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As the title says, I finally received my Injen hot and cold charge pipes. When I purchased my CAI from Injen, I was told they would be doing an intercooler and charge pipes for the Bronco. The mock they had at Seema were chrome charge pipes that looked nice. The released pipes are either wrinkle black or wrinkle red. I picked the wrinkle red, as I wanted to add some colour and splash to my engine bay. I do attend quite a few car shows, and I always raise the hood.
The package came very well-boxed, all the pipes were individually wrapped and secured. The couplers and bands were in a separate bag, also neatly packed. As with most companies, you received a sheet with the web address to download the instructions in PDF format. I grabbed the instructions and printed them out. It is nice and cool in S. FL now, so a great day to do the installation. It was very overcast, and a chance of rain, so out came Akira (Shelby), and in went Jessabelle. Glad I did this because you know it started raining while I was doing the install.
So a few things about the pipes. They are very well made, and I was somewhat surprised by just how well. Yes, they let EVERYONE know it's a Injen product with their logo on it, but I feel it did not look tacky, plus I have no issues with a vendor advertising their product name. The charge pipes, like the CAI, go all the way to the turbos. They are also larger in diameter. So great flow will be the result. Injen on their site advertised 11.6 HP and 12.0 TQ gains with just the pipe installation. I did plan to get to a dyno, but unfortunately that fell through.
Below is the comparison of the Hot side pipe from the OEM, and Injens. I picked this pipe because it is one of the larger for the OEM. Even with this, you can see that the Injen pipe is a larger diameter, and does not neck down as the OEM pipe does. The secondary hot side pipes are even more restricted compared to the Injen pipes.
Another part I was impressed with was the intercooler couplers. Billet made, very robust. When removing the OEM, you had to take the clamp from it and the rubber gasket inside and transplant it to the Injen coupler.
Now to the fun part. Overall I would say the installation is not bad. Injen says 3 wreches which means moderate installation, and you need some mechanical knowledge. Ok. I have that covered. The true issue to this install is REMOVING the OEM product. Now I will admit, it may have been a bit tougher for me because I have the Injen CAI. Knowing what a pita it was to install, I was in no way trying to remove a lot of it to put on the charge the pipes. So that being said, I did take some liberties. Also, the instruction was written for someone with OEM setup, so again, it did not follow the flow as if you had their CAI already installed.
The pain points.
1. Removing the skid plate from the badlands (Which is surprisingly thick and heavy) by yourself is doable. Putting it back on the floor by yourself is challenging. Be prepared to use legs arms and anything else you can think of to hold it in place. Now that I think on this, I should have kept it steady with my race floor jack on a plate while I bolted it in.
2. The Cold OEM charge pipe was a MAJOR pain point. Now again, it may have been easier with the OEM, as it is one pipe and the instruction said to decouple and remove. Not so for the Injen,. The pipe that goes to the filter box is a junction pipe. It has a hump coupler in the middle. So I had to remove it, then get one side of the pipe up and away, and the other down and away so I could reach a BOLT Ford decided to put on the cold side pipe to stop it from moving I guess? The hard thing about this was it was behind several other hoses, hard to see, and the space I had, even with the pipe out the way was small. Real small. and I have very large hands. Also you had to get a socket on the front, which was a 5/32, and a 10mm wrench on the back. Yeap, if you did not, the bolt would just spin. Getting this off is what held up my installation.
3. Getting the OEM cold pipe out of position. Its all one piece. Until you can get to where the rubber is coupled. So trying to get it up to where you can get to the coupler and remove it requires you to solve the puzzle of the engine bay and move and twist until you can finally remove the rubber 90 and then push it out through the bottom and get the other part out through the top.
After these issues, the installation goes pretty well. I did not have any issues with the new couplers on the intercooler, again had to play big hands in small places to get some couplers tightened, but having a Milwaukee power ratchet helps a lot! Also as with all installations pack your patience. So all in all not so bad. I still say the CAI was much worse.
Taking it for a test drive later that night some things I did notice. Boost came on faster. No turbo lag. Boost came on harder. It seemed to boost more when I punched it. In sport mode though, it seemed more efficient. I noticed doing normal style driving boost did not seem to kick in nearly as much, but power was being delivered.? Yeah I know it sounds strange. Maybe the Ford tune was adjusting for the more efficient flow? Still need to do some testing on that. I have to say it is fun and felt good. I do not have a draggy or any devices to test 0-60, but I plan to borrow one. With all the mods working together, I will say my Bronco feels like it is not working as hard to do the normal things. Also, it feels like when you hit the pedal, she will go, and go hard. An older V6 Mustang found that out while I was testing her lol. What's next? Probably be the Injen intercooler when it is released later in Q1.
Overall I am pleased with the product and I feel it is well done. I would say even if you do not have the CAI, it may be worth it to you to give the charge pipes a look.
Cold pipe.
Hot pipe to the passengers side.
Install completed.
The package came very well-boxed, all the pipes were individually wrapped and secured. The couplers and bands were in a separate bag, also neatly packed. As with most companies, you received a sheet with the web address to download the instructions in PDF format. I grabbed the instructions and printed them out. It is nice and cool in S. FL now, so a great day to do the installation. It was very overcast, and a chance of rain, so out came Akira (Shelby), and in went Jessabelle. Glad I did this because you know it started raining while I was doing the install.
So a few things about the pipes. They are very well made, and I was somewhat surprised by just how well. Yes, they let EVERYONE know it's a Injen product with their logo on it, but I feel it did not look tacky, plus I have no issues with a vendor advertising their product name. The charge pipes, like the CAI, go all the way to the turbos. They are also larger in diameter. So great flow will be the result. Injen on their site advertised 11.6 HP and 12.0 TQ gains with just the pipe installation. I did plan to get to a dyno, but unfortunately that fell through.
Below is the comparison of the Hot side pipe from the OEM, and Injens. I picked this pipe because it is one of the larger for the OEM. Even with this, you can see that the Injen pipe is a larger diameter, and does not neck down as the OEM pipe does. The secondary hot side pipes are even more restricted compared to the Injen pipes.
Another part I was impressed with was the intercooler couplers. Billet made, very robust. When removing the OEM, you had to take the clamp from it and the rubber gasket inside and transplant it to the Injen coupler.
Now to the fun part. Overall I would say the installation is not bad. Injen says 3 wreches which means moderate installation, and you need some mechanical knowledge. Ok. I have that covered. The true issue to this install is REMOVING the OEM product. Now I will admit, it may have been a bit tougher for me because I have the Injen CAI. Knowing what a pita it was to install, I was in no way trying to remove a lot of it to put on the charge the pipes. So that being said, I did take some liberties. Also, the instruction was written for someone with OEM setup, so again, it did not follow the flow as if you had their CAI already installed.
The pain points.
1. Removing the skid plate from the badlands (Which is surprisingly thick and heavy) by yourself is doable. Putting it back on the floor by yourself is challenging. Be prepared to use legs arms and anything else you can think of to hold it in place. Now that I think on this, I should have kept it steady with my race floor jack on a plate while I bolted it in.
2. The Cold OEM charge pipe was a MAJOR pain point. Now again, it may have been easier with the OEM, as it is one pipe and the instruction said to decouple and remove. Not so for the Injen,. The pipe that goes to the filter box is a junction pipe. It has a hump coupler in the middle. So I had to remove it, then get one side of the pipe up and away, and the other down and away so I could reach a BOLT Ford decided to put on the cold side pipe to stop it from moving I guess? The hard thing about this was it was behind several other hoses, hard to see, and the space I had, even with the pipe out the way was small. Real small. and I have very large hands. Also you had to get a socket on the front, which was a 5/32, and a 10mm wrench on the back. Yeap, if you did not, the bolt would just spin. Getting this off is what held up my installation.
3. Getting the OEM cold pipe out of position. Its all one piece. Until you can get to where the rubber is coupled. So trying to get it up to where you can get to the coupler and remove it requires you to solve the puzzle of the engine bay and move and twist until you can finally remove the rubber 90 and then push it out through the bottom and get the other part out through the top.
After these issues, the installation goes pretty well. I did not have any issues with the new couplers on the intercooler, again had to play big hands in small places to get some couplers tightened, but having a Milwaukee power ratchet helps a lot! Also as with all installations pack your patience. So all in all not so bad. I still say the CAI was much worse.
Taking it for a test drive later that night some things I did notice. Boost came on faster. No turbo lag. Boost came on harder. It seemed to boost more when I punched it. In sport mode though, it seemed more efficient. I noticed doing normal style driving boost did not seem to kick in nearly as much, but power was being delivered.? Yeah I know it sounds strange. Maybe the Ford tune was adjusting for the more efficient flow? Still need to do some testing on that. I have to say it is fun and felt good. I do not have a draggy or any devices to test 0-60, but I plan to borrow one. With all the mods working together, I will say my Bronco feels like it is not working as hard to do the normal things. Also, it feels like when you hit the pedal, she will go, and go hard. An older V6 Mustang found that out while I was testing her lol. What's next? Probably be the Injen intercooler when it is released later in Q1.
Overall I am pleased with the product and I feel it is well done. I would say even if you do not have the CAI, it may be worth it to you to give the charge pipes a look.
Cold pipe.
Hot pipe to the passengers side.
Install completed.
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