I recently purchased an AEM cold air intake system from Stillen. Surprisingly, they had the lowest price anywhere. The unit tends to 'retail' for close to $300 but nobody lists in for that. Prices ranged from $265 or so all the way down to Stillen's price of $220 (try to get an additional Z Club discount too!).

Immediately after picking the unit up from their warehouse, I headed straight over to Technosquare in Torrance, CA for an install. For those who don't know the Watanabe brothers from their previous location, check them out:


TechnoSquare


These folks do truly excellent work with the kind of attention to detail only real race shop fabricators provide. I've had numerous experiences with them and can't recommend them strongly enough. In the past, they've done work to my Z32TT, 200SX SE-R, Subaru WRX, and now my 350Z. Nothing is too mundane or arcane for them. Everything from turbo swaps, coil-overs, ECU programming, to custom roll-cages are available for any Japanese import. Their prices are also the best ANYWHERE. Real engineers and enthusiats providing a much needed service. Give them a shot next time you need something installed/configured/fabricated.

As for the CAI? I'm impressed. It is hard to beat the bang-for-the-buck you get with an AEM CAI. I have had one for each of the above mentioned cars except the Z32. I found the sound nearly stock until 4K RPM where a very pleasant growl can be heard. I don't know what kind of gains the Injen unit provides, but AEM has a dyno chart on their site. On every other application I've seen, it produces more HP/torque than Injen (they include some shoot-out dyno charts from other cars). Also, I don't get the hissing sound many CAI units produce at idle. Seat-of-the-pants confirms the dyno chart IMO. The car doesn't lay down on the upper RPM range nearly as much now. It is fun to switch off the VDC and 'scratch' 2nd and 3rd gear shifts now. :-)

 

wow! who installed it? Howard? Danny?

thats cool that you know them too


they're the ones doing my ECU..

 

The hissing sound is usually amplified by the new intake, it was there before you made a change. Your throttle blade needs to have a radius.

Back on topic. Congrats on the install.

 

It was a team effort. ;-) BTW, I was there as the last bytes were written to your car's ECU. I witnessed the first successful programming of your car -- before you did. :-P It was cool as it fired right up and nary a MIL too. I won't steal your thunder so I'm mum on the details. :-)

 

Well sure, I've had a number of cars with CAIs and can attest to the hissing sound. Having said that, this car is FAR quieter than any other I've heard with THIS AEM CAI (not amplified over stock at all). BTW, my WRX is the loudest I've heard for comparison -- but sounds good to me. :-)

 

Is this the lowest price around for AEM CAI?

http://www.adventon.com/acb/showprod...tGroup_ID=2218

 

Yes, I'd say! Not sure what delay in shipping and other costs are involved, but sounds like a great deal. Stillen is only about a mile from my house so I couldn't resist. Also, I'm not good with the idea of delayed gratification! What, wait THREE whole days?! ;-)