Spectre Short Ram?

[travistrouble]

So just a noob question..... when I bought my '98 LS it came with a "Spectre" short ram intake on it from the previous owner and since it's from Auto Zone I'm sure it's pretty fail but is it decent enough that I can keep it for a while and work on other upgrades or switch it out now for an AEM SRI? I cleaned the filter with K&N filter cleaner.

I know the first things I've read that are upgraded are the intake and exhaust. My exhaust is stock and since the AEM is cheaper than a N1 catback I don't know which to focus my "spending money" on.

Any help/advice would be awesome.

 

[94rs-gharp]

i mean i aluminum pipe with a cotton filter on it will do the job my buddy had a aem cold air intake and took it out and put a short ram in it from spectre aluminum pipe is aluminum pipe no matter what and same for the cotton filter

 

[travistrouble]

So AEM is basically just an expensive name on it? If it really won't affect performance and sound then I'll keep it as is for now

 

[Prozon]

So AEM is basically just an expensive name on it? If it really won't affect performance and sound then I'll keep it as is for now

Indeed.

Basically what you should get out of an air filter is that it FILTERS AIR. The stock intake is kind of restrictive, so it's an upgrade there- however it's not a huge power source, just a necessity for other upgrades. Buy a header or an exhaust now.

 

[travistrouble]

Thanks for the advice Prozon! I know the DC 4-2-1 is what I've seen most people have, is that decent? And for exhaust I've seen the Apexi N1. I'm pretty noob status with this being my first import so I'm only going off of what I read you guys having.

 

[Prozon]

I hear it's a decent header. As for the exhaust, I would just go with whatever you think sounds the best. You should watch youtube video's and such to see what you like the sound of.

 

[j13]

Spectre makes intakes and filters in alot of different specs, alot of truck drivers use them, just because its sold at vatozone doesn't make it cheap in quality, they make very high quality durable parts. I have 10k miles on their air filter and everything is A-O-K. Its an all around good filter almost identical to K&N.

 

[travistrouble]

Thanks J13 I'll go with your experience and keep it then because it's more legit than I gave it credit for. And I'll definitely check out youtube videos before picking one. Thank you guys for the advice! +rep

 

[pinkley]

when i bought my car it had a AEM short ram intake on it. the filter was FUBAR! cleaned it like 4 times and it was still horrible. i just bought the specture filter untill i could buy a decent one and decided to just roll with it. havent had a problem with it and its not a bad product. specrte makes all kinds of quality stuff.

 

[travistrouble]

The only problem with the Spectre intake that I've had so far is that there is a metal rim around the filter and a while back my car kept smoking really bad and I was on here asking tons of people what was wrong and no one knew. Well I finally realized that the metal rim of the filter melted into the wires underneath it and caused my first fuel injector to stay stuck wide open. So I wrapped it in radiator hose and zip tied it over the wires and it's been fine. So anyone with it just be careful of melting.

 

[WAR 178]

back in 97 we made intakes out of home depot goods....(PVC pipes, whatever we could find as a filter, rubber couplers...etc)
my point is.... most stuff wasnt a Name brand part all throughout the 90's so it was custom made up ourselves. Many companies had seen the market for the tunner world, so they started making a ton of parts with various price ranges.
Its just that some companies did R&D and had good marketing teams....some dont lol

 

[dc2_2NR]

Wow thats crazy man.... I had a spectra before but i changed it since people said they were bad for collecting dust or something.... I have a AEM dry flow at the moment. I think theres a thread on here that shows which filters are bad or good, I think. K&N = Good, Apexi = Excellent, AEM = Good, HKS = Bad, Blitz = Bad. I can't find the thread but ill try to find it again. But heres another thread to look at.... http://www.clubintegra.com/board/showthread.php?t=17046

 

[travistrouble]

I really thought I would get flamed for asking and expected everyone to say go with AEM and not be a noob. But I feel a lot better now that I asked because even though I'm just starting out, I want to start out right. So I'll keep the Spectre and focus on getting my exhaust. But before I get into that, is it the same concept?

 

[dc2_2NR]

Man we all started as a noob -_-. Were just helping a fellow teggy owner out. Thats what forums are for!

 

[travistrouble]

I just read through the whole thread about reviews and most members have AEM or eBay intakes but all of them have a con so I'm going to keep mine and just put stickers over it so it doesn't say Spectre :lol:. One thing I'm curious about though is the other day when I was getting the brake dust from my rim on the passenger side I noticed for the first time that the cover that goes above the wheel on the wheel well is gone and there is a plastic empty tube that's black hanging down but is separated from the hole that it went into. It just kind of dangles down a bit.

The guy that owned it before was an idiot so I have no clue what he's done. The teg was f***ed pretty bad from him because he didn't know what he was doing. My car is on coilovers but he didn't adjust them properly so different sides sit lower.

If anyone knows what that empty black 3" tube is under the wheel for please let me know