Dave B

History:
A few years ago I dynoed my Maxima with a modified version of the stock air box which I called the "Poorman's CAI". On the dyno, my car made the same power as the HKS intake from 2000-5400rpms. Not until HP started falling off at 5400 did the HKS show any gains. Simply put, the HKS intake just allowed the engine not to run out of breath as quickly. Now I've gone a set further with the Poorman's CAI. I'm not taking credit for this because others have been running a setup like this for years. The only thing I did differently was remove all resonators.

SETUP:
Since my HKS intake filter is pretty dirty, I decided to toy around with my stock airbox. All I did was simply do some cut work on the lower air box. Using a dremel, I cut out the front side (facing the battery) and drivers side (facing the fender) of the air box. I left the stock intake snorkel in place so that cooler air is still funneled into the space where the filter sits. I'm running a K&N filter panel with all the resonators removed and I'm also using a Warpspeed midpipe. I saved the cut out portions in case I want to glue them back in when I sell the car. It looks very OEM which is fun because when I pop the hood, everything going to look stock to the non-Maxima guy. They don't know what the MEVI is

SOUND:
It sounds good. Actually it sounds REAL good.

PERFORMANCE:
I can't tell a difference at all compared to the HKS intake except the car feels a little better at part-throttle. I noticed that the motor feels smoother at all RPMs. I don't know what that's about, but everytime I've used the stock air box, the motor becomes nice and smooth. I don't know if the intakes cause some kind of weird intake resonance or what.


For the money, I don't think you can go wrong.



Dave

ny96max

when i swapped out my PR CAI to bring my car into Nissan like 2yrs ago, i too noticed that it was smoother off the line and at idle. Funny i almost left the stock box in there, lol

my.o2,

Ant

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

I'm going to give that a shot. I'm running the original OSCAI setup right now and I love it. Hopefully a couple more holes will help the high end breathing. I dont get any useful power about about 5200rpm.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Been there done that! Actually I think I was the first to hack the stock intake setup. I just never had the chance to dyno it. I didn't go as far as you did, but what I've done definately makes the stock intake breath better.

The best part is that you'll never see the mods! The car appears completely stock.


Good going Dave.


P.S. I have to give Lime some credit, it was her box I originally played with!

Blaximazx

next time i'm in the neighborhood, i'll call you and stop by the check it out.

Lime

Tom, you naughty boy! You should not tell secrets like that on here!

YES it is true, Tom used my stock airbox for some experiments. I have been toying with the idea of putting it back on with his modifications and a few of my own with my midpipe and some holes in that lower airbox, if I could get my car up high enough.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Is that HKS one foam? Velocity stacked? If not, the HKS one probably creates turburlance that the stock airbox doesn't.

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

I just added an OSCAI how-to with pics to the FAQ

hokiemax

iTrader: (2)

Any pics?? I want to see what this looks like.

I used to have OSCAI too, and I had it setup real good. When looking at the front of the car, you'd see this submarine-telescope like thingy protruding down and it looked pretty funny. I wish I hadnt gotten the KN panel filter for $50 bucks. I only had the OSCAI for 4 weeks and my panel filters been sitting in my closet for 1.5 years now.

Dave B

Yes, the HKS does have a built in velocity stack. From the information I've gathered, the HKS intakes are about the least-restrictive intakes on the market. The downside is their filtering ability is poor.

I will snap some pictures of my setup tonight and put them on my homepage. I should note that I'm not running an underbumper intake pipe like I did on the Poorman's CAI. Instead, I've run a 2.5" hose from the driver's side of the air box to down into the space below the headlight. This probably does nothing now becaue I reinstalled my driving lights.

Like others have said, the setup looks completely stock unless you look very closely.


Dave

Street Reeper

I have played around with the stock box for the last year as well. I ported the adjacent side of where the intake feed is, as well as the telescoping Ram Air (check my profile for a pic.)

I got a new lower portion from cbr2 (great to work with) so that if I wanted to put it back to stock I could.

Along with the Ram air, ported air box, I also made a custom midpipe made for the stock box.

http://www.drwebdesign.com/mymaxima/upperintake.html

Overall I have had good gains, and the sound is great. If anyone has any questions let me know.

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

Do you have pics of how your midpipe fits with the stock box?

Street Reeper

Hopefully I can find someone in OKC with a digital camera. I made the midpipe a little different from the instructions in that I made ports for both vaccume lines. I used PVC and painted it black metallic (it looks/sparkles just like my factory paint except black.) It really turned out good, I will try and locate a camera, and hopefully have some pics up soon.

The set up is the throttle body, accordian section (if you use PVC for your midpipe you will have to trim the edges to get the accordian section to fit,) midpipe, coupler (I used the same metal one in the instructions I posted to connect it to the MAF sensor) MAF sensor, and stock air box with a 2 1/2 inch port (lower portion) facing the fender. The midpipe directions are pretty straight forward, you just have to measure for your application, and if you do it right it looks very proffesional. (everyone asks me where I bought mine)

I'll post in the regional section right now and try and locate a camera.

Lime

anyone have pics of the porting of the lower box?

Kolyan

So if i keep the stock air box and just change the mid-pipe, will this result in any gain or/and intake sound?

Kolyan

after alittle searching i found the answer to my question... there are fiting problems with mid-pipe and stock air box, unless of course u decide to cut the pipe.

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

how does it sound?

is it louder than franken car intake? or somewhere between stock airbox & a intake??

rbeyer

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I've been holding off on putting any type of intake on my car becasue I'd like to keep it quiet. I'd like to know how this sounds in comparison to other intake set-ups.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a quiet intake since I just put on my Budget-Y and craving more from her! May sound stupid, but has anyone dyna-mated or done something to try to reduce the noise outside or inside the car?

Kolyan

Here is the guy who dyno-mated his whole car

Dave B

I updated my homepage with some pics on pages 3 and 4.

The sound is slightly quieter than a hybird intake. At part-throttle, it's like stock.


Dave

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

smaller hole = quieter?? I had a hybird intake & it was too loud (to me) but its too quiet stock, I want something in between, maybe I shoudl cut a small hole & leave all resonator on?

rbeyer

iTrader: (1)

Man that's one crazy dyno-mat job. I think the hybrid and pop chargers will be too loud for my liking. But stock is so quiet and I want an intake now to go with the y-pipe. Any solution or thoughts? I may need to get creative and try stuff.

blizz20oma

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info and write-up(s), guys.


Airbox h4x0ring was prolly the most popular cheapy mod back when I was on the integra boards.

Street Reeper

Not with just a midpipe. I noticed more noise when I disconnected the first resinator (the one that runs from under the snorkel to under the battery) then I did with a midpipe (but that noise is still very minimal). I noticed that the ram air that I connected to this really helped advertise the gains of the Y-pipe, but the midpipe didn't really do anything, the resinator that it replaces (the thin black box) really isn't to restrictive. The midpipe just smoothes air a little, and looks cool.

If you want real sound open up the bottom of the stock air box (so that the air will still pass up through the filter.)

I only made a small 2 inch opening on the side facing the fender (it is almost totally blocked from engine heat) so that hopefully most of the air my car breathes is the dense ram air, the extra port is for noise, and extra air when i really get on it. This is a good mod and worth investigating, try and find another lower half of the stock air box (either at a local salvage yard or from an org member, should be about 15.00) then expriement with the old one. Any time you cut it save the pieces that you cut away, that way you can repair and make other ports if you find a better application.

Street Reeper

Mine fits OK, hopefully I will have pics soon. You cannot use a midpipe from Franken for this, you have to make your own, it will be much shorter, about the length of the length of the thin black box. If you are interested just look at the instructions I posted on how to make a mdipipe, then measure it for your application (namely the air box if that's what your going for.)

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

dumb question: its 5f outside & I don't want to stay in the garage to figure this out how do I disconnect the resonator under the battery?

Street Reeper

You will see close to the mouth of the snorkel a small pipe leading from underneath the snorkel to the battery. Grab the middle of the pipe and work it back and fourth and it will come off, nothing needs to be removed.

Let me know if you have problems, should take you all of five seconds

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

sounds easy

but how do I get the resonator out the car after I pull it off??

do I remove it from under the car?

Street Reeper

You remove the battery, but it is really not neccasary to remove the resinator, mine is still there. As long as you disconnect that pipe your resinator will not effect your car. Also, if you take your car in to have it worked on, you can put that little pipe back on in a matter of seconds, rather than removing the battery and putting the resinator back on.

If you are still intent on taking the resinator off please let me kow why, otherwise just disconnect the pipe and have fun with an easy mod.

If you need any other help please let me know.

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

I thought the pipe is attached to the resonator & I would have to remove the whole thing!

sounds easy enough, I'll go try it in 30mins

Jr'sMaxima

So the sound.....is it more like a CAI or a pop charger???

Street Reeper

You can see my entire set up here, I finally got the pics!!!

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=183001

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I just did the hacked air box mod. Instead of using a dremel and cutting off the side like Dave did, I drilled a bunch of holes using a 3/4" bit all around the lower air box. I didn't drill the bottom part though, just all around the side. I was skeptical at first at how this would make any difference. I didn't drive the car yet, but I did reved it up a few times and the sound was different than before. Sounded more like an intake, of course not as loud, but you definitely can hear the difference. I'm using a K&N panel filter instead of the stock paper filter. I have the factory "snorkel" in place too. However, I don't have the resonator that goes below the snorkel. I lost the attachment. So is it ok to have nothing there?

Dave B

I ended up ramming a cap from a can of spray paint into the space. It worked perfectly. I'm running a K&N filter panel and no resonators. I love the setup because it looks stock


Dave

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Interesting...never thought of that. I'm going to give it a try.

Street Reeper

Here is the picture of the bypassed resinator, it is a 3inch coupler attached to a 3inch pipe. This is where the little pipe was located that ran from the snorkel to the battery, just disconnect the little pipe and you can attach somthing more constructive.

http://images.cardomain.com/installs...99_15_full.jpg

Connected to
http://images.cardomain.com/installs...499_8_full.jpg

This is what I did

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

The spray can cap didn't work for me. So I just used some electrical tape and taped up the opening.

MAXIMARK

I joined this exclusive group today by gutting my Snorkels and Resonators. Being a 1995 I have not removed any airtemp/heat sensors. The top and bottom of the intake box at this point remain "unhacked". I have seen forums before that had company representatives to answer posts - I don't suppose there are any Nissan reps lurking amongst us reading our ramblings...

What I accomplished today was removing the dead end resonator box and accompanying elbow from under the battery tray. Here's where I wish a Nissan rep was available, because I wonder what where the engineers thinking to place this and the other resonators in the intake path??? Quietness??? The resonator is basically a dead end with just a 3/16" hole allowing air to escape. Next I removed the other truly dead-end resonator that is connected to the resonator between the MAF and the "accordion" leading to the intake manifold. I covered the remaining resonator hole with a black plastic cap. Two for three. Lastly the snorkel was removed leaving the ~3" X ~2" opening in the lower half of the intake box to take on as much air as it can suck (vacuum). I would like to use some sort of temperature sensor to allow reading the temperature of the available air.

I next need to take a trip to Lowes or Home Depot to get an ABS/ADS (plastic) downspout that will transition from rectangle to round. Connecting to the opening in the lower half of the intake box will allow a ~3" hose running (somewhere) to the front valance for a greater volume of air to be fed into the intake box/airfilter. As I read the posts it seems as though all the "hackers" are opting for the K&N panel filter.

The volume from the intake box has a space shuttle rumble from 3000 - 4000 RPM. Under partial throttle it is hardly noticeable. I don't really notice and performance gains but I like the unobstructed look of the engine compartment. Once I get the air intake hose connected we will see what's next in store...

Be Safe, Mark V.

Street Reeper

The resinators are to keep the noise down.

What did you use to replace the thin black box between the MAF and accordian section, I am assuming a midpipe? Also, I would leave the stock snorkel in place, it is what feeds the lower half of the air box cool air, if you remove it the hole is facing the engine and drawing in warm air. You can bypass the resinator and fill the snorkel with as much air as it can handle. However, the most restrictive part of the stock intake is the openings in the stock air box. In the lower half, you will notice the hole that is used to supply air, is much smaller than the hole that is drawing air in the upper half of the stock box. That is why people have hacked a new hole in the lower half to match the abilities of the large hole in the upper half. Your idea sounds good about getting the downspout hose and connecting it to where the snorkel was before. But that hole can only draw in so much air and like I said before it is easy to supply that hole with all it needs from the stock snorkel and bypassed resinator.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Today was my first day that I got to really "test" the hacked air box out. The sound is very nice, almost like an intake, but not as loud. I like this sound better oppose to a regular intake or CAI. The sound has a more subtle, aggressive tone to it. It's not as loud as a regular intake or CAI like I said, but when you step on it, people can definitely hear you. The butt dyno tells me this give me probably the same gain as a regular intake or CAI. Like Dave said, at part throttle, it seem to be smoother, you can defintely feel it. With an regular intake or CAI on an automatic, the revs have to be a bit higher for you to feel and hear it. With this, even at low revs you can feel and hear it. I think this is best at low rpms, when it get to high rpms(5k and up), it seem to run a bit out of steam. I still have the accordian resonator though, you guys think I should get rid of it and put a midpipe in place? How much of a difference would that do?


If I knew this a long time ago, I wouldn't have wasted my money on an intake. Just drill a few holes, which cost you nothing.