ETS Bolt on review (Intake, Intercooler, UICP, LICP, Exhuast)
Jun 4, 2013, 05:35 PM
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ETS Bolt on review (Intake, Intercooler, UICP, LICP, Exhuast)
So I've been sitting on a few ETS parts dating back to last summer, but after a few hiccups and patiently waiting, I finally was able to get everything installed. I know there's been a ton of reviews and pictures of all of these parts, but I felt the need to share my "journey", and reviews of the parts and vendors I dealt with. I'll break out this review into ordering process, install and post install (post tune will have to come in an update).
Now I typically don't mix and match pieces and I was hoping to order everything from ETS directly, but things came up, deals came along and I jumped. Regardless, I'll be sure to detail who I did business with on which piece and how everything went.
Prereqs:
Car: 2012 Rally Red X
Mileage at install: 16k
Ownership of Evo: 14 months
ETS Intake
Vendor: ETS
Order:
This was the first piece I ordered, as I thought I was going to install it sooner than I did. I detailed most of my ordering experience in another thread here but I'll recap. I PMed Michael and told him I was looking for a black intake for my X. I got a quick response back to my question, and placed an order on their webpage for the intake. This was ordered through their "old site" so I had to use a special link to place my order and give the details of what I wanted.
After a few days, my package arrived but I noticed it was their brushed stainless steel intake instead of the black that I ordered. No worries, shot Michael an email and they quickly resolved it by sending me the correct black one free of charge WITH a new packing slip. Stopped by my local UPS store with the old pipe in the box, and away it went. I'll never know what happened to that "used intake", but it was nice to see both for comparison (picture below)
Install:
Now I have to admit, the install sections of my review my be slightly skewed as I installed everything in one shot. This made moving around the engine bay rather easy. None the less, I'll give my take on it. This is also the first car I've modified, so I personally don't have any horror stories, but I know a few of my friends do.
Intake had a great fitment. My friend that helped me works at a car shop, so we knocked it out pretty quick. When they say "bolt on" they really mean it. Every piece from ETS had an amazing fit and no struggles throughout the install. The only "issue" we faced was during the install, the entire structure was shifted to the left (towards the middle of the engine). This put the BOV host right next to UICP. Nothing to worry about after looking up the ETS Intake install guide here. We noticed we needed to shift the intake over to the right, which put everything in it's proper place. It was a little tight after shifting it over, but everything has stayed in place so far, so it was more of an annoyance than issue.
ETS Intercooler
Vendor: ETS
Order:
Since my order with ETS went so well the first time, I decided to go direct to them again, this time for my intercooler. It was getting close to the holidays, so money was a littler tighter than normal, so I told myself I was going to get a 3.5" IC. Right around the time I was going to order, ETS ran their Black Friday sale, so I was able to get a 4" IC for roughly the same price as a normally priced 3.5".
I forgot to mention this in the Intake section, but both pieces (and all for that matter) were properly packed with the right precautions put into place to avoid nicks and dings for shipping. As you can see in the picture below, the IC was covered in packing peanuts, along with the added protection of cardboard covering the fins.
Install:
I honestly don't think an install could get much easier than this. Unbolt the old IC, slide that out, swap grommets, slide new IC in, bolt IC down. Done. Again, we had all the piping removed, so that may have also contributed to how easy it was.
For those worried about if the 4" will fit without removing the crash beam, it will. We were able to install the IC no problem on my set up. Just in case you were wondering, we installed the IC on level ground, with no jack stands. I was at stock ride height for the install, which likely helped. On the flip side of that, I helped a friend install his 3.5" IC (another brand) the following weekend and we needed to remove the crash beam. Sadly, we were on a decline and he was dropped, which likely caused the need to remove the beam. Following pictures just show how great of a fit this piece is!
ETS IC Piping
Vendor: XTR Performance
Order:
This was actually the fourth and final power mod that I ordered, but since the last two items have been about the engine bay, I'll keep it consistent. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was actually worried about venturing out of the norm from the "large vendors" when I ordered from XTR. That concern can now be laid to rest (and has) with the process I was able to go through with them. I was able to get a good deal on the piping, so I pulled the trigger. Like most other vendors, I got quick service, placed my order and everything went as smooth as butter. Will certainly be doing business with them again in the future.
Install:
Another point for ETS on this one. Everything was spot on and easy to install. Again, I used the ETS Intake install guide for the UICP, and common sense for the LICP. The only "issues" I had when installing were the clamps. To get the best fit between the pipes and the couples, we took apart the clamps to get some wiggle room. Well, that ended up being slightly against the grain, as the bolt didn't want to give enough clearance to start threading the nut back on. In hindsight I would likely keep the clamps assembled, as I was helping a friend install his ETS IC piping this weekend and faced the same issue. We eventually got mine back on and after we tightened it down, I'm glad ETS designed it the way they did because it gave a better fit.
The LICP was a PITA to install, but that's in no way ETS' fault. I had another clamp issue for the coupler to the throttle body, but luckily ETS gave me a slightly bigger clamp. Not sure if that was on purpose or not, but it was in there and worked perfectly. I did manage to put a light scratch on the LICP, but that was from the bending I had to do to fit the pipe in. I'm usually all about scratches on brand new things, but the LICP is buried and you can really only see it if you're looking for it. Still amazing craftsmanship from ETS.
ETS Quiet Exhuast
Vendor: MAP
Order:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with ETS and how they do their business, I just decided I wanted to see what MAP had to offer because I had heard such great things from them. Again, like everyone else, MAP was quick, straight forward and a great vendor to do business with. Will certainly do business again.
Install:
Ok, I lied, an install can get easier than an IC. If it wasn't for me having to drive back to my friend's shop later that night, the exhaust wouldn't have taken more than 20 minutes. After letting the exhaust cool for a few, we decided to get to work. A few bolts and protective jackets later, the exhaust was out and it was time to install the new one. Unfortunately we were a little too eager and my friend slightly stripped the bolt/thread when he was driving the stock bolt back in to the stock cat. Luckily he's a mechanic, so he carefully backed it out, and put a new bolt in that was slightly smaller than the stock one. I'm planning on getting a test pipe in the next month or two anyway (likely ETS if you didn't catch a theme here), so hopefully the new test pipe comes with new bolts for the install. So that wasn't too concerning to me for the time being.
Post install (AKA the fun part of your new parts):
Everything I've discussed has seen about 700 miles so far of varying roads and conditions. My thoughts? I love every part and wouldn't have done it any differently. Now, so people may think I'm crazy for waiting a year before installing my parts, or how I could be so patient with all those parts just laying around. For me it was easy, "do it once, do it right". I did my research and I think it paid off. Instead of spending a few hours multiple times to install my parts, everything was done in about 4-5 hours. Certainly made my appreciation for the parts that much more. Instead of "Oh I spent $XXX for this part and only gained Xwhp", I can say "Yup, I spent $XXX and got a ton of enjoyment from it".
Now for the parts.
The intake - I love the "woosh" sound you hear when accelerating and finally hearing the stock BOV is something that I don't think will ever get old. I hardly listen to the radio anymore, as I just roll down the windows and listen to the engine.
IC piping - I can tell the car is breathing better along with the intake. No tune yet (probably near the end of summer sadly), but I know my MPGs have gone up and should have leaned the car out a little bit (comes quiet rich from factory).
Intercooler - great kit and I can feel SOME power gains (butt dyno), but I can also tell the car doesn't know where to put that power. I'm sure a tune will quickly resolve that for me
Exhaust - oh the exhaust. Good free flowing exhaust, and I love the sound I had the moment after we installed it. The exhaust hardly makes louder of a note during idle, but when you're driving under normal conditions or when you get on it, you can tell you have an aftermarket exhaust. For those that daily drive their car, I think you'll be pleased with the results. Driving to and from work it's a great exhaust that I think sounds really good. Now…when I meet up with some of the other Evos in the area, I feel like I'm stock still (jokes about not hearing my exhaust next to one that has a turbo back), but let's be honest, you make your car what you want. Since I'll be getting a TP, I'm sure the exhaust will be a little louder. Thanks to ETS' design, I can easily swap mufflers later down the line if I decide to do that. But for the time being, this is still my DD. Funny story though, 3 days after I installed my parts a cop pulled me over for 71/55 (wasn't use to the power yet). Really cool cop that was practically drooling over my X, but asked me to rev my engine to hear the exhaust. Revved to about 2.5-3k and his words were "Ehh, she's a tad loud, but I'm not going to ding you for it". So in that sense, I'm glad I had the quiet. And for those wondering, no I did not get the speeding ticket, but I did get a failure to display tags, as I don't have front plates - required in VA.
All in all, I'm beyond happy with my parts and can't wait for a tune. I've been to two install days and a Cars and Coffee and all I do is talk about how awesome the ETS parts are. Great job by the guys at ETS!
If you have any questions on my set up, please feel free to PM me. I got nothing to hide as you can see by this lengthy review.
Now I typically don't mix and match pieces and I was hoping to order everything from ETS directly, but things came up, deals came along and I jumped. Regardless, I'll be sure to detail who I did business with on which piece and how everything went.
Prereqs:
Car: 2012 Rally Red X
Mileage at install: 16k
Ownership of Evo: 14 months
ETS Intake
Vendor: ETS
Order:
This was the first piece I ordered, as I thought I was going to install it sooner than I did. I detailed most of my ordering experience in another thread here but I'll recap. I PMed Michael and told him I was looking for a black intake for my X. I got a quick response back to my question, and placed an order on their webpage for the intake. This was ordered through their "old site" so I had to use a special link to place my order and give the details of what I wanted.
After a few days, my package arrived but I noticed it was their brushed stainless steel intake instead of the black that I ordered. No worries, shot Michael an email and they quickly resolved it by sending me the correct black one free of charge WITH a new packing slip. Stopped by my local UPS store with the old pipe in the box, and away it went. I'll never know what happened to that "used intake", but it was nice to see both for comparison (picture below)
Install:
Now I have to admit, the install sections of my review my be slightly skewed as I installed everything in one shot. This made moving around the engine bay rather easy. None the less, I'll give my take on it. This is also the first car I've modified, so I personally don't have any horror stories, but I know a few of my friends do.
Intake had a great fitment. My friend that helped me works at a car shop, so we knocked it out pretty quick. When they say "bolt on" they really mean it. Every piece from ETS had an amazing fit and no struggles throughout the install. The only "issue" we faced was during the install, the entire structure was shifted to the left (towards the middle of the engine). This put the BOV host right next to UICP. Nothing to worry about after looking up the ETS Intake install guide here. We noticed we needed to shift the intake over to the right, which put everything in it's proper place. It was a little tight after shifting it over, but everything has stayed in place so far, so it was more of an annoyance than issue.
ETS Intercooler
Vendor: ETS
Order:
Since my order with ETS went so well the first time, I decided to go direct to them again, this time for my intercooler. It was getting close to the holidays, so money was a littler tighter than normal, so I told myself I was going to get a 3.5" IC. Right around the time I was going to order, ETS ran their Black Friday sale, so I was able to get a 4" IC for roughly the same price as a normally priced 3.5".
I forgot to mention this in the Intake section, but both pieces (and all for that matter) were properly packed with the right precautions put into place to avoid nicks and dings for shipping. As you can see in the picture below, the IC was covered in packing peanuts, along with the added protection of cardboard covering the fins.
Install:
I honestly don't think an install could get much easier than this. Unbolt the old IC, slide that out, swap grommets, slide new IC in, bolt IC down. Done. Again, we had all the piping removed, so that may have also contributed to how easy it was.
For those worried about if the 4" will fit without removing the crash beam, it will. We were able to install the IC no problem on my set up. Just in case you were wondering, we installed the IC on level ground, with no jack stands. I was at stock ride height for the install, which likely helped. On the flip side of that, I helped a friend install his 3.5" IC (another brand) the following weekend and we needed to remove the crash beam. Sadly, we were on a decline and he was dropped, which likely caused the need to remove the beam. Following pictures just show how great of a fit this piece is!
ETS IC Piping
Vendor: XTR Performance
Order:
This was actually the fourth and final power mod that I ordered, but since the last two items have been about the engine bay, I'll keep it consistent. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was actually worried about venturing out of the norm from the "large vendors" when I ordered from XTR. That concern can now be laid to rest (and has) with the process I was able to go through with them. I was able to get a good deal on the piping, so I pulled the trigger. Like most other vendors, I got quick service, placed my order and everything went as smooth as butter. Will certainly be doing business with them again in the future.
Install:
Another point for ETS on this one. Everything was spot on and easy to install. Again, I used the ETS Intake install guide for the UICP, and common sense for the LICP. The only "issues" I had when installing were the clamps. To get the best fit between the pipes and the couples, we took apart the clamps to get some wiggle room. Well, that ended up being slightly against the grain, as the bolt didn't want to give enough clearance to start threading the nut back on. In hindsight I would likely keep the clamps assembled, as I was helping a friend install his ETS IC piping this weekend and faced the same issue. We eventually got mine back on and after we tightened it down, I'm glad ETS designed it the way they did because it gave a better fit.
The LICP was a PITA to install, but that's in no way ETS' fault. I had another clamp issue for the coupler to the throttle body, but luckily ETS gave me a slightly bigger clamp. Not sure if that was on purpose or not, but it was in there and worked perfectly. I did manage to put a light scratch on the LICP, but that was from the bending I had to do to fit the pipe in. I'm usually all about scratches on brand new things, but the LICP is buried and you can really only see it if you're looking for it. Still amazing craftsmanship from ETS.
ETS Quiet Exhuast
Vendor: MAP
Order:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with ETS and how they do their business, I just decided I wanted to see what MAP had to offer because I had heard such great things from them. Again, like everyone else, MAP was quick, straight forward and a great vendor to do business with. Will certainly do business again.
Install:
Ok, I lied, an install can get easier than an IC. If it wasn't for me having to drive back to my friend's shop later that night, the exhaust wouldn't have taken more than 20 minutes. After letting the exhaust cool for a few, we decided to get to work. A few bolts and protective jackets later, the exhaust was out and it was time to install the new one. Unfortunately we were a little too eager and my friend slightly stripped the bolt/thread when he was driving the stock bolt back in to the stock cat. Luckily he's a mechanic, so he carefully backed it out, and put a new bolt in that was slightly smaller than the stock one. I'm planning on getting a test pipe in the next month or two anyway (likely ETS if you didn't catch a theme here), so hopefully the new test pipe comes with new bolts for the install. So that wasn't too concerning to me for the time being.
Post install (AKA the fun part of your new parts):
Everything I've discussed has seen about 700 miles so far of varying roads and conditions. My thoughts? I love every part and wouldn't have done it any differently. Now, so people may think I'm crazy for waiting a year before installing my parts, or how I could be so patient with all those parts just laying around. For me it was easy, "do it once, do it right". I did my research and I think it paid off. Instead of spending a few hours multiple times to install my parts, everything was done in about 4-5 hours. Certainly made my appreciation for the parts that much more. Instead of "Oh I spent $XXX for this part and only gained Xwhp", I can say "Yup, I spent $XXX and got a ton of enjoyment from it".
Now for the parts.
The intake - I love the "woosh" sound you hear when accelerating and finally hearing the stock BOV is something that I don't think will ever get old. I hardly listen to the radio anymore, as I just roll down the windows and listen to the engine.
IC piping - I can tell the car is breathing better along with the intake. No tune yet (probably near the end of summer sadly), but I know my MPGs have gone up and should have leaned the car out a little bit (comes quiet rich from factory).
Intercooler - great kit and I can feel SOME power gains (butt dyno), but I can also tell the car doesn't know where to put that power. I'm sure a tune will quickly resolve that for me
Exhaust - oh the exhaust. Good free flowing exhaust, and I love the sound I had the moment after we installed it. The exhaust hardly makes louder of a note during idle, but when you're driving under normal conditions or when you get on it, you can tell you have an aftermarket exhaust. For those that daily drive their car, I think you'll be pleased with the results. Driving to and from work it's a great exhaust that I think sounds really good. Now…when I meet up with some of the other Evos in the area, I feel like I'm stock still (jokes about not hearing my exhaust next to one that has a turbo back), but let's be honest, you make your car what you want. Since I'll be getting a TP, I'm sure the exhaust will be a little louder. Thanks to ETS' design, I can easily swap mufflers later down the line if I decide to do that. But for the time being, this is still my DD. Funny story though, 3 days after I installed my parts a cop pulled me over for 71/55 (wasn't use to the power yet). Really cool cop that was practically drooling over my X, but asked me to rev my engine to hear the exhaust. Revved to about 2.5-3k and his words were "Ehh, she's a tad loud, but I'm not going to ding you for it". So in that sense, I'm glad I had the quiet. And for those wondering, no I did not get the speeding ticket, but I did get a failure to display tags, as I don't have front plates - required in VA.
All in all, I'm beyond happy with my parts and can't wait for a tune. I've been to two install days and a Cars and Coffee and all I do is talk about how awesome the ETS parts are. Great job by the guys at ETS!
If you have any questions on my set up, please feel free to PM me. I got nothing to hide as you can see by this lengthy review.
Thanks for your support!
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