While I was out of town for work, my CT Engineering Ice Box, from HeelToe arrived. It took me a few of weeks after returning home to find the time to install. These are my initial thoughts after install and one ride up the canyon:

Install… what a pain in the ass! Trying to remove the OEM intake, and especially the battery tray took me forever; I have large hands, and I could barely manage to get them under the battery tray to loosen the bolts. It was so bad that I was thinking of removing the radiator to be able to get at the bolts. Lots of scrapes, a flapper, some blood, and a lot of cursing under my breath. Others have noted this, (thank you to CleanCL for a great pic of the battery tray, and Duece415 for the great install write up and pics). Also, I found that the bracket CTE provides for securing the “box” to the engine bay took a fair amount of bending to make it fit. Other than that, things went smoothly. I decided to jack up the front driver side and remove the wheel… I think this made things a bit easier for me. Cleaned up, and spent the rest of the evening with the family. Total time to do the install, clean up, and put away tools… at least 3 hours.

Took the car out for a run up the canyon this morning, and mashed the pedal down a lot. I have to say, I think it is a little faster with the Ice Box. Now this could be due to having the computer reset while the battery was disconnected (as I usually drive fairly conservatively), or just my perception as I was “thinking” it would be faster. Any intake noise increase was not noticeable to me; I have an ATLP exhaust, so if there is any increase in sound, it was not noticeable over the exhaust sound.

Overall I thought that CTE produced a well-designed and thought out product. Fit and finish were pretty good, outside of the one hanger. Our TLs, have a completely over-engineered battery tray. The damn thing would hold up a small elephant. I really want to track down whoever designed the battery tray and beat them about the head!
Cheers.

 

Enjoy it, I love how it helps during passing situations at part throttle.

 

Yeah, I agree. Not worth the price or the trouble.

 

Glad you like your CT IceBox.

I'm still waiting for a resolution to fit this in the FWD 4G.. I would buy it and make my own coupler but at the price for the icebox I can't justify doing that

 

Not sure why they didn't design both versions at the same time. I hope you get yours soon.

 

Good info, CerberusKy. I'll be sticking with my Takeda NMI for a while. When the CT Icebox came into production, I got pretty excited until I saw the price. Definitely for ballers..lol. As long as you're happy, that's all that matters. Getting new mods is always exciting.

 

review basically mirrors my observations of the ICEBOX I installed in Y2K3CL-S. "Seemed" to be a bit quicker, not much volume increase over oem (especially when compared to other CAI's on the market at the time), noticeable increase in fuel economy, installation guide a bit backward regarding the mounting to the inner fender ... but overall a nice upgrade which didn't draw unwanted attention. The comptech filter was a contentious issue then, because some couldn't understand/deal with the offset mounting of the filter in the housing unit.

 

I think I saw one recently on the black market... maybe you can pick one up cheap?

 

I didn't see but I'll check it out. I'd imagine it can't be much less than a new one since it just came out.

I'd also have to bank on me finding the right coupler or else I still wont be able to use it

 

I think I emailed CT-E and they said they didn't want to make a "cheap fix" for a $500+ intake. Sooo I will guess that it will not come out for a long time even though its just a coupler

 

I'd say wait until CT to make one for the non-SHAWD. If you are going to spend that much money, might as well wait for the one that's made for your car.

 

I do believe it sold.

 

I must say when I first heard about the CT Icebox and saw the dyno graph I was like:



After all the reviews I've heard now I'm like:

 

Thanks for the review.

CT-E's dyno graphs have always been pretty reasonable and on point. The gains they're making are significant for an intake and well worth the cost. It's generally $100 per hp. And the R&D behind the intake is significant. If I had a 4G TL I would definitely buy the CT-E intake. In fact I had one on my 01 CL-S and it was a great mod.

 

My concern is low end torque, I do a lot of city driving. Will the icebox make my car slower leaving a stop light?

 

Doubt it will make it any slower or faster for that matter. Stock TL is computer contrlled in dead stop take offs. I found the best way is to slowly push it to the floor instad od just nailing it per say. Quick steady easing into it and floored by 25 feet out gives my car the best acceleration. If I just nail it the car does a lot of thinking before going. Intake really wont affect it until 3700-3800 thats when I hear and feel the V Tech kick in

 

so a $500+ intake and everyone who installs it says they **think** it's a little faster...

it doesn't really matter how nicely it's made - if it can't make enough power for anyone to definitively notice it - it sounds like it's not worth the money.

i wonder if these bolt on mods might actually make a difference if there was way to tune for them?

or CTE could release a supercharger kit for the TL...which would probably be the only solid way to make a real power gain on this car....

I personally like my TL, and while I wish it was somewhat faster... I enjoy it for what it is. a very nice, relatively sporty, daily driver. if/when I get the hardcore urge for real speed... i'll suck it up and spend the money for a newer/faster ca rout of the box.. like a CPO used M3, or some other true sports sedan...or maybe go to a 3rd car / dedicated track toy like a Cayman S or something....

i personally don't plan to spend $500 on an intake that doesn't make real power... at least the Takeda makes the car sound cool....

 

you didn't need to remove the bumper for the insallation?

 

$500 is a lot of money, $350 and I might be interested if it makes reasonable power.

Anyone have the link to dyno results?

 

You've got dyno graphs of the gains compared to stock posted on this site. You also have first hand reviews of noticeable performance gains by people that have this intake installed on this site. I for one have used the phrase "definitely noticeable" performance gains in my review that I posted on this site. At the very least, the firsthand reviews match what the dyno graphs say.

I guess some people are impossible to please.

It's an expensive intake, yeah I get it. Maybe not worth the money. But I'd rather shell out the premium for the top of the line intake mod that you can do for this car. Like I put in my review, I had a Takeda SRI and got rid of it because I didn't like the performance gains. I learned my lesson and came to realize that I didn't drop 40k on my car to put cheap components in it.

 

elietania, not sure if you are telling me that I didn't need to remove the front bumper, or asking me I it is required? The directions say to remove the front bumper... I think it is probably mandatory, but it is not difficult.

 

Oki thank you

 

My view is this... if $500 is no big deal to you, then the intake is probably worth it. If you need to do a little soul searching over spending the 500 don't do it. If you spend 500, that you had to put aside other things for, you may be a little have higher expectations, and be a little bit disappointed in your decision.

After having this in for almost a week now, I feel like it is adding some power in the mid-band when I go to pass, or down-shift while climbing a hill. Nothing crazy, but just a little bit.

It would really like to have done the intake, j-pipe, cat-back all at the same time, and then see what the difference feels like.

 

Can't find it. Did I miss the link? Can someone please repost it for me?

Josh?

Anyone?

 

Try this this thread for dyno charts.

https://acurazine.com/forums/4g-tl-performance-parts-modifications-295/excelerate-performance-ct-engineering-intake-now-available-883471/

 

 

has anyone confirmed if this fits on the FWD?

 

has anyone who has installed this intake ACTUALLY confirmed that they REALLY thought it made the car faster?? most of what i read is that it doesn't really do anything..

 

^^^^^

The car will be a couple of hp faster.

 

it doesnt.. maybe give you good mpg.. but i like to have it just because

 

So a buddy of mine just picked up the same car I have (2010 TL SH_AWD 6MT). His is stock, I have wheels/tires, j-pipe, high flow 3rd cat, ATLP cat-back, CTE ice box. We went for a drive in my car, and he said that his car was no where near as fast.
I know that this is not exactly a fair comparison because they are different cars, but it is good to hear that the mods may be doing something.

 

it may be a little faster.. your exhaust flow is much better, bigger piping, lighter wheels.... but with that price tag, you should have gone a lot faster.

mods to help.. price per hp, they are not worth it for this car at the moment.. also this can be all up to the driver.. sh-awd not really meant for drag anyways.. corners are where it shows its potential.

 

I would be surprised if it didn't "fit". It is pretty simple, and if it is close, you can heat up the tubing to make small bends. There seems to be a fair bit of wiggle room through out the engine bay where the intake is routed.
That being said, I have never even looked under the hood of a FWD TL, so this is really just a guess.

 

I would also like to have someone confirm that this will fit the FWD TL. I have a pile of cash sitting here with CT's name on it. LOL

I live 2 hours and 15min away from their office. I wonder if I could just setup a time to drive out there and have them test fit it on my TL.

 

dj.. do it..

 

Any tubing rework is a departure from the original design, and may contribute to stress points and rattle/vibration noises in the future.

 

Do it. I did that before with my 2G TL when they were still at Eldorado Hills. Very friendly group.

 

Yup, but I have modified a lot of plastic parts, and have never had any issues. I'm not saying it is the best idea in the world, but if it is close, it is easy enough to make it fit. if there is a rattle, add a bracket/anchor. Plastic epoxy is a wonderful thing if you don't breath too much of it.

 

Intakes on N/A vehicles almost always provide nearly indiscernible gains. It's 99.9999999% in your head when you hear the louder intake noise and expect HP gains. Even if you gained 10 whp, which I STRONGLY doubt you will on this intake without tuning, the average person couldn't discern that difference in a 4k lb car.

 

But it's Vtec, yo.