Hello 350z members,

I've recently purchased an 2003 base Z that had an injen cold air intake on it. When I brought it home I cleaned the filter via the K&N kit and also cleaned the maf sensor with the appropriate maf cleaner. I'm going to review my experiences with both the cold air and short ram method.

NA MODS:
-Injen Cold Air Intake
-Tanabe Hyper Medallion

Short Ram Intake:

Similar setup to the infamous popchargers on here, I believe this test was more than valid because the temperature over here is around 30-40 degrees. Heat soak is still possible but not as likely as in hotter temperatures.

Feel? The lower rpms rev up MUCH faster and I definitely felt more torque and a faster throttle response. Top end gains were similar to that of an stock intake. In other words, dead after 4-5k.

Cold air intake:

I eyebrowed the rubber hose that extended the intake and frowned upon all of the negative reviews. This is the second method that was tested. I noticed that the throttle response was not as spiffy or responsive as the short ram and that the lower rpms did not rev as quickly. Upon test driving I kept thinking of how pointless the full setup was because of the loss of torque and low end power I received from the sri.

Took it on the highway and WOT. Simply put, cold air intake is MUCH more superior for higher end power. The car kept pulling and did not show any loss of power in the higher rpms as it did with the short ram.

Verdict:

For daily driving and satisfaction you could go either ways. People say you won't feel the 1-5whp gains from the intake but I definitely could and there IS a difference. Personally, because i'm a highway traveler the cold air setup has proven much more superior. 5th and 6th gear drive very comfortably.

The short ram, I just can't justify using this setup unless you're like me and am paranoid of hydrolocking. For some reason people like to say that you have to drive through a lake to hydrolock, not true. Different circumstances for everyone and with my luck, experiences, and people i've known that it's happened to i'll pass.

I'm going to try the Stillen method pretty soon here and make a comparison with that. I was going to go the JWT route but heard that the heat shield for the stillen was much more superior. After the intake is done and over with i'll check out those intake manifold spacers.

Feel free to add any comments or suggestions.


extras:

Within my experience, i've noticed the EXACT same thing in my previous car (v6 tiburon). I kept the injen sri on it and came up with the exact same results when comparing, however when I installed headers the top end caught right back up. I would like to hope that headers could make a difference like that for our z's as well.

 

If you do some search, there is a reason why Majority of the Z owners ditch Cold air for short ram or 06 OEM airbox. It has to do with how far the air has to travel before it its the intake plenum. Cold air, especially Nismo, have shown power loss on 03-06 non rev-up and Rev-up motors. But on the other hand on HR motors, it has shown a huge gain, which, I assume, HR motors benefit the most from cold air. https://my350z.com/forum/vq35hr/4012...hr-owners.html

 

Changvi, thanks very much for the informative post.

 

06 air box ftw

 

Excuse my ignorance. I recently installed an Injen CAI and after doing some more research I will be converting back to the SRi. Where could I order a heat shield to work with the SRi? Should I just wrap it?