Air tight seal with K&N filter and Comptech Icebox
 

Just finished dropping in K&N filter into Comptech Icebox.
It's now sealed tightly by using weatherstrips from HomeDepot.

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/4641/dsc010121ax.jpg
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7113/dsc010142rf.jpg
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/1761/dsc010153nq.jpg
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/4714/dsc010169za.jpg
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7029/dsc010171up.jpg

pretty slick - did you notice any gains?

How loud is it? Much louder than the foam filter? I had my K&N in and it was loud as hell so I'm guessing it's because I had a poor seal. What happens in any of it peels off?

I believe most with K&N Filter and Comptech Icebox setup said it was louder than the Uni foam filter setup. And for sure K&N was louder than Uni filter until I made this seal inside the Icebox. Probably improper seal was sucking unfiltered air causing louder intake sound.
After sealing it properly, K&N is actually quieter than Uni foam filter. Almost quiet as stock intake. But I have a feeling that response became little slower too. Dont know if the ecu is adjusting to greater air flow. Gonna drive around some more tomorrow and finalize my thought.

I thought of that too, but the weatherseal sticks pretty strongly and the strips are pressed against the border of K&N filter so it shouldn't peel off that easily.

Hey, that IS pretty slick. I might give it a shot. I put the stock lid back on with the K&N filter and its much quieter than when I had the Iceobx lid on it. I think it was definitely because it didn't seal properly with the Icebox lid.

If you were taking in unfiltered air because of improper seal then yes, it would have been louder, but you would also have been sucking in warmer engine compartment air and thus losing a bit of performance.

Just what I wanted to hear. Let us now what your impressions are after some driving around.

Ok... I gave enough time for ecu to readjust and to give an impression...
I think foam filter revs up harder than k&n. Throttle response is about the same with foam filter but it seems that k&n is not reving hard as foam filter.

So it'd be waste if i do that since there's no different or worst than the foam filter?

yea.. but quality of uni foam filter seems bad. i'll just stick with k&n.

thanz for info, maybe i'll stick w/ the foam 'til i need to replace it

:scratch: Wonder why that is. My understanding was that the K&N filter was more permissive then the foam filter. Any difference in the sound between the K&N and the foam filter?

k&n is as quiet as stock

Picked up the weatherstrip yesterday. Gonna try this as soon as I have time. :excited:

I'm going to have to try it also. I've always just assumed that it was sealed tight. When I got a K&N panel filter for our Jetta, it came with a foam weather strip in the box.

Make sure you do double layers on all sides. My picture only shows one layer, but I did another layer on top of that for a perfect seal.

Did mine last night.....Wow! It actually made a pretty big difference that you can feel and hear. The raspy sound is gone and the throttle seems smoother.

This little mod is a must for anyone that wants to use a K&N with their Icebox. I can't believe I drove around for 3 months without a good seal around the filter.

I can't believe it either. :whyme: Did you do two layers or just one? Any problem getting the bolts to reach?

I did one layer last night but it was too dark to install it when I was finished. Maybe today after work. :wish:

Yea.. car is way smoother than before with Uni filter. It's luxury quite. :thumbsup:

so you feel any HP gain with Icebox?

since icebox = same as stock sound
I need to know if it changees anything?.....or else it would be wasting money

I'm a little worried about using the weatherseal, if you apply it in pieces like shown in the pics above, it is possible that it could get sucked into the engine..

Does the weatherseal stick like glue to the sides of the icebox? How exactly it is secured? I think it would be a little safer to use one continuous section of the weatherseal rather than strips of them. In addition, I think it would be better to use one layer of weatherstrip.. Wouldn't using double layers decrease the volume of air in the icebox.. Therefore, it would negate any performance increase of the larger lid and it would make more sense to just stick with the stock airbox lid.

Currently, I have my icebox lid with the stock paper filter. I removed the the spacers on the 4 corners of the icebox lid and screwed that sucker on tight. It is louder than the foam filter when I go WOT but I sware the car runs faster.

It's been one year with weatherstrips and no problem so far.
Seems like you're icebox is not sealed tight and that faster feel is all on your buttdyno.

The weatherstrip has an adhesive on one side of it so it sticks to the lid without problems. Also, once its installed and compressed against the filter for a tight seal it isn't going to go anywhere. I used this method but I did one continuous piece of weatherseal instead of cutting it into pieces. I did the pieces first but found that air would leak in-between sections. The second time I tried one piece and it was much better. I didn't remove the spacers. I did add a whasher under each bolt head for a tighter fit.

Performance vs. Foam filter?
 

jlukja, how's the performance now compared to when you didn't have a proper seal? how is the performance compared to even the comptech unifoam filter? In the sense of pure performance, would this be a worthwile mod for those with the comptech foam filter? The OP mentioned that his performance was worse than the foam filter :confused:

I am seriously considering this mod as well. I went to do one layer of continuous weatherseal like you did along with a K&N filter. I put the unifoam filter back on my car, and my car seriously seems like it is starved for air at times. When I had the stock filter on (even though it wasn't sealed properly), the car seemed to pull much much harder than with the foam filter.

Thanks in advance.

Its hard for me to answer your question fully because, interestingly enough, I never ran the unifoam filter with the Comptech lid. I had read a number of bad things about the unifoam filter so I ordered the K&N filter and put it in immediately when the Icebox was installed. But, let me try to encapsulate my observations.

1. Icebox lid with K&N filter, bad seal: The throttle response improvement was immediately noticeable. Upon hitting the throttle the car responds much quicker. When stock it seemed to gather itself a bit before taking off whereas now it takes much less time to respond. It is much louder than stock, sounds raspy, but seems to pull much better in the mid and high RPMs. The poor seal is between the filter and the lid, allowing unfiltered air to come in through the seam under the Icebox lid. This is also why its much louder (intake sound doesn't have to travel throught the filter and the lower air horn). I drive around like this for about 600 miles. My gas mileage drops about 2 mpg.

I am unhappy with the results so I go back to the stock lid and K&N filter.

2. Stock lid with K&N filter, good seal: The throttle response imprvement is gone. Its back to being as hesitant as before intake & filter changes. (For this reason I attribute the throttle response improvement to the larger volume Icebox lid) Do not notice any significant reduction in how hard it pulls when the revs rise. (I figure the improvements that I initially saw were due to the improved flow without the resonator). The raspy sound is gone (i.e. good seal). Mileage improves 2 mpg. I drive like this for around 300-400 mi.

I am unhappy with the loss of throttle response and resolve to try the Icebox lid again.

3. Icebox lid with K&N filter, good seal: Whoa, now we're talking. Sound is quiet until you get up in the high revs. The throttle resonds quicker once again. No significant improvement in power from #2 above.

So my conclusions are:

Icebox lid is better than stock lid for throttle response.
K&N filter doesn't seem to add any significant power.
Replacing the resonator with the Icebox airhorn seems to add power.

Based on my experience I can't say whether the K&N filter is better than the Comptech unifoam filter. I don't notice any significant gain in power going from stock filter to the K&N filter but I'm not sure whether I would notice a gain of 1 or 2 horsepower anyway. I still think the K&N is worth it if only for the fact that you don't have to keep replacing it. Just clean it and back in it goes. Any additional power gain due to the K&N filter is gravy.

My :2cents:

jlukja, I really appreciate the detailed post. I will try this mod out soon and report my results. I only hope I can find that exact weatherseal at my local lowes or home depot. Thanks again.

Hi guys - I would recommend you install something more substantial than weather strips. When I had my ITG filter installed the seller commented on the poor seal with the Icebox. Here is what he did. He used a plastic stencil and cut it to follow the inside of the Icebox. I don't have any pictures as I am travelling until Jan 07 but if you look at this picture you will see what I mean:

My stencil looks similar to the weather strips installed here except it is plastic. If you purchase a semi-thick plastic bread board (yes the ones used in kitchens - say 1cm thick) you can trace the inside of the icebox lid onto the stencil. Then use a jigsaw and cut out the stencil (again with a frame that looks like the weatherstrips - about 1cm all the way around). The installer used windscreen sealant to glue the stencil to the icebox lid. Simple really and you will have a perfect seal regardless of filter used.

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/1761/dsc010153nq.jpg

Just finished this and I gotta say, I don't personally feel a major difference from running resonatorless. As a matter of fact, I felt a lot more from PixelHarmony's Injen setup. I know it is getting more air, but I the gain is minimal.

so are you running a icebox?

Out of curiosity, is his setup the same as yours, exception being the intake of course? Only reason I ask is that I'm running the icebox (vs. a month or two resonatorless) and while I didn't notice a difference in power, overall acceleration seemed 'smoother' and there was less vibration (5AT). Also, I've seen you're header & cat post so maybe the minimal difference is further minimized by a higher frame of reference.

Finally, :yes:

Your comment about the header and cat setup is what I was thinking too. That minimal amount of difference I notice I think was the acceleration.

I'll be doing Hondata and heat shield in August.

i want reflash too, but still no sign of making one for 05 AT.
by the way, those weather strips are still holding up great.

How tight was the stock airbox-to-TB pipe connection to your Icebox? Mine was so tight I had to take of the Icebox and pipe and connect them off the car. I did only use one layer of weather strip and checked it by looking into the icebox with a light. All seemed to see correctly and thus far no sucking noises.

did you take those tightening springs off on the TB pipe?

Nope. It always slid right on and off on my stock box. I'm assuming this one is marginally bigger...

insturction says to take those off. i couldn't fit it in without taking them off.

I left my spring on. I can't get it to slide all the way in and it looks a bit off but there are no sucking sounds coming from where they meet. I don't want to take it off for the fear of not being able to get it back on. My spring is on TIGHT.

The instructions do say to remove the spring. I removed it, connected the hose easily, and attempted to re-attach the spring with the aid of pliers, but bent the connecting hooks from the force on it. I gave up and threw it out.

I doubt that is an issue. I mean, where the heck would it go? Only direction that TB hose would go is on tighter. Not like it will fall off or anything. :D