Cheapo Ebay Intake Review

[englishjim]

This is my first post here so if its in the wrong place, ive insulted anyone or even repeated something hopefully the moderators will move this. So Hello everyone.

 

In the middle of summer I aquired a non running 92 pathfinder from a neighbour who started it as a project and just couldnt get it going. After spending my free time fixing someone elses problems I did manage to get it going but the engine sounded like a bag of hammers being thrown down an elevator shaft. One of the most irritating problems was the intake which seemed to have more tiny splits and holes than swiss cheese. In the end it was more tape than intake. While looking for a replacement part I came across INSYS-USA intakes on Ebay. Less than $50 delivered, so I looked them up and the reviews were acceptable, after all it was $50 and used replacement parts run around $25 or more without an airtight guarentee. After all the rubber at this age could be perishing or split. So I just took a chance.

The Good

Shipping was quick (3 days to the Rockies) and it was packed well. You can see from the pictures that it was cosmetically quite nice looking as a kit and have everything you need. The alloy pipe is smooth and well finished with a dropped flair to tilt the filter down (although I did not use this and may cut it down. The alloy pipe does not feel luxuriously thick, but is sturdy and wont flex under hand strength. The welds are acceptable, without pin holes and seem even enough. The (im guessing here) silicon end pieces are chunky and secure. The filter is generic - A good inspection showed no pin holes or gaps or splits. How well does it filter? I have no way of knowing and I wont even hazard a guess. Im going to use it for now.

The Bad and The Ugly

The coupling between the MAF sensor and silicon was not to the same quality as the rest of the kit. For one it was slightly warped and was not flush. The drilled holes did not quite line up and had a lot of swarf - less than 5 minutes with some sand paper sorted that out (see pix). The real problem was how warped the base plate was, I had no option but to make a gasket out of cardboard and paste - cork gasket material would be much better but I was out. I think with the thin alloy the heat from the welding buckled the plate, to include a gasket would have been a wise decision for INSYS to have made, but no. Never the less it was only $45 dollars delivered and for less than 20 cents of sealent and cardbord I can live with it.

The Universal Mounting Kit - its just a couple of strips of aluminium with a few holes drilled that you bend and twist to get it to fit. Surprisingly it works very well, just looks a bit flimsy.

Installing:

It took me less than 45 minutes to remove the old intake, sand the coupling, make the gasket, assemble and install. It fits perfectly and looks good.

Does it work? Well it works for me. My Pathy no longer surges, stalls and reves all over the place so for me it was money well spent. Does it add horses? My truck is still running badly so I dont have a difinitive answer for you but it comes without a shroud so I can only assume it will suck in hot air from the engine bay. In addition the main pipe is aluminium and will no doubt act as a heat sink, but these are small things easily fixable with a bit of heat tape, alloy plate and a few hours of work.

 

Personally I love it. Now for headers.

[edicer2]

i have the same intake they must of lowered their standard on it mine worked out perfectly and i noticed a decent gain in response along with the added swoosh noise! My only con i had was that i had to make a bracket to support the filter end it seemed to sag a bit and i didnt want it to be stressing stuff or have anything hit the belts. I would recommend it for anyone that just drives the street. I would no recommend it for people who plan on submerging their engine bay.

[englishjim]

Yep, I think a shroud should help though. Just trying to sort out the picture thing.

[edicer2]

o yeah use photobucket and copy the IMG link in here and it works perfect!

[c00lkatz]

I just recently installed the same intake. I posted this in the stickied thread above regarding custom intakes, so I'm just going to quote it here:

 

Got the eBay intake installed. Fitment was what you'd expect from a $50 intake. The adapter didn't line up perfectly (the bolt holes are way off but still line up)' date=' and the couplers and blue hose are quite soft as stated above. The adapter came in with one corner bent, which I had to bend back, and the filter looks to be a cheapie. The support bracket had to be bent into the correct shape according to their picture as it was just a straight piece of aluminum stock with a couple holes drilled in it. Luckily it was soft and easy to bend/twist to get it mounted correctly. The plastic hose barbs are kind of crappy, and even though they have threads, they're just kind of pushed in. Might be prone to leaking. All in all, I had to bend up the bracket, use some silicone on the hose barbs and MAF adapter to make sure they didn't leak, and extended the vacuum lines with new hose to get around using the crappy stuff they provided. It does seem to be a noticeable gain, throttle response is better and it seems to accelerate smoother (I have a custom 2.5" exhaust with a Magnaflow and came from a fresh stock paper filter). The growl is a nice touch (as with any cone style intake). No data on MPG as I literally just installed it a couple hours ago. All-in-all you really can't beat it for $52. Now I did just order a K&N cone filter for $42 to replace the $10 crappy one they give you, so now I'm about $94 into it. Still not bad for a "K&N" short ram intake, especially considering most anything you buy bolt-on from one of the major companies is usually $200-350.[/quote']

[englishjim]

Is there a way to load pictures without a photobucket account? I have been looking... Coolkatz I quite agree with your review, 200 to 350 for a pipe? I can face $50, or spending a bit more to make my own but without a shroud its kind of pointless - thats my next project. Where did you mount/aim yours?

Edited October 27, 2011 by englishjim

[c00lkatz]

^^^ ImageShack ... no account necessary!

 

Here are a couple pics:

 

The Money Shot

 

Here you can see the plastic couplers and my attempt to seal them with some RTV silicone gasket maker...not pretty but doesn't leak!

 

Here you can see the MAF adapter and how I had to seal it up as well...again not pretty but doesn't leak!

 

And finally here is where I just did my own thing with fresh hose I had laying around...better than the crap they wanted you to do

 

I did test all fittings/adapters with the old carb cleaner trick to make sure there were not intake leaks, and so far so good. The filter pictured is the original filter that came with the kit. My K&N is supposed to arrive at 4WheelParts (about 5 minutes away, lucky me!) on Thursday or Friday. The filter they give you looks to be a dry filter, no oil. It does seem to flow pretty well, but can't comment on how well it filters. Insys wants you to use the crappy blue hose they sent along with the stock brass elbow from your original intake tube to hook up their hose to the original...well that didn't work AT ALL, so I decided to cut some fresh hose I had laying around and give it a more "professional" look. Eventually I will replace the couplers as well. The couplers are the only blue in my engine bay and it is quite "loud" if you know what I mean. Also, I do plan to get some grommets and metal couplers to finish off the hose routing vs the crappy plastic they give you. I will get to that eventually but it works for now.

 

One thing really irks me, though...they went through the trouble to weld the bottom left-hand nipple on, but give you crappy plastic couplers for the other two connections. Why not just weld a couple nipples for them as well? Hell charge a little more if cost is that important. At only $52 they have plenty of room to mark it up a few bucks instead of sacrificing quality!

Edited October 27, 2011 by c00lkatz

[englishjim]

I guess that the market is a bit small to invest a lot of money into for a small return from the few dozen they would sell. Never the less I quite like mine and love the convienience and I was suprised when everything lined up. Now I just need to get the engine running right.

[c00lkatz]

Yeah for the money you really can't beat it. I'm still very pleased with the system overall...except for the filter...got my new K&N!

 

The K&N filter definitely flows better. I just picked it up about an hour ago and installed it in the parking lot. Everything feels better, from the flow across the filter, to the smoothness of acceleration and throttle response, to the whooshing sound, which has gotten louder. I couldn't even hardly hear the intake sucking up air from the driver's seat before except for hard acceleration, but now I can rev it from the driver's seat and hear the whooshing clearly. It was definitely worth the extra $42! Now as for filtering, you know how that goes. If it flows better, chances are it filters worse lol.

 

The part# I got was RE-0950, for anyone wondering. It's just a tad larger than the Insys filter, with a longer flange, closed end-cap, and a slight tilt which really helps direct the filter where you want it. I decided on the closed rubber end cap to help keep crap from getting into it from behind the headlight, as I've had bad experiences in the past with the chrome end-caps scratching and rusting up. Of course, it wasn't a K&N that happened on, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I would definitely suggest you pick up a K&N for this intake, if not now, then at least when it comes time to clean/replace the Insys.

Edited October 28, 2011 by c00lkatz