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      04-11-2012, 06:49 PM   #1
BQTuning
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aFe N54 Stage 2 Sealed CAI # 54-82002 - Review

Part 1

This post will serve as my journal and review of the aFe N54 Stage 2 SI or Sealed Intakepart # 54-82002. You might want to subscribe to this post so in order to keep you updated with the progression on this intake. There will be many parts to this review.

Today, 04/11/2012, I received my aFe Stage 2 SI via UPS. I saw this huge box and was almost afraid to left it cause I thought it was going to have some weight to it. I was suprise the box was light, too light, and I wondering if UPS jacked me for my intake



Well it seems UPS didnt jack me, everything was in the box as expected. One of my cats weight mroe than this thing...hehe



The box is solid when everything is assembled. The thickness of the structure is acceptable, I think even better than the stock structure.



As I begin to take this intake apart, i notice something. ITS NOT TRUELY SEALED ! There is no sealing around the external parts that can be seperated:



This intake serves more as an "enclosure" rather than it being "sealed" intake. Now the only reason I can see it was designed like this is to allow some sort of "passive" airflow from the stock snorkel.

For those of us with tuned cars this is not good, as there will be significant preasure loss from the stock snorkel, mixed with heat from the engine bay that will be "sucked" into these unsealed slots.

However, there is an easy fix for this. Just get some sealing tape and problem resolved and I will have a true "SEALED" intake like the Dinan and Mr 5 setup up. In part two of my review I will show the parts that can be easily sealed up with sealing tape and make it look proffessional.

If the design intent was to allow some sort of passive air flow then the option to remove the secondary inlet plug would have been the solution instead:



This secondary inlet leaves alot of potential for this intake if harnest correctly, but first, properly sealing the box is a MUST before installing this intake in a tunned car running significantly more boost over stock.

This filter and intake inlet are firm and sturdy "together". There is a metal brace in the filter to prevent the filter from collapsing from high PSI. The open mouth of the inlet that connects to the turbo inlets adds support to the filter also.



After taking eveything apart the box itself stood sturdy by itself. the stock box is thinner and harder, the aFe box is thicker with some flex to it making it hard to break. You can run a truck over this box and it will not break. If you do that with a stock box it will break into pieces.



The glossy internal is a coating to keep heat out and easy transistion of air and cleaning. the inlet for the turbo inlets also has this coating and as you can see there is nothing but smooth curves in the inlet



This concludes my Part 1 review of the aFe Stage 2 intake for the N54 motor. Next I will be a dyno run with stock intake, then the installation of the aFe intake after I have sealed it up. I will post pics of all of this or perhaps a video of the sealing. So back into the box it goes until this friday



Click HERE to go to Part 2

Last edited by BQTuning; 04-21-2012 at 01:01 PM..
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