Good news is, I scraped the universal intake and got one built for the protege. Its a short ram system from Cosmo Racing. I am having some problems tho. After I installed it, Im having some issues when accelerating. The first thing I noticed was that when I start the car, if I drop the pedal to the floor, it dosent rev up, it just gets a raspy tone to it. After I play with the pedal a little it revs up like normal. The seccond thing I noticed is that the acceleration isn't steady at all. When I stomp the gas at a stop light, my car accelerates slowly until it hits about 20 and than accelerates quickly to redline @ about 30. Second gear dosent have much power until it hits 45. When I looked at the MAF, I realized I dont realy know what it should look like. I do suspect that the MAF has something to do with it but I dont know what.If anyone could help, Id realy appreciate it.

~Greg~

PS. Its a 2000 Protege DX 1.6L 4cyl

 

Are you sure everything is hooked up tight? I remember when i first threw in a k&n drop in air filter i didn't secure the airbox correctly =p. Thought the new sound i heard was from the filter, it was from the airbox rattling . Make sure everythings hooked up tight and see if it subsides? I'm not aware of a short ram from Cosmo Racing for 1.6 either alls i've seen is the Weapon R. Make sure it's the right intake for the 1.6 also.

 

sounds like a leak somewhere in the intake. basically, air is making it into the intake behind the MAF which means that the engine isn't metering the air that is getting into the engine and it is running lean. it corrects this at certain RPM's because the MAP sensor and o2 sensor will fix the problem. everything needs to be tight and the MAF needs to be oriented correctly. it has an arrow that shows the direction of the air flow. also, if the intake has a place for the VSS, put the VSS in there. that could be the leak that is causing the problem. also, check to see if there is a place for the line from the intake to the valve cover. you could also be losing air there.

 

First off, thanks for the feedback. Second... I checked over everything like 10 times to see if there was an air leak. Nothing in the vacume line is loosing air, and i think if i tighten the rings around the throttle body or intake anymore, they might break. Everthing is as secure as it gets. And yes, Im 100% sure this short ram was made for my car (unless they stated that incorrectly). The only thing I can think of is the MAF sensor. its hooked in as tight as its getting, the seal is fine, but it just dosent seem to be working. Could someone describe what I should see when I look at the MAF wires. it looks like two wires droping down, witha little brownish black tear drop at the bottom. Is that brownish black thig supposed to be there? I cant find pictures of it anywhere. Thanks for any and all help!

~Greg~

 

you said in the other thread that the VSS in your car was just hanging? is there a place for it in the intake? if there is, and it's not there, that is the problem. if there isn't, hanging is fine.

yes, that is what the MAF is supposed to look like. i know that it looks dirty or funny, but trust me, don't mess with it. the wires in the maf are very sensitive and it will cause problems if you mess with them too much.

it shouldn't matter much whether or not the intake is for your car, just as long as it fits.

 

yea... my vss is hanging. There is a little bracket on the SRI but its just a U-shaped pice of metal. Way to long for just that. I bolted the iece attached to the VSS onto it but the VSS itself is hanging.

Im staring to think that maybe something in my ECU is screwed up. My check engine light is on, but it has been for a long @$$ time. I dont like taking my car to the mechanic cuzz I always get a run arround. maybe I'll invest in a chip reader.

 

ok...i have the same car as you w/ the same intake...for 1 i had a hell of a time trying to install it...i thought that they sent me the wrong one at first...anyways....you wont have power if you just romp on it at a low rpm....its dumb like that...thats why manuals are the way to go...but if you could post a pic of how you set up your intake because i'm not sure that i recieved the right one....but as for your problem...thats just what happens w/ your intake....it will just take some getting used to

 

Well... when I got the intake, The only modification I had to do was cut the coupling from the Throttle body to the intake in half, and I had to cut the vacume line to size as well.

As far as on the car inself, I had to reverse the mounting bracket for the coolant tank. That was easy cuzz after the stock intake was uninstalled, I had like 4 different screw hole to work with. I just spun it around and shifted it down one screw then attached it with onescrew instead of 2.

Some good news. I do feel like a dumb @$$ but i checked my oil, and i was running on nothing. Droped in a few quarts and now its running alot smoother.

On the flip side, my check engine light now blinks. Im going to reset the ECU to see if it goes away with the added oil, but im sure it will still be there. I'll just end up having to take it to the mechanic to have it read and corrected.