How do I install a Short Air Intake in my '97 Civic? (D16Y8)?

Question

Don't want to mess up the installation by making a "check engine light go on". I can't even find my stock one under my hood! lol. Think it's better for me to take it to a shop?

How much do you think it might cost? Or are there any step by step instructions online that can tell me how to do it. All I got is a set of plyers and my eyes on this: http://www.aempower.com/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=114

BTW, no I don't want a CAI b/c I'm from NH and there's plenty of cold air to go around. Thanks!

Answer 1

Under the hood isn't where the cold air is. One day when it's cold outside drive your car for a half hour or so and stick your hand under the hood with it slightly raised and tell me it feels like the air under the hood is cold. Regardless of where you live engine bay temperatures can be really hot and you can easily burn yourself on an intake manifold much less a radiator or engine block, all of which are under your hood where a short ram would be. You would benefit from a CAI, I don't personally like CAIs because of how closer it makes the intake to puddles that you'd much rather charge through than practice granny driving on but I know there are benefits in NH, FL, or the North Pole.

You can easily make an intake trigger a check engine light. I myself did a pretty good job with my intake the first time but my MAF was slightly rotated and that caused it to misread, misfire at idle and 2500rpm and around there, no problems at 4000rpm+. Just a whole lot of headache that nothing I'd ever read on the internet had prepared me for and for a while I blamed filter oil and even cleaned my MAF to remove the contaminating oil. I eventually searched a forum devoted to my car and found one or two cases of a "wonky idle" as some guy called it as a result of MAF rotation. I straightened up the MAF after weeks of running the car with stock intake and aftermarket trying to figure out why it wasn't working right and it hasn't given me problems since.

If you want to do it right the first time make sure all hose clamps are tight, your MAP/MAF sensor is aligned as it was from the factory and if possible as much piping between the MAF and the filter as possible since turbulence may cause a MAF to misread. This last one is rather hard with a short ram so I myself attached the filter halfway on the MAF adapter which gives it an addition half or 3/4 of an inch of extra straight through travel before it reaches the MAF.