What did your Homemade Short ram consist of??? My short ram definitely eliminated that flat spot during WOT @ approx 5-6.5K in 3rd gear that my Injen intake always had....IMO you should have swapped intakes at the track since the conditions would have been very close. Ruling out any other variations of the equation! I tried swapping the Cattman rear muffler and the Oem to rule out the exhaust. No time difference really between the 2...and I regret that I didn't at least run just the upper portion of the Injen that same night! But I did run the full setup vs the upper(with my wideband) and on a controlled roadway to compare time from point A to point B and speed! There was no doubt after I ran my test which intake in conjunction with my setup would make more power and accelerate flawlessly without that flat spot.... I'd like to see a pic of your homemade intake!

 

Its just a straight 6"x3" pipe, MAF and an AEM filter. I had thought about bringing the injen up there with me but decided not to thinking my car would be faster now I wish I did. I'll probably head back up in a few weeks to do some more testing. I think the injen works well with my car because of the ssim, the intake brings back the low end loss from the ssim and the ssim brigns out the top end pull, just a thought

 

my times are in my sig.. along with my mods... i can almost gurantee it was because of the weather... i have tape all over my intake cause its a 4th gen intake which has holes for everything (masking tape at that)

 

Yeah, it sounds good and logical...I thought adding headers would really wake my Injen combo up and the WOT flat spot would be eliminated! I was wrong the intake is too long too move the air into the engine any faster.

 

well i installed the intake and it seemed to pull harder in the midrange and upper rpms ...the one i got was the 2 piece injen cold air intake as opposed to the 1 piece....keep in mind the car it went on is a auto vq35 not a 6 speed....

before the intake went on i could punch it at 20mph and it would downshift and scoot pretty well, but now when it down shifts it actually spins the tires a bit...for the ones that have seemed to loose power with this intake, im curious to see how that is possible since it is a true cold air...also one thing i noticed is that when i installed the maf adapter for the rest of the injen intake to fit on it had numerous textured lines inside of the maf adapter, it looked like it is used to spin the air im not to sure.....but all in all it is def a improvement over running the stock box.....to prove this theory i will do some 1/4 mile passes with the new intake and then go back to the stock air box and see if there is also a difference, maybe even do some pulls on the local dyno......

also since this is the 2 piece model, worse comes to worse i can always remove the second half of the intake and just stick the filter on the maff adapter....

 

again how a car feels after an intake mod is in the mind... sound of it plays a factor... until dyno or some kinda track evidence the "made a difference thing is in the mind" 2 peice or 1 peice... look at all the tape on my intake plus i have no maf adapter and my filter is broke and u would think that might play a huge factor on my intake performance all in the mind bro

 

Ya, I didnt lose power with injen. It feels stronger but 1/4 mile times have not improved... Im working on converting the 2 piece to a short ram asap...

 

I would have to agree with you as far as being able to break the tires loose at 20 mph with that intake installed....But I know I gained 8 hp over the Oem setup with the Injen but that's with a stock exhaust! Once the Cattman catback and headers were installed the top end seemed to have a flat spot where the engine didn't accelerate as hard around 5K-redline in 3rd gear....I will say that the low and midrange are definitely stronger with the intake but, as in intake runner design( let's say both intakes have the same cross sectional size)the longer the intake runners, the more power in the lower rpms. The shorter the intake, the more power in the upper rpms.
And as far as being a CAI, not even, unless you cut a hole in your radiator core support like I did and thermally wrap your intake to reduce heat soak from those thermal reactors...you might help it but it's not sucking any cold air from a separated cold air compartment! I thought about fabbing a heat shield for it but, it would mean not driving the car for a least 3 or 4 days! Here's my Injen that I took for off... until I get dyno'd and 1/4 mile tested with a few different setups!

Thiss is a cold air intake heatshield I fabbed this weekend for my 3rd gen.

 

haha nice, yea i have the stock headers and a custom manderl bent 2.5 inch header back exhaust as well as the block off plate....either way im sure the injen intake is better than the fatory intake with no modification......at least it feels that way.....im gonna go to the track hopefully this week and get some times on short ram vs cold air and then that should settle this debate once and for all....

im also thinking of doing the nwp spacers as the next mod...any one have them with the injen intake installed

 

Agreed I checked the DAs for both the other night and the night of my PB and there was a 1600' difference. The night I got my PB the DA was -799 and the other night was about 800'. I did relook at my slips and my 1st run of the night I did get a 14.535 (14.07 corrected) which was pretty good considering the weather. I am going to keep the SRI for now and the next time I head to the track I'll do some testing to see which realy performs best.

 

Once it cools down some from this August heat I'll hit the dyno first then the track and i should have the NWP spacers, new coil packs, new plugs, etc installed. I will make runs comparing this: Injen Intake

The Oem midpipe w/AEM filter:

 

yea, i have new plugs and when i get my headers and spacer kit installed i wanna hit up teh dyno lol

 

I've never wanted to risk a CAI. From what I heard, the Injen put the filter in a location to pull in hot air anyways.

Berk w/ Apexi all the way. Short ram for the power and sound, and Apexi dry element filter for MAF safety and best filtration.

 

Hey I know you were doing your valve covers in another thread. Did you have to purchase new valve covers? Can you take a pic of the underside of your VQ35 valve cover since the seal are integral! I'm very curious whether I use VQ30 spark plug tube seal with some minor mods. Thanks in advance for the picture!

 

ill try... i did buy new valve covers 04 (for preventative maintenance from DaveB for 90$) i also bought new valve cover gaskets from partstrain.com not the greatest pics... cellphone

 

Yeah they are a little different than the VQ30. On the VQ30 the valve cover tubes are longer on the bottom of the v/c!!! Can you remove those seals with seal removal tool? I'm gonna be doing mine soon, I already got all the parts just waiting for a free weekend without a whole lot to do! Why upgrade to 6th gen V/c's are the sparkplug seals replaceable on those?

 

it doesnt seem like it... all a part of the valve cover it seems like... im not in any way shape or for a mechanic nor am i even close... shoot the question by pmohr but i say just use the 6th gen valve covers un modded but idk what u are trying to accomplish

 

i'm gonna search for the reason/benefits of using a 6th Gen v/c on the 5.5 Maxima ....I think it had something to do with the oil puddling in the rear v/c causing leaks into the rear blanks. can you see any obvious different between the two (5.5 vs 6th)?

 

not as yet

 

I went over to your valve cover post, since I was off topic...

 

lol cool