Just installed my K&N Aircharger (pics)

Overall very impressed with the fit and finish. Installation instructions were not that great (because of the poor quality of the accompanying pictures). Can't share anything yet about (perceived) performance increases. Will take it out for a spin tomorrow. Here are some pictures. For sure a nice visual upgrade for the engine bay

Yves - I think your MAF sensor is installed in the wrong direction according to K&N. In the K&N directions it states that the opening of the MAF should face towards the filter - I believe that yours is facing the other way. I send an email to Vivid so that they could tell K&N that the precut bolt holes on their square adapter forces you to put the MAF in the way you have it. I ended up drilling new holes in the adapter to make it as they instructed....no CEL lights so far for me.....let us know how your test drive goes as I'm curious as to whether or not it matters which way to MAF sensor faces....

The sensor is installed in the correct direction (the opening in the MAF faces the filter). I was aware of this potential issue. Thanks for helping me remind though !

Yves - The reason it looked different is when I look at your wire harness coming out of the MAF, it looks like it comes out naturally from the right....when mine is installed (which I think is correct, and now I'm second guessing) the wire comes out from the left..... Similar to the pics that Dan from Vivid posted last week....I wonder if some of the sensors are different???

Very cool.. i heard if the MAF is not installed correctly you should get a CEL..

Oh, I see what you mean. I rotated the rubber boot on top of the wiring harness 180 degrees. Makes the install look way cleaner. Takes 10 seconds.

By the way - why didn't you install the dry charger ?

Ahhhh....didn't know you could move the rubber boot!!! Agreed, looks way cleaner.....learn something new every day! I didn't install the dry changer because I can't see the point to it...maybe it helps if you're in a downpour and water gets onto the filter, but like yourself, with the aero wing I don't really get alot of water landing on the filter itself...is there any other benefit to using it? Seems like it would make things even more restrictive?

Does the top of the box get sealed somehow when the lid is closed? Just wondering if the element is shielded from the engine bay or if it's open. Shawn

Does anyone know a place that currnetly has these in stock??? I really want one today.

Yves, When you have a moment please post your comments on performance.

Rain ingestion is actually a problem for the MAF sensor with a stock airbox and spoiler, not just with the aftermarket parts. For MY02 Porsche had Bosch redesign the airduct inside the HFM5 MAF. With the new design water/oil/etc. has to deflect off a wall before it can reach the sensor element and contaminate it. This changed the airflow-voltage output characteristic curve of the sensor and is one of the differences between an OEM aftermarket MAF and an OE MAF that you can buy at a dealer.

Initial observations : 1] Way better sound. When I bought the car it had bone stock intake and exhaust. 2 months ago I installed Fabspeeds. Added some sound, but too exhaust dominant for me (exhaust note was dominating the engine). Right now, with the air charger installed, the exhaust is dominant at lower rpm, but the engine sound takes over at higher rpm. Really beautiful, raspy note (more of a pre 996 flat six sound). 2] The car is less jerky. Seems to run way smoother. Just my personal opinion. Obviously no hard facts to prove my statements. Certainly worth the 300$ though

Congrats Yves!

WOW...! I'm REALLY impressed with K&N's marketing folks, referring to a less than useless and absolutely PASSIVE device as an Air Charger. Who cares if it's totally miss-leading advertising provided it is effective. The key to success in any marketplace is to find a need and fill that need. So I'm off today to design a sound synthesizer synchronized to engine RPM and throttle opening (engine LOAD) for a "deep-pockets" marketplace that is seeming willing to shorten engine life for SOUNDS.

Dan at Vivid Racing hooked me up also with this kit and wlee69 and I installed it last week. I have the same observations as Yves and also throttle response seems better. So far so good but we'll have to see in the long run.

Just finished the install on mine this afternoon. Besides the fact that there were a few nuts and boltz missing from the kit it is a pretty nice set up. So far it feels really good on the throttle and sounds great, can't wait to put some more miles on it.

who carries this item? I want one for my 99 Carrera 4...NOWW!!!!!

Got mine from vividracing.

I just bout this kit for my '99 C4 Cab, installed it and took it for a drive. There was a lot metal rubbing noise when I started it but it went away. Then it came back so I pulled over to investigate. It seems that the metal box that K&N designed to house the filter is about 1/4" too deep into the engine bay and it was rubbing the front of my a/c compressor pulley and some of the other two pulleys on the left side. I don't know why they went so close with the spacing? The only way to get around this problem would be to use metal snips and cut some of the lip off the front of the metal box to keep it further away from the face of the pulleys. Does anyone else have this problem?

Guys, help me out on this one. But is this filter drawing hot air from the engine bay? I don't see how it would see around the cone filter, or maybe it is not meant to and just draws in higher volume than stock.

This kit retains the stock "feeder tube" that pulls air in from outside and attempts to block off most of the air in the engine bay. They probably could have blocked off a little more of the engine bay, but I think most of the air coming in will be from outside the car.

the filter is located right under the engine fan so it probably pulls a lot of air from the hole in the engine lid above the fan.... if you can wire your fan to turn it on at your command that would mean pushing air cold outside air directly onto the filter!!

Is it an exhaust fan or an intake fan on the deck lid?

Good Question.. Not only that, but when does it activate?

Maybe it's both ?! It spins one direction to draw in air for performance, then the opposite direction to expel heat when necessary!

where do you guys find any outside cold air?? It is almost 100F outhere!!!

Unfortunately the fan exhausts hot engine compartment air to the outside. Put yer hand on top of the deck after driving hard and feel. Update: so it seems that according to a TSB that some of the cars with factory aero kits have the fan wired in reverse. Like I described above. It seems that all 996s with moveable wings suck in cold air. hmmm. Gonna have to go drive my car and get it warm to verify.

Yep, it does appear that the deck lid fan should be INTAKING cold air. Of course, I'm going to verify that mine is doing just so this weekend.

You can buy a kit here: http://www.ajusa.com/cgi-bin/knfilte...d3b24a70d0aa1e

I ordered mine from VIVIDRACING (DAN the MAN) It should be hear this week, looking forward.

Who else is selling these. I am about to buy from Vivid, but thought I would ask? thanks!

I just recieved mine today. How long should I anticipate the install to take? I have done many intakes before but not on a rear engine.

It could take 30 min...but you have to figure out what bolts to use where, and then drive to the hardware store for the missing pieces...

Installed the K&N last night. Instructions are very hard to follow but its pretty simple. So I take it out and the sound and response above are awesome. I would pay for the sound alone. On another note, I was testing it out around the lovely streets of Baltimore and hit a train track that was extra vicious causing a large bubble in my brand new Perrelli Rosso. Sweet.

A few questions about the K&N 63 series: 1) Does the filter need to be oiled? 2) Those who have installed the intake, do they leave the sock on the filter? 3) Is there any difference in installation between Tip or Manual? Thanks!

1. No, K&N filters always come oiled (at least ALL that I have ever seen). 2. I did not, but does not mean you should not also. 3. I can not see how there would be, but I do not absolutely know.

I'm selling mine. Please PM me if interested.

Though I haven't installed one, I did read the manual and there IS a difference between installation on manual and Tiptronic. For the latter, you need to drill a hold in the air housing between the filter and the throttle body for the automatic's vacuum tube. The instructions seem to detail it pretty well.

Yves, Why are you selling?

See other post. For some of us the kit doesn't work (ABS and PSM lights come on).

Now I am worried after reading the thread about PSM & ABS light, or MAF issues due to K&N CAI. Wonder if I should cancel my order?

How much do you want for the intake? You can pm me if you want to sell. thanks.

I was planning on getting one - I put on one the Overland and it is awesome - but I keep hearing - from folks who know their stuff (P-Car mechanics for 25+ years) - that it could cause a problem with sensors due to it affecting/revising air density. Huh? I want the sound, so if it won't goof up the car and cause CEL attacks, I'll end up doing it.

There are plenty of posts pro and against this type of mod, but not much on this specific product. When I looked around at a few of the options, this one seemed to combine characteristics of EVOMS Carrera V-Flow Air Intake, Fabspeed 996 Cold Air Kit and a heat shield to offset some of the hot air coming from the engine compartment. (Not saying that it's better than those, just that it has similar properties.) It is my belief that much of your results will depend on how you drive, where you drive, and how well you maintain your 911. I recently had my K&N Aircharger installed and have the Drycharger sheath in place as it is supposed to keep fine particles out of the filter and ultimately your engine. You'll need to keep the factory airbox as this solution is NOT designed for extreme weather conditions. When I checked in with their tech support, they re-iterated the harsh weather paragraph in the installation instructions. I'll be doing my best at keeping the engine bay as dry as possible. (Depending on where you live, this may not be feasible.) So far driving with this mod is a HOOT! I am noticing minor fuel efficiency gains (.8-1.0 MPG) when driving under the 3k RPM mark, while punching it over 3.5k makes the engine come ALIVE! (Punching it will take away all aforementioned minor fuel savings and then some. Then again, we're not buying this for fuel savings, are we.) Have not blown anything up yet, nor have I encountered any mass glitches showing up on the dash. Only advice I have for now is...if you're feeling uneasy about it, don't do it. Wait for suckers like me to be your guinea pigs. Why did I take the plunge? Felt like taking a chance. I take very good care of my 996 and intend to continue tweaking a few bits here and there. Will keep you posted if this doesn't pan out. Hopefully I have better luck than Yves' 30 days. SpeedPhreak (Newbie) ----- 2002 996 C2 Coupe - (B&M SSK, K&N Aircharger)

The funny thing about Tech's and Mechanics with 25+ years experience is all they do is fix cars (vs. performance racing which is totally different and not work a general mechainc can even do, contrary to their popular belief) with problems. When a car comes in with a bad maf and it has a K&N on it, then it must be the K&N that caused the problem. But the 10,000 other cars out there with no problems they don't see, somehow don't exist. It was definately the K&N that caused the problem because they see it on the car and the maf is bad. I couldn't ever possibly be the stock MAF thats causing the problem, nooo wayyyy.. In case you don't know already, I'm a Performance Mechanic on many types of cars. I build 1000whp Supra's 700hp honda's and DSM's Rotarys etc etc.. Not much porsche work but thats besides the point. The work we do is totally different than general mechanics. When a new guys starts who was a general mechanic at a repair shop before, they are generally totally lost and are as only slightly less useless than an average home mechanic with limited experience. General mechanics always think that aftermarket equipment is the cause of the problems that cars seems to have. Sometimes it is true, however many times it's not really. K&N's can screw up your maf if you WAY over oil the filter after cleaning then yeah, it's gonna get on the sensor and screw it up. Is that the filters fault or yours for being over zealous with the spray oil? There are lots of things like that which cause problems, then guys blame it on the aftermarket part. There are a lot of instances when you do a performance mod and you get a CE light days afterwards, so it's that mod that caused the problem. Not the fact that your driving around like a total bananna because you want to hear your new intake or blow off valve that caused the light etc etc...

The simple fact is that the intake side of the 996 engine isn't a limiting factor on performance. These kits don't add any performance under 99% of driving conditions (the 1% being some spirited highway driving at high speed), and a lot of the time actually take away performance due to sucking in hot engine compartment air. The only time this would really help you is if you have a dedicated track car, you've changed your exhaust, and also had your ECU remapped. Otherwise, it's just sucking in hot air most of the time. As for these causing MAF issues, it's a very well known problem. It's not only these kits, but putting any oiled filter in the 996 has a long history of causing MAF problems.

That simply is not true. If you have spent any time tuning or dynoing a car you would understand why and how this is not the way an engine works.. You do not need to re-map the ecu on a car or add headers for an intake to work. This is as old as the thought needing backpressure on a normally aspirated engine to make hp. It's not true and proven over and over on a dyno. Your ECU has two modes, open and closed loop. Do a search on google for how and ecu works in Open loop and it may help you to understand how simply adding a properly designed intake to a car can add hp. Simply adding an intake to the car will make HP over a particular range (generally upper) during all driving conditions, not 1% where do you get that? I can post up a dyno for 50 different cars where only an intake alone made HP gains. My eagle talon picked up 22whp from an intake alone. 17hp from 3" exhaust. I make 424whp on pump gas at 22psi of boost though AWD (Built motor 9:1, comp cams, T3/T4 50trim and some tuning on 660cc injectors). I have built and tuned everything you can think of an adding a well designed intake to any car will pick up some power, as a matter of fact there are almost no instances where adding an intake has not made at least some power over even a small range on just about any car you can think of. Even the Honda S2000 with 2.0L and 240hp made 9.5hp between 6200-8500rpm with an AEM intake and no other modifications. Thats 120hp / liter which is a pretty strung out engine by any standards and it still made power. I don't disagree totally that this particular intake may not work on the 996, I have never tested one, however there will be something out there that will work with the proper engineering. Factory design is compromised with thing like noise restrictions and warranty, and lasting 100,000k etc.. If you take all those other factors out and make it nothing but HP, the design would be totally different and gains could be made. Thats where the aftermarket comes in. Regards,

I've been reading this thread and then walked into my garage, opened the hatch and looked at my stock intake system. I had just driven the car and noticed that the entire system is very warm to the touch (thank you captain obvious!). This got me thinking about the whole cold air intake system argument. What I'm wondering is if anyone has tried to thermally isolate the OE intake system (i.e. wrap it in metal backed dynamat as a heat shield and insulator) and if so, would insulating this system to reduce radiated heat temperature in the intake passage produce any positive effects since the outside air coming in through the wing, in theory, wouldn't be travelling through as warm an intake system thus creating a true cold air intake system. I know the shield, if done right, would help reduce the temperature of the airbox and its parts, what I don't know is if it would net any legitimate performance gains when used in conjunction with a high quality OE replacement filter. I know this may seem like a "cheesy" project but it seems to me that any "cold air" system is still at the temperature mercy of its surroundings since a hot intake system would heat the air anyway unless you had a way to keep the heat out of the system to begin with. E

If you really have that much experience then you should know that every car is different. The 996 is not limited by the intake side of the system. I agree that the power from an intake mod generally comes in the upper end of the RPM range. My 1% figures comes from the fact that hot engine compartment air is getting sucked in most of the time so hence you'll probably lose power most of the time. What does an Eagle Talon or Honda S2000 have to do with a naturally aspirated 996? Every car is totally different. You can only compare apples to apples. Again, the intake side of the 996 is not a limiting factor in making HP. The Porsche engineers didn't take tens of thousands of hours to design this car and then implement a design on the intake side of the engine that limits HP.

Users of this system said it was drawing air from outside the engine compartment like the stock system though the stock air intake tube with that shield on the top. That should isolate it and at speed give it cold air with a freeer flowing system. Yeah every car is different however there are gains to be made on every car which is why in racing you rarely see OE stuff unless the class rules restrict it then they try and modify it even then . Even in certian cars drawing in more air even if it's hotter than before will still make more power based only on volume. I doubt this would be the case on a 996 however the stock air box is compromised with other variables like sound, size warranty etc.. [/quote]What does an Eagle Talon or Honda S2000 have to do with a naturally aspirated 996? Every car is totally different. You can only compare apples to apples. Again, the intake side of the 996 is not a limiting factor in making HP. The Porsche engineers didn't take tens of thousands of hours to design this car and then implement a design on the intake side of the engine that limits HP.[/QUOTE] Talon nothing, S2000 a lot. It's a high strung NA engine much the same as a 996 NA motor is. Engineered to be all that it can be. The S2000 picks up power with a system properly engineered, so the 996 should be able to as well if somebody puts in the time to do it. You keep saying that the intake is not the limiting factor which I agree however that doens't mean that you can make up some ground with the intake. You wont make 15hp but even 5hp is worth getting. When you build a race car you don't worry about 10 hp and 100lbs you fight for 1 hp and 10oz of weight, thats what makes them fast. If you go after power and weight the same on a street car you can have a very fast car with little loss in daily drivability and reliability. Simply stating that its only 1% of the time and not worth it means your not interested in going fast which is cool. Just don't try and stop others who may want that. If they do the intake and exhaust and chip etc.. they may only get 15hp more than you, if they shave 100lbs of stuff outta the car big deal. But guess what, the car is faster and handles better now because of that. To some enthusiasts it's worth the money and trouble. Thats all!

I have one for sell if anyone is interested. I installed it, took the car a spin and heard a grinding noise. I had the same problem Melchior referred to in post #20. I thought it was from being rear ended last November. The stock air box was damaged the same way. It took two trips back to the body shop to fix the rubbing problem. The heat shield is gouged from rubbing on the pulleys but is functional and you can�t see the damage when it is installed. Send me a PM if interested in buying this at a savings. Lee

Why not just add a BMC or K&N replacement freer flowing air filter in the stock airbox? Totally sealed off from the hot air of the engine compartment and a freer flowing filter?