Brothers, I'm just soliciting your thoughts. I'll do my best to make this as short as possible.

I know that there are some pretty nice intakes out there that we've all grown to love. The list is quite exclusive.

I'm presently running the APS CAI but I've been seriously considering swapping it for another brand. The red intake pipe has started rubbing me the wrong way every time I pop the hood . I'm looking at having as much of my engine bay polished as possible. I ran into the Fujita CAI in last month's Turbo magazine and it caught my attention, especially seeing that it comes with a UICP/LICP combination with the intake. Everything is polished which is what I'm looking for. Here is what it comes with:

Upper Intercooler Pipe
Lower Driver's Side Intercooler Pipe (why they mention the driver's side is beyond me)
6061 T6 Aluminum Intake Tubing
HoseTechniques Silicone hose w/Nomex
Carbon Plated T-bolt clamps
Fujita Super Flow High Performance Air Filter
TIG Welded bracketry

To me, this looks like a winner particularly because I can buy everything all at once and for the price (~$600 shipped), I feel it'll be my best bet instead of trying to mix-n-match different brands.

Thoughts / Comments

 

Its a very good unit 0- its a "tuned" intake - works well

 

I just got tuned with it from Al this tuesday. I believe it was his first so we had a little issue tuning it at first after like 2 tries everything is running smoothly. Works very well.

On a side note, I was a bit skeptical on this system at first because no one had it, but after some researching on other cars, 350 and stis, i found out this system was one of the best for both the STi and 350. So i thought i'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did.

 

Without seeing the article, my guess would be that they are referring to the lower half of the UICP, which is on the driver's side of the FMIC. That would mean it does NOT include an LICP, which is on the passenger's side. An intake that included an LICP wouldn't make sense anyway, so that's my guess.

$600 for no power gain sounds good to me!

 

Inphluence, does it include an LICP or just the UICP? Also, Al said it is a "tuned" intake, so why did it take a while to get in tune?

 

No it is just an UICP, I was running in and out of pruven so I dont know the full detail, at first he said it's a new one to him so its a bit screwy and attempted at it again, then i walked back in and he said he got everything running smoothly with it.

 

one more thing... pure-evo, its not a CAI.

 

I guess I was suffering from a case of wishful thinking to assume that CAI stood for anything other than cold-air-intake. You know what they say when you assume?

Warrtalon,
I understand that the UICP has proven not to add any gains and yet there are some of us that choose to run them anyway and for whatever reason. I've done my reSEARCHing on the forum and I haven't found the answer to whether or not this system has any gains worth mentioning. What are you substantiating your claims that this system doesn't add any gains on? Do share the knowledge.

Al, since you tuned the car, and Inphluence, since it is your car, were there any gains worth mentioning or did the purchase of this system fall into the "if I could do it all over again" category?

Just in case anyone wants to see what the system comes with, here it goes...

Go figure... The file doesn't attach. Great. In the photo, it does look like it has both the UICP and the LICP along with the short ram with all of the necessary items for installing the system. Again, maybe this is another case of wishful thinking for me to assume that they say it comes with all three and then they post a photo of the system with three pipes . I can just email it to whomever is interested and then maybe you'll have luck posting it. I am just a newbie afterall. I'm not ready for that advanced stuff !

 

looks pretty close to the injen deal and about $150 more

 

The hardware that this system comes with is better than the Injen. T-bolt clamps and the silicon couplers look to be of better quality as well. The price however does not substantiate the cost of t-bolt clamps and brand name couplers. I think you'd be just as happy with the Injen and your wallet would be too.

 

Its does include the Lower IC pipe. I have the injen right now but I have seen this kit and its a very nice setup. If I had to do it over again I would have gotten the Fujita.

And for only $20 more then the injen.

 

When people refer to the LICP they usually refer to the passenger one that bottle necks down like hell... it just comes with the other "half" of the UICP. So if you want to think of it that way, then yes it comes with a driver side licp.

 

The filter looks like a clone of the Apexi intake filter.

 

Shawn, why did you say this comes with the LICP? The LICP is the other side of the FMIC. This is just the 2 sections of piping that make up the UICP. The lower portion of the UICP is not referred to as the LICP.

Pure evo, there are only 2 intercooler pipes - the 2 that make up the UICP (it's quite a distance from the throttlebody to the FMIC). The 3rd pipe is just the MAF pipe. I don't have any numbers to substantiate my claim that it won't gain $600 worth of power - it's just common sense. It's an intake...they do very little, and the UICP does next-to-nothing as has been proven time and time again. The Injen is also not worth it's $400 price tag. You can get a set of cams for $450 and gain 30whp/30wtq across the entire powerband. You can get an LICP for $170-220 and gain 7-10whp with ~200rpm of spoolup. You can get an alky kit for $500 and gain 30-40whp and 50-60wtq. Spending $600 on a shiny intake is just what it is...spending $600 on a shiny intake. If that's what floats your boat, then that's fine. I realize people have different preferences. I just prefer to actually go faster when I spend $600. Well, actually, I'm too cheap to spend $600 on anything unless it's a set of race tires that drop my lap times by 2-3s.

 

Fellahs.

I do appreciate your time in this matter. I was trying to see if upgrading from my APS intake would be worthwhile. And the answer is an astounding NO. I did however, learn that the UICP comes with two sections . Thanks Warrtalon. Hey, I'm just a newbie in this thing. You're also right about spending the $$$ elsewhere which is exactly what I plan on doing.

Thanks brothers!