APEXi Intake Install

This intake from A'PEXi is available only in Japan at this time.  I had a contact ship one over from Japan and had someone translate the directions for me since they were only in Japanese.  For the most part the install went pretty easily.  I had only one concern and that was the PCV-looking valve that wasn't covered in the Japanese diagrams.  I ended up doing test runs with that valve uncovered and covered and the car performed better with the valve covered.  I'll check with Toyota and see exactly what that valve does and if there are any long-term ramifications.  This also makes me wonder if the Japanese cars have this valve.  Performance?  Oh, you didn't think that I'd leave that out did you? WOW! is about all I can say, I was shocked to see how restricted that airflow into the stock engine really is.  The car has more pull throughout the power band and I believe would benefit even more if I opened up the exhaust.  The sound is favorable as well.  At idle the car is the same, but under medium to heavy throttle the car develops a low tone growl which I found to be great!  All in all I am pleased with this item and give it an 8 out of 10 because I want to check on that PCV valve.  If everything is kosher long-term with the valve, then I could easily give this a 10 out of 10.  The following pictures show the installation process.

UPDATE - 4/2001
I realized I never came back and updated this article, so here's the scoop.  The PCV looking thing is actually part of the pollution control stuff and is designed to vent the gas tank.  You can't plug this or else the gas tank isn't vented and you will have a very hard time filling your tank.  Others who have purchased the Apexi have chosen to tap into the metal tube and then attach the rubber hose from the valve to the tube.  I took a slightly different approach shown in photos at the end of this article.  I punched a hole in the rubber tube that connects the metal tube and metal collar together and inserted the valve at this location.  I put a small amount of grease around the hole as I inserted the valve because I made the hole smaller than the valve and wanted to make sure I had a good seal.  Everything seems to work great.  Tapping into the metal tube is probably a more professional way of doing it, but I didn't have anything to tap in with so I went my own route and it ended up working fine.  See the new pictures at the end of the pictures below.

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Here is the box with the part number right there on the front!

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Here are all the parts taken out of the box.

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Removing the old air box. BTW, the directions say to disconnect the battery, I did not and could find no reason to do so.

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Slide the top of the box out through this opening.  Be sure to disconnect all the hoses that are merely clamped and routed along the airbox.

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This is where the PCV valve looking thing mounts to the lid of the airbox.

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I believe this is called an air-mass sensor.  There are two phillips screws, although the kit came with replacement screws I re-used the factory screws.

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Be very careful taking this sensor out, there is an o-ring that you don't want to damage. Disconnect the wiring harness to the sensor and set it aside.

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The wiring harness is clipped to the airbox, I used these clamps to squeeze the plastic together and slide it out, a pair of needle nose pliers should do the trick as well.

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The airbox lid removed from the car.  This opening is much bigger than the actual intake opening in the feeder tube to the airbox.

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Here I am taking out the bolt in the bottom of the airbox and pointing at the other bolt that needs to be removed to take out the lower portion of the airbox.

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Here is the lower portion of the airbox removed from the car. Again, if it doesn't slide out easily it means there are hoses clamped to it as they feed along the side of the box, just disconnect them from the box.

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You tell me, how much air can get through this tube? The opening on the small end is very small!  Remove this tube.

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Here you can see the tube disconnected and the body bracket that the lower portion of the airbox was bolted to.  You will re-use that spot on the body to attach the lower Apexi bracket.

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This is the tube to the engine, the directions say to cover it with tape, but I took my chances and no birds flew inside while I was working on the car!.  The PCV valve thing can be seen to the lower left of the tube.

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Mount the rubber spacer tube to the cast aluminum tube that serves as a mounting point for the mass sensor.  Note on the bottom there is an arrow to indicate air flow direction, don't have this backwards! :)

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Here is the cast aluminum tube and spacer attached to the factory tube.  The kit includes the clamps you will need.

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Attach the air mass sensor to the aluminum tube.  I re-used the factory screws but the kit contains 2 new ones.  Be sure that this seats all the way down or you will have leaks.

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Attach the air filter element to the chrome tube.  There are 4 holes that line up.  You will use 2 short screws and 2 long screws.

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The reason you use two long screws is because of the two steel mounting brackets that are attached.  DO NOT put the brackets in this location, this was incorrect, a later picture shows the proper holes.

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This picture shows the proper mounting holes.  The lower bracket is attached and the upper bracket is off with the hole showing where it will mount.  I found it easier to put this in the engine compartment with only the lower bracket attached.

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Here the upper bracket can be seen and the bolt and nut that hold the bracket to the body and where to mount it.  If these brackets don't line up, you've done something wrong.

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The lower bracket mounts to the mounting point where the lower half of the stock airbox was mounted.  The bolt has not been inserted yet in the photo to better show the location.

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The PCV like valve is shown here with nothing connected to it since this used to go into the top of the stock airbox.  I found that covering this valve with a plug provided better performance.

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Here it is, completely mounted on the other side of the heat shield!

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Removing the airbox opened up more space in the engine compartment for airflow around the engine, hopefully this will help cool operating conditions.

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As you can see the heat shield is still intact, but air can now flow freely through the compartment.

After taking a couple of performance runs, I checked out the temperature at the filter element and it was not too hot to touch, thus I think that cool enough air is getting into the engine (outside temp was 80 degrees).  Also, some small amount of air will still be coming through the stock feeder tube into the area of the new A'PEXi performance tube.
You can discuss the A'PEXi intake here: A'PEXi

UPDATED PICTURES

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