well, i just got off the phone with a gentle man over at AEM about 15 minutes ago, and lo and behold, supposedly the intake for our car is available now.

What i was told exactly is that the polished (looks like chrome) is on the shelf, and the red, blue, and silver will be ready next week.

So everyone that has been waiting for this, we are almost there. Mine has been on order for over 2 months now, so i will be getting mine as soon as they hit my distributors shelves.

 

checked the website. Says it's a CAI, sells for $440 msrp available soon.

 

yes, its a cai, it will definately sell for much less than 440, i have seen a pre production pic of it and it looks beastly. i will be posting pics, impressions, and what not as soon as i get it.

 

hey i just installed my intake today, it sounds pretty freaking beautiful. installation was time consuming though, front bumper is a serious pain. only con is worry about driving it in the rain, but overall still satisfied with it, post pics later

 

which intake?

 

i installed the aem one

 

haha wsup john... so you finally got it? how's it sound with ur midpipe and exhaust?

worth the long wait? how much u pay?

 

it sounds bomb, i think it was worth the wait, but i still gotta dyno it, see what kind of numbers i'm pulling with it. i paid 330, probably could've gotten it cheaper, but i thought it was a still alright price. once i have some time, i'll post a clip

 

What does your butt dyno say? Please post pics too!

 

i am assuming you go the polished one?

 

yea, i got the polished one

http://img.mypicgallery.com/johnnyle...0275_large.jpg

that's the filter, sorry it's kinda of a bad pic, i had to rush when i was putting it on, so i didn't take any pictures with the bumper off, but as you know, the filter comes all the way right behind the front grill

http://img.mypicgallery.com/johnnyle...0276_large.jpg

let me figure out how to post videos and i'll post those later

 

just me or does it look crooked in the second pic?

 

That could just be the direction is has to go. If I can recall the way the stock intake is designed, I don't believe it should be a straight line. I could be wrong though. I'm more interested in driving impressions than how straight it is though.

 

What will happen when water gets into an intake?

Well, it looks like it will get wet during heavy down pour!

 

well it has a bypass valve I think that aem now includes with most intakes they sell that stops water from entering to the engine. Not sure if it's a very effective method or not.

How is your idle johnny? I know aem cold air intakes have a very distinct humming noise, sounds nice

 

sweet you think you can get some sound clips?

 

do you have volks on your car?

 

idle is still pretty quiet, but there is this high pitch humming noise, i personally like it, i don't know exactly how to load videos, so if someone wants to teach me, i can put up a clip

 

naw, volks are baller status, not quite there yet, maybe down the line

 

I thought the stock intake on the car was a CAI to begin with?

Man that is one exposed and obvious intake...I think I could definitely kiss my warranty for any engine parts goodbye if I showed up at my dealership with that under the hood.

 

Yeah, stock is CAI, but it sucks its air in from a duct directly under the mazda emblem. Its sorta open under there, but it really cant benefit from air rushing on it as the car moves.

The benefits of this one are simply a direct source of fresh air.

 

You might want to develop some sort of shield to block the air from directly hitting the filter. This tends to cause excessive turbulence, and also results in rapidly degrading filter media. A simple metal shield helps prevent this from occuring.

The AEM bypass valves btw, can show upwards of a 5 whp loss on the dyno. They work, but they also eliminate most of the intake gains =/.

 

actually, if you look at his second pic, there is no bypass valve there. yes, the bypass does cause some power loss, but does protect the motor. but i dont think it's really necessary on our cars as the filter is so high. the reason a bypass is needed is when the filter is so low to the ground you can actually submerge the filter and turn your motor into a wet vac.

 

I'm getting mine installed tomorrow! It's been on order for around 2 months! finally!

 

lol, dont feel bad, mine has been on order since end of april,