the first 4th gen intake to come with a midpipe. So everyone is exited about that.

what i meant by backordered, was that a lot of people ordered them weeks ago, i know i ordered mine more than 3 weeks before i got mine, so if that is not backordered, i dont know what is.

yeah.. people are pretty hyped when it's a very simple thing.. same cone with just a midpipe..


Can it be cheaper to put the thing together yourself though? Like buy the cone filter, adapter, midpipe and the other **** that u might need?

the midpipe is like 45$
cone filter 30$
adapter 20$..

what else do you need????

ppl are excited cus it's a new brand

Your right, that's all you need. I happened to have the Stillen/mid-pipe setup just because Stillen is something I can brag about to a non-maxima owner who has never heard of Frankencar.

i thought so
there might be a couple of clamps or something as well but it can all be found seperate.. the Frankencar is just a nice package deal you can get all together.. much credit to Steve and the others who run it.. good to have more aftermarket support in the maxima community.

Dave, I had three particular reasons why I posted in different threads:

1) Had some fitment problems with the midpipe. All of it has been worked out. I posted and reposted on my own thread, and hope to take care of the questions for the next batch of guys who receive their midpipes.

2) I reviewed it. Typical gains like everyone else. Really like the sound. Noticed it has a CAI type sound up close.

3) I waited for a long while for it, and I had to vent about the waiting period.

I am a bit annoyed though, there have been many redundant questions about installs and all, and I have two very big threads exclusively to installation, with pics, and my solutions to the problems as they occured.

isnt the Frankencar intake just that? I have a K&N cone for about $40 with a mid pipe i made myself for about $15

Keep in mind that there are people out there that didn't have any other intake before this one. I mean, I've heard CAI and POP intakes before I got mine and they do sound somwhat the same. So if people are happy about what they bought and want to tell people about it, don't dog them for posting their experience.

To everyone else:

You could do this yourself but Steve decided to produce them and make some money too. If you don't want to give him your money, don't buy it. If you want a good intake setup, then go for it. All he did was add something else to the Maxima market for us to add to the Max and we need more of that around here. We don't own Hondas so we don't have a lot of aftermarket stuff out there.

I agree. I know that I personally didn't have the time to make my own hybrid intake. Moreover, the price for the Frankencar midpipe is the cheapest I've seen on the net. Plus, it comes with all you need; it specifically made for our 4th gen cars and has an exact fit. If I were to get the blue midpipe off of ebay, I would have had to buy different size hoses and the like.

The installation was easy thanks to the included instructions. If it were not for the ease and pricing of the Frankencar midpipe, I probably would have paid someone else to do it for me in addition to buying a $54 midpipe from ebay and buying longer hoses and wasting time.

45+30+20=$95 and you need to buy clamps --
My $99 Hybrid intake from dohccivicna1250 is on with a velocity stack & a K&N filter.

I am glad there are more products for the Maxima from more companys and I would rather give my money to an .org member if all else was equal. To me the Frankencar intake looks a little 'homemade' but if the person buying it likes it than that is the important thing.

The Frankencar is a lot cheaper than buying a Place Racing upper tube and filter or even the Warpspeed upper pipe and filter but I still don't see what all the excitement is about either. If it came with a Velocity stack and looked a little more finished I would be a lot more excited.

I see your fustration, but have you heard all the brands side by side to make that comparison ?

Pretty much, yes. It's all the same design. You've got a filter, some straight pipe, and you pull the resonator. I was probably one of the first few in this org to run a POP charger (HKS) with a midpipe full time. I did this mod about 2 years ago. Most people run the POP intakes with the stock resonator (ie no midpipe). With the resonator in place, the sound sound is more raspy and high strung. With the midpipe installed the sound is deeper and less raspy. It sounds very much like a CAI. I posted this years ago and many others did too, but people are acting as if running a midpipe is a new thing. I just get tired of reading the same stuff over and over again. It's a POP intake, regardless of who makes it, the power gains and sound will be the same.

As for making a POP with midpipe yourself, it would be very easy and the most expensive part is the filter (~$20-30). If you know how to weld, you could make everything quite easily. You use 3" truck-spec radiator hose for the flex points ($5 / 1'), heavy duty band clamps (5@$2), 3" thin wall piping (Impala SS guys use the long chrome truck exhaust pipes and cut them, $20), and a filter ($20-30). With welding experience, you could make a quality looking setup for ~$60. I think all the brands are way overpriced, but that's just the way the aftermarket is.


Dave


Dave

No VI yet. Supposedly it will be here this week. I expect to have it installed within a week of receiving it as long as my Harlan RPM switch arrives on time. I'm excited about the performance gains and hopefully the VI will help my 1/4 mile. My 1/4 mile times are okay, but I could do a lot better if I could hook up. 15" drag radials will be my next mod. I went out and ran (14.9-15.0@94mph) on a hot and humid 80 degree night a few weeks ago so I had a baseline for this kind of weather so I could compare the gains of my VI when running in similiar conditions. In cooler and drier 50-60 degree temps with some drag radials, I'm hoping for some consistent lower 14s at 100mph. Without drag radials, I'd be happy with 14.3-14.4s@100mph. There's only so much I expect out of my track. I may try running at Heartland Park Topeka which is a full blown NHRA track and has much better prep and isn't slightly uphill.


Dave

- My "ghetto-fied" intake is just a K&N cone filter with a piece of wood as the adapter plate. The "adapter plate" was the only tricky thing... The cone filter itself was designed to bolt onto a Cavalier, or something, so my friend and I had to devise a way to get the cone filter bolted on to a plate, which would then both onto the MAF sensor. We just picked up a piece of wood from Home Depot, bored it out with a saw/drill thingamajig from his Dad's garage, and drilled holes in it. It works fine - and no, it hasn't caught on fire... yet. ;-)'
- Oh, we also had to tape the intake air temperature sensor onto the assembly. No big deal - but it certainly doesn't look show-car great. I only did it for the sound (the car's too damn quiet, as you know), not the power. Speaking of which, I didn't notice any change in the power - not even throttle response. Its just enough noise so that I can hear it with my helmet on. My car's still a Sleeper.

You should have pushed for this to be called the 'Dave B Intake' when it started to get popular. Maybe it's not to late, I love my 'Dave B Intake'

Is 3" radiatior hose the best thing to use for a coupling? Does it fit over the MAF too? 3" plumbing clamps are actually 3 1/4".

So you don't think a velocity stack is necessary or benificial or is there one in the HKS intake?

I just ordered a Frankencar, and I agree that it's the same as the other POP/midpipes and pretty much the same as the CAI.

I am just excited to get it!!! C'mon, anyone who's ever bought any mod knows the thrill!

The hybrid intake has been done before but wasn't massed produced by anyone. So why get upset when people rave about it? I mean really!!!!

People have reason to be happy.

Dave, why are you hating?? You should have produced them 2 years ago then.

Eventhough, there are a lot of people on the org. who can build a hybrid intake themselves, thanks Steve and everyone else at Frankencar. I became impatient, and had a friend build my itake with a midpipe, but the fact that you guys at frankencar are putting out another line for maxima owners is great. Maybe you guys could expand and develop other goodies for the max. The more companies, the stronger competition, in turn means more and better products for the consumer which all of us. Just my .02 between

My thoughts exactly.
Steve, like no one else, is very dedicated to what he's doing. This was a great opportunity for him to prove that he's a true car enthusiast.

Earl MacPherson created the front strut in 1947 and he was probably dissed when he started mass producing them too.

Yep, imagine yourself in the year 2047. All cars have a sign "Powered by Frankencar"

IT DEFINITELY sounds like hating. Who cares if they are excited. Who are you to tell them not to be excited. mind ya business and be happy for steve since hes trying to help us out

i made my own intake... a lot of trouble i didn't expect such as getting the supplies, and additional ones like hoses and clamps. If you have the money, buy a Frankencar. If you like sawing metal and sweating and frustration, make your own.

they are better than those e-bays thats why

HKS's use a foam filter, so the foam straightens/smoothens the airflow pretty well, un-like the K&N/Apexi/Paper filters on the ends of all the other short ram filters.

DW

I don't think the ones on ebay look all that great from the start.

Foam straigntens out airflow? I haven't seen any data to support that. In fact, IMHO foam filters(w/o at least the aid of some type of oil) are very poor filtration elements.

The HKS has a velocity stack built into the filter frame.


Dave

Look closely at the beginning of my first post, "I'm not trash talking Frankencar parts in anyway.......". I think it's great that someone else is building parts for Maximas. I always thought Steve took advantage of this org to advertize for free, but appartently Jamie is fine with it. I'd have a ton more respect for all the Maxima specific companies if I saw their names in the advertizing banners above, instead of using the forums to advertize for free.

I'm not upset in any way that people are running "hybrid intakes". I don't claim to be the originator of the setup

My gripe about all these Frankencar posts is that I don't see the point in them. People rip on newbies because they post CAI and POP questions, but somehow these Frankencar posts go unquestioned. I think they are waste of space, IMO. There's nothing special about the Frankencar intake other than that it's cheaper than the others.


Dave

I took that into consideration but it just sounded like you weren't taking it well or something. Now if you say your tired of people asking "Does it make you lose low end on an auto?" then I would say I agree with u totally Dave. Maybe its not just FrankenCar Intake threads but I know see a lot of other threads that make me jump of and go watch television.

is it really this serious to post about what ur tired of seeing. don't get me wrong but if u don't like what people are posting on, jus don't look at them.....

Straightening and filtering are the same thing? I agree with you Jeff, I prefer the good ole K&N.

DaveB, I've seen the HKS velocity stack;

http://www.hksusa.com/images/?id=1125

Compared to the JWT, Stillen, it's fairly light on the straightening;

http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/poprest.htm

It's more a support to hold the foam onto.

DW

the amount of discussion/questioning/arguing that goes on, on these boards about intakes is mind-blowing.

maybe we can add a new forum... "People Excited About Their Frankencar Intakes"