Hi Folks,

Just purchased the above. Ive fitted these before but never in a Focus. Anyone have any idea about how these things fit into the engine bay. There isn't much room in there as it is.

Also only ever fitted these on cars that I didnt give a monkeys about...is there anything I should be doing in regards to the ECU? Or will it pick up the added air intake volumes automatically?

Cheers

From what ive read, itºll pick up all that lovely hot air circulating around the engine bay, as for anything else, you would need to have it mapped to take full advantage of it, it will breath easier as it is and by removing that as a restriction might give you some improvement if the hot air doesn't negate it though.

I looked in to it for my 1.6 and decided a regular filter upgrade was the best compromise as getting a dry cold location inside wasn't really achievable, the 1.8 might be better for getting some nice air.

The one I have ordered has been redesigned with a housing to protect it from the hot air of the engine. I know the cheap ones are utter rubbish but the more professional kits are all designed specifically for the car.

Ill let you all know how I get on with it but i know it is going to be a tight squeeze. I have seen some that feed down to the underside of the engine almost next to the wheel arch

the airbox on the 1.6 is really deep, it drops down to just above the gear box, if the 1.8 is similar then you should have shed loads of room down there and under the light (that's where im installing my catch can) my concern was that I keep things pretty clean down there and im constantly cleaning crap off the airbox, its also fairly close to the DPF meaning its pretty toasty down there too, ive seen some air boxes that form a seal with the bonnet when its closes and the front and side has been cut out to minimise the chances of hot air getting in, just not sure how much of a difference it would make unless you could redirect cool air up

Course the 1.8 might be completely different in which case I haven't a clue! ;)

Yeah....i think i may end up just seeing what turns up as part of the kit. I might have to construct something to make it work more efficiently. But for £170 it should be damn near perfect

Which kit did you buy?

Even the redesigned kit will suck in hot air unless you can locate the filter in such a WA that it gets maximum cool air even then in summer unless you're moving you're sucking in hot air so pulling off the car can be on sluggish and in tests very few offered any gains the panel filter was better giving better gains

The most optimum position I to the rear of the pass headlight with the cold air intake positioned as low as possible facing forward so behind the front lower grill

Thats good to know....and I got then 57i Gen 2 kit

Cheers, hope you get it fitted ok. Let us know how you get on. :)

In my experience the K&N kits come with pretty thorough instructions & installation photos to follow so getting the kit fitted into the available space shouldn't be too difficult.

There's often a bit of scope to rig up an extra cold air feed, especially if the original front grille scoop is no longer connected once the airbox is removed.

My filter lives down behind the front bumper, living on an unadopted road and parking on similar surface at work means the element collects quite a lot of debris, small stones etc but having just fitted a freshly cleaned filter before the car had it's service there's not much difference I've noticed compared to the grubby one.

So the kit arrived this morning...it's raining...but its a new toy so off I went.

It came with instructions for a 1.6 Mk2....which wasnt helpful as I have a 1.8 Mk2.5.

Everything fit except the bracket to secure the filter in place. So this will need some modification when it stops raining.

The cold air feed has been fed from the lower grille up to the filter, and I have left the original scoops in there to provide a little more air.

All in all...about half an hour to do....it sounds amazing, especially when it gets to 3000 revs.....I think my right foot just got a little heavier.

Couldnt say whether is feels any more powerful, but once it dries up, I will give it some beans and let you know

Also....they didn't have the Gen2 in stock....so refunded me 60 quid of the money and sent a Gen1. The only conceivable difference I can see is that the Gen2 has a cover to protect it from the warm engine. But this could be created i think

You wont notice any difference in performance, it will just sound like you are. I fitted a complete intake and turbo intake pipes on my mazda 260hp and made 4hp increase before remapping

Without the heat shield the heatsoak is ridiculous wait till summer and you'll see the air is so hot under bonnet that's being sucked in as you sit in traffic the car just doesn't have any go till you're moving and fresh air comes through if you can eBay had heat shield you could fit that weren't that expensive you need one that will go around the top half of the filter with the Col air feed blowing upwards at the bottom of the filter that will drop heatsoak right down

Good advice that mate. Cheers