TJ's XR5 gets it's first bolt-on mod!

[Tj-zetec]

Just this weekend i picked up a second hand K&N 57i Gen2 CAI kit, and against my better judgement decided to install it on a week night after work rather than wait till the weekend where i'd have more time and more light. To make it seem like a dumber idea still, i have an almost broken thumb.... long story, but i can hardly hold a pen let alone a spanner.
Regardless however, my impatience took over and it went in tonight, with out much hassle either. That's not to say there weren't any issues at all. If there weren't it'd be sure sign I'd stuffed up and left something out.

The hardest part was, unsurprisingly, getting the airbox out. The instructions from K&N do an ok job of telling you how, but left a few bits out. Oh and none of this was aided by the fact that I ignored parts of it and decided to do it my way

For example, the instructions suggest that you jack the car up, pull the bottom tray off, half unbolt the radiator allowing it to drop down to give you enough room to pull the airbox out. "Bollocks to that!" I vaguely remember saying. I'd read posts on here from guys saying they got their's out with out dropping the radiator and decided that that's how I was gonna do it.

Shoulda dropped the radiator.


Not that it matters too much, I did get it out the top. Someone in another thread on the XR5 forums suggested that once you have it free, you slide it across to the passenger side and then rotate it up and out.
I spent the first five minutes trying to slide it over to the drivers side while swearing at it and wondering why it wouldn't budge.

After retrieving training from kindergarten I remembered my right from left and slid it over to the correct side of the engine bay and started to rotate it (anti clockwise and up towards yourself for those watching at home) at which point the bottom of the airbox became jammed between the block and the thermofan
I again swore at it and questioned my dexterous orientation while ham-fisting the airbox around the engine bay trying desperately not to fuggin break anything.
Eventually I worked out that, in my haste/excitement in remembering my left from right, I had pulled the airbox too far over to the passenger side. After nudging it back a little toward centre it did indeed rotate up and out, ECU and MAS attached

I also noticed that the ECU loom is attached to the bottom of the airbox. The instructions didn't mention that. Wasn't at all hard to detatch, simply undo one screw and slide it off the clip. They also say to fit the pod filter from underneath the car, but it's a stack easier to pop the headlight out. although, i couldn't get the plug out. Having a functioning opposable thumb may have helped.

The rest of the install was a breeze from then on in.

There were a few things I thought could have been a little better however;
For a start the foam seals for the ECU and MAS seemed a bit cheap and bodgy compared to the nice rubber ones in the original airbox that had a good seat for them to seal against.
Also, the part of the ECU loom mentioned earlier has nothing to attach to. It just sort of hangs there, there's nowhere to really cable tie it too either.
And there's a coolant return line that is a little in the way. I'd like to see how a few other people installed them to check where they put that hose.


As for gains, the Buttdyno approves! but the Buttdyno ain't silly either. The car has been noticeably down lately and I think the ECU reset alone has made an improvement. Plus the air filter was horrendous (see the attached picture) I don't think it got changed at the last service which was about 2000 kms and two and a half months ago
The car does definitely have more pull in the higher revs. A lot more. It revs more freely too. The change light went off in first more in the half hour "Italian test drive" tonight than it has since dreamscience went on about six months ago (btw, is it supposed to go off on all gears or just first?)

Induction noise wasn't as increased as I was expecting. In fact it wasn't until I wound the windows up that I noticed that it was louder at all! The turbo definitely whistles a lot louder now too. The induction sound has changed a little too, a bit deeper and gruntier (I notice these things in my car because my zorst is stock)

A small issue came up though. I noticed while driving home that with a light amount of throttle (only at a certain amount though) the car surges a little. It feels as though the turbo can't decide wether to boost or not. I remember it happening when I first ran DS but haven't felt it lately. Was pretty noticeable tonight. It may be a case of my driving style. I do a lot of heavy traffic driving going too and from work so that'll smoke out the issue hopefully (it also probably explains the improvement reseting the ECU made. Might make that a regular thing)

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I've added a few bodgy photos down the bottom.


Now all I need to do is reset the anti-trap on the windows Read the manual and tried it but ran out of patience for tonight.


Before... Damn, I really need to clean my engine bay.



The condition of my airbox and filter! :

After.