cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

Here are some pictures of our new 6th Gen intake for the Maxima. Looks pretty nice under there wouldn't you say??

Go here for the sale we are having on them. http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....85#post3053985

Regards,
Bryan
bryan@berktechnology.com

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

PS - If you haven't heard of us, we are Berk Technology, we have been making intakes for the Maxima and Altimas for over 3 years now. Just ask around and see what others have to say about our products and our #1 customer service.

Regards,
Bryan
bryan@berktechnology.com
www.berktechnology.com

defconmax03

trust me guys the intake sounds great. love it as much as the frankencar that was in my 03.

SilverBelle04

How does it sound just driving around normal ? and is the increase in hp noticable ?

Tks Bob

mattlerose

I went to the website and did not see it for the 2004 Max. Did I just not look hard enough? Also I am concerned as others have mentioned about the water getting into the filter. Any shield available?

6thGenMax

iTrader: (6)

I have the berk tech Intake on the way. im gonna run some dyno test's with it and post some pictures of the dyno runs and install. i will let you all know my experience.

JiuJitsuThug

iTrader: (1)

mattlerose - I don't think you run any chance of water damage from that intake - it is mounted very high unlike the Injen's. That is unless you drive around with the hood off j/k

andymax95

Beating on my car yesterday and have my cai turned into a hai and I'll tell you it gets way to hot under the hood to be running a HAI IMO

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

We've actually done tests on how hot it really gets under the hood during normal driving. After driving around w/ a temperature probe under the hood for an entire summer day it never gets more than a few degrees hotter under the hood than the outside air. As long as you are moving over 15mph the air under the hood is no more than 5 degrees F hotter than outside.

The only time it heats up under the hood (50-60 deg F) is when you are in what we call "parking lot traffic". Where you are moving at under 10mph or 0mph.


If you have one of the other cold air systems (Inj) then it will get hotter air than ours does. The placement of the filter puts it right behind the radiator and next to the exhaust manifold AND inches above the ground with NO splash pannels surrounding it. I've seen more destroyed engines via hydolock with the Inj intake than any other.

We place our filter behind the battery which act as a natural heat sheild and directly in the outlet of the intake air duct of the front grille. Despite the fact that our intake still resides inside the engine bay, it is as cold air as you can get without having to risk being cold air.

Regards,
Bryan
bryan@berktechnology.com

JiuJitsuThug

iTrader: (1)

I think cobymoby just nailed the correct with that last post

defconmax03

sounds great at WOT, car sounds stock when driving normal

Edify11

Cobymoby, I already have the Stillen intake. How does yours diifer? I know it uses an Apexi filter versus the K&N, but are there any other differences in performance and sound? I know it'll be hard for you to be objective, but your honesty will be much appreciated.

maximadave

iTrader: (10)

cobymoby is da bomb! This guy makes intakes that kick butt. I love my Berk intake!

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

From customer reported feedback from people that are in your same boat they say that they feel a better throttle response when adding our intake midpipe to an existing Stillen intake.

My objective opinion:

You will get 90% of the gains from removing the factory air box. The last 10% will come from adding the midpipe. An added bonus is that you'll have some bling under the hood.

We offer the intakes with either a Apexi filter or S&B Powerstack filter (www.sbfilters.com). The S&B filters are of the same quality as K&N, made in the USA and carry the same 1,000,000 warranty.

Regards,
Bryan

Edify11

If I wanted to get the midpipe, and replace the K&N with the Apexi, how much would it be? Technically speaking, how does the midpipe help?

2004 Smoke

Looks nice Bryan. Although I have to say I am just not convinced this open filter design is the one for me. With my driving in real wet and dusty condiitions, I would be concerned the filter will get too dirty too quick. Or the car will inhale too much water and salt.

I hope your welds are better than the Stillen.

I am hoping someone will come out with a ram air system, with protected Apexi.

Can you tell us what problem(s) you set out to fix or improve upon when you designed and built this? Did it meet your expectations? What 'measurable' metrics were you after? (e.g. 10% better fuel economy, 10 hp gain, .2 second gain in the 1/4 mile, etc.) Did you achieve them? Can you show us a dyno before and after install? (Need something more to look at other than the good looks).

Sorry (truly) to sound somewhat negative - I haven't bought into these devices yet.

Thanks.

Ceasars Chariot

iTrader: (16)

Thats a fine looking intake for the 6th gens, I wonder if I can talk my mom into trying it out, lol !

I have the injen intake on my 97 and heat has always been a concern. With our older cars the egr can get clogged with carbon deposits over the years, and with an intake taking in warmer air these factors can work in concert to cause some engine ping. I know with my car once I switched to the injen from a midpipe setup I began to have the problem on hot days.

IMO a midpipe setup is best and while this doesnt look exactly like a midpipe setup, the intake isnt sitting right by the radiator cooking the pipe. Looks real good, Bryan !

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

Ceasar, maybe run a feature article?????????????

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

The midpipe removes that resonated OEM rubber/plastic tubing and smooths out the air flow w/ a nice smooth, larger diamter aluminum tube.

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

There is virtually no chance for the filter to suck up any water where it is located. If you drive in pretty dusty/wet conditions then a cold air is out of the question for you. If it is very dusty, the OEM filter will clog up easier than all of the intakes we have. If you want the best filtration of them all, go with the Apexi filter. We use the two best filters on the market, Apexi and K&N/S&B.

(read this test - http://mkiv.com/techarticles/filters_test/2/)

Our welds are one of the best in the business. I have yet to have a single product break out there in the past three years. I've seen plenty of them break, especially Injen brackets. Frankencar welds are home MIG welds which is a bad as you can get. I've replaced more Frankencar intakes than Injen intakes, which is especially bad considering how few they actually sell compared to Injen.

(Repost from before)--> We place our filter behind the battery which act as a natural heat sheild and directly in the outlet of the intake air duct of the front grille. Despite the fact that our intake still resides inside the engine bay, it is as cold air as you can get without having to risk being cold air. (end)

The air scoop funnels cool air from the front bumper grille right onto the face of the air filter, not quite ram air like a trans am but as close as you can get without removing a headlight or having a new hood.

Our dyno numbers will be out in about a week from now. I'm expecting a 10-12HP gain to the wheels.

I don't mind you being the devils advocate one bit. It's your hard earned money, I want to earn it as well. I welcome the questions!

Regards,
Bryan
bryan@berktechnology.com

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

Some people have been asking about the quality of our welds. I don't have any pictures of the Stillen intakes to compare to, but maybe if someone else has some pics they can post them up here. Or email them to me and I"ll post them for you.

Sorry about the flash, I'll take some better pics with no flash during the day.

Dave B

The midpipe that replaces resonator between the MAF and TB is a Helmholz resonator and it serves a much greater purpose than just deadening induction noise. It also improves lowend power and throttle response. It doesn't harm upper rpm breathing either. There has been no dyno proof that midpipes work on these cars. They do flow more air naturally because of thier wide open design, but that doesn't necessarily mean they perform better when hooked up to an engine.

It's too bad no one's developed a true cold air intake that routes the filter into the fender because that type of setup is far better than the Injen or underhood intakes. Even though a battery is in the way of the filter, the VQ is still sucking in hot air. I've run my OBDII software and my intake temps were significantly higher when running a hybrid style intake like this one. Not until a constant 30mph speed was reached did the underhood temps fall within 10-15 degrees of ambient. The thing you have to consider here is when you're racing. When you're at the starting line, the underhood temps have risen because you've usually been waiting in line for over a few minutes. The underhood temps will be well over 150 degrees. You stage, get the green light, go WOT and instantly the ECU will see that the intake temps are extreme for the load and will dial back the A/F to a richer mix to keep the engine from detonating. This kills power. Not until you're probably halfway down the track have the intake temps dropped enough for the ECU to resort to a leaner A/F. By then it's too late because the first 100' of the race is the most important. This extreme heat at slow speeds and being stopped is why these intake perform really doggish around town in 70+ degree weather.

A true CAI will be at near ambient intake temps at all times.

cobymoby

iTrader: (2)

Dave,

I do hear and respect your oppinion on what you have to say about the underhood temps on this type of intake.

The removal of the Helmholz resonator does infact produce power on the VQ35 engine. I have proof on the G35 VQ35 engine which will gain 2-3WHP with the addition of a 350Z intake tube which is just a staight tube with no resonator. I'm not sure if they are identical to the resonator on the VQ35 on the Maxima, but it just goes to show that in some cases the removal of the resonator and replacement of the resonator with a straight higher flowing tube will produce dyno measureable power. We will be releasing an aluminum Z tube for the G35 this month. It does have proven HP gains over the Helmholtz resonated OEM intake tube.

Not all cars make the most power from cold air intakes. Although on the 2004 Maxima no one is sure about how much power it makes via a fender mounted filter, there are advantages and disadvantages of both setups. AEM, one of the first maufacturers of the cold air intake for import cars does not make an cold air intake for every car. In some cases the underhood intake will produce the most power, more power than a cold air w/ fender mounted filter intakes.

I have many customers with Nissan Altimas that have thrown out their Injen and AEM CAI, which has a fender mounted filter and replaced it with our under hood short ram intake. The Altima is uses 95% of the same components as the 2004 Maxima. They are virtually the same car. Dave, if you want to cross reference the P/N's for the intake duct (which is what Nissan calls the Helmholtz resonator) and verify then I would much appreciate that.

Our intake OUTPERFORMS THE INJEN INTAKE. The Injen intake has a fender mounted filter which sucks in air outside of the engine bay. I don't have dyno results of the two intakes side by side on the same car but from what customers have told me, from switching from Injen to Berk Technology, their cars will make more power.

Lastly, the Injen intakes mount their filters in the fender. This IMO is a bad thing. I have seen too many cars over the years hydolock their engine or suck water into the engine with Injen intakes. If it is worth the risk to you to have your engine glow on your 1 year old car, so be it. It is your perogative.

Dave, thank you for the comments. I encourage the comments and criticism. Like I always say, I excpect a lot for my money, and I expect that you the customer would have the same attitude. You won't see me charging high prices like some of the larger or smaller manufactures on the market today. Dealing with us, you are dealing directly with the manufacturer which only serves you the customer better.

Rgards,
Bryan

bryan@berktechnology.com
www.berktechnology.com

Dave B

Bryan:

I appreciate your calm and collected attitude. It's rare to find that in a aftermarket parts manufactuer.

I have to disagree with the Z-tube producing 2-3whp on the G35. I spend time over at G35driver.com and a month or so ago a handful of G35/350Z owners dynoed on the same day down at a shop in Florida. A comparison of G35's with the same trannies and mods with the Z-tube being the only difference, G35's with/without the Z-tube dynoed to within 1hp/tq of each other. I saw no proof that this Z-tube (aka midpipe) made any more power. I will admit that the midpipe on a VQ greatly enhances the induction noise and many people find that very pleasing. However for me, the driveabilty improvement of the resonator greatly outweighs the sweet induction noise of the midpipe. I've had about every type of intake known to man on my car and the resonator improves low end throttle reponse and acceleration. With the resonator in place, the car moves much better off the line. It simply feel more powerful. At the track, I've experienced absolutely no difference in ET/MPH with or without the resonator. The resonator improves day to day driving. My best guess as to why Nissan doesn't use the resonator on the Z is because Nissan wanted the Z to have some attitude.

As for the CAI, again I've had a ton of intake setup including the hacked air box with midpipe, hacked airbox with resonator, hybrid, POP with resonator, CAI with midpipe, CAI and resonator, and stock. At the track, all these setups do outperform the stock setup by about ~.1 and 1.5mph on average. Otherwise there seems to be no discernable difference between aftermarket intakes in the 1/4 mile.

Around town though, the CAI is king. It offers much better normal driving power. Gone is the heat induced bog of the underhood intakes. My car feels great in 70+ degree weather compared to all my other setups and at the track it performs just as well as my hybrid which is supposedly the best intake for performance.

As for the Injen, I'm in total agreement. The setup is about as bad as a setup as you get. Clearly these guys are not engineers. WHo in their right mind would route metal intake piping near a hot intake manifold, head, exhaust manifold, engine block, and radiator PLUS situate the filter in one the lowest and most likely submersible portions of the car? It's the worst intake setup I've ever seen.

jsmithsole

iTrader: (5)

Bryan installed my intake today personally, Thanks Bryan!!!!!!
It feels great and sounds goooood....

JiuJitsuThug

iTrader: (1)

That looks very nice!

SilverBelle04

Glad you like it. It looks good with the red couplings. I've got one of these on the way. I ordered mine with the black couplings, so it'll look just like the one in the first photos of the thread.

Bob

jsmithsole

iTrader: (5)

Yeah I wasn't sure about the red at first but it looks good, adds a little spice to the engine bay!!
Anyways everybody should hook up with Bryan he's a good guy making a GOOD product (for cheaper than all the big companies!!!)

mattlerose

I have e-mailed Bryan many times with questions about the intake and he has always e-mailed me back quickly. I am ordering one with the Apexi filter this week. If the product is as good as the customer service that I have seen so far, I can't go wrong.

andymax95

Since the weld broke on my injen cai, the cold air extension, I was riding around with a HAI setup and I must say, the only difference I found was sluggishness from the intake being in the hot engine bay and the sound was a little more throtty.