*Review* Rallitek TURBO Air Intake 90-94 *Review*

[David Carter]

Rallitek Intake install /Review.

Day one's objectives were to clean up the vacume lines and install the Rallitek Turbo Intake. Before i start beating this system up over it's many faults, Sean has been exteamly helpfull even though i griped way too much. Also this Kit is a custom job, it's NOT a featured product that they sell..they have more of an idea to to a full COMPLETE intake..but untill then this is what they have..And it works.. with some fanagleing..

We started by removing the stock air box,

and moving down the intake assemblie when we ran across our first leak of the day.

Who ever owned this car first...either did this himself as a quick fix..or brought it to a BAD mechanic.. the pipe at the base of the resonator box broke off, and they epoxied/or something the rubber hose to the box..inside the hose was a nylon pipe to complete the circut..needless to say that probably lasted a week before it broke again..

The next leak we found was the BOV pipe was split past the clasp..

I don't have a picture of the other leaks but the stock elbow is split really bad.. i have it JB welded for now but come monday i'll be ordering another one..also the bov connection on the elbow cracked off..so again i have it rigged till i can get a new elbow peice.. Again it'd be nice if the kit removed this and completely replaced it..but for now you'll have to keep this restrictive peice.
Now once we had the intake completely off we took the time to completely replace the vacume line system, most of which was dryrotted, heat expanded..or cracked. I know this picture dosen't show it but we zip tied most of these so it dosen't look like so much speggetti..

As a side note i RECOMEND this to EVERYONE..replace your vacume line system.. i normally run 6-7 Psi at peak.. after the vacume lines we're replace i've noticed a very strong 9-10PSI at peak..with no flutter or hesitation.. and the fuel smell went away.

This is of course how the instructions want the intake installed. Also the instructions want you to save the stock bolt that hold the maf to the box, so that you can use them to attach the plate adaptor to the maf.. unfortunately.. the bolt part of the screws is pop rivited/welded together to the box.. what i recomend is useing the 4 bolts that close the box and thier matching bolts, that you have to pry out with a flat head screw driver. other wise head to home depot and get new bolts and screws.
UNFORTUNATELY the way they have it in the instructions will not fit the space available:

So with some creative cutting with a saw-zall you reomve like an 1, 1/2 from the elbow

and move the sheath they provide down the elbow a bit more.. or you can cut the nice pipe they give you.. i chose the crappy rubber bit..

Now after the intake is intalled and all the vacume lines are attached.. your still left with the large oil re-circulation pipe that used to go to the resonator pipe..


Ralliteks directions are to use keep puting pipe within pipe untill it reduses enought to get it into the secondary hole they provide..i chose to go Back to auto zone and clean them out of connectors.. it finished up like this:

It was a pain at points but with a bit of elbow grease and fabrication, it all goes together

Special tools...hmm.. I found that my Dremel, and SAWZALL were invaluable tools.. i used them ALOT this weekend.. i had alot of tools

The kit Fit, still with all my trimming..is very tight.. there is no play..which i wil have to adjust later. Weight..is about 3-5 pounds.. the old system is easily 13+ lbs..

this is everything the kit replaced.. Cost.. i probobly spent close to $40.00 getting this to fit/install.. Time..we started at 11:00am and were up to 7:00pm finishing up minor details. not counting clean up..

Was it worth the $169.00 Honestly for that money they need a specificly designed system, so untill then NO.. Does it work.. YES!.. It has made the car increaseingly more enjoyable. The install has rasied my psi from 6-7 to 9-10 and i haven't even installed the MBC.. i think i've lost a bit of lower-end but i haven't gotten to drive the car like i would like to because i've been working on it all weekend.. other than around the block and up and down the street i haven't gotten to really lay into it.. The Stock BOV sounds like an elephant, blowing his nose..not too attractive.. but it scares people on the side walk.. they jump everytime it goes off.. The turbo is extreamly noticeable..it is extreamly intimidateing..

Down sides.. I now have a really really really low idle.. just above off.. and she wants to stall at every light.. I increased the idle at the throttle body and the problem was gone..

David Carter

[Legacy777]

David, adjusting that TB stop screw is a no-no.

You'd be better off turning the IAC valve slightly. But in all honesty, it sounds like something is not hooked up correctly because you have that low idle.

Did you reset your ECU? That may be causing it, especially if the car had quite a bit of learned data to run with that un-metered air.

[David Carter]

David, adjusting that TB stop screw is a no-no.

You'd be better off turning the IAC valve slightly. But in all honesty, it sounds like something is not hooked up correctly because you have that low idle.

Did you reset your ECU? That may be causing it, especially if the car had quite a bit of learned data to run with that un-metered air.

Stop screw?, i adjusted the 2 cables attached to the TB..if thats the tb stop screw i'll try and put it back where it was..

I unplugged the Battery for about 2 hours..before i messed with the TB..it was still giving me grief.

David Carter

[Legacy777]

Here's the stop screw.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... P_1510.JPG

If you just tightened the cables, that's not good either.

[David Carter]

Here's the stop screw.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... P_1510.JPG

If you just tightened the cables, that's not good either.

Na i didn't toch the stop screw..but i did tighten up the cables just a bit to get the idle to stay at 750. I'll put it back when i get all the leaks fixed.

David Carter

[Rallitek.com]

David, good to see you got it in and are happy with the performance.
We appreciate your feedback. Maybe in the future this part will no longer be custom and we will have the kinks worked out.
Sometimes we are hesitant to make custom parts because of the difficulty in assuring the fit is like oem, however we really want to support Subaru models besides the GC8 and WRX. Keep up the enthusiasm!
We were out of stickers and the printer raised our prices so we resorted to making them in house, we will be sending you some stickers and a Rallitek T-shirt, are you a large or medium? I have black shirts with blue logo or dark grey with blue logo, let me know which one you would like.
Thanks for pointing us to this great Subaru forum, we really appreciate it.

Mike and Sean

PS we are impressed with your ability to make it work, kudos to you!

[JasonGrahn]

While I do commend and appreciate vendors stepping into our older car arena, I must demand the highest in quality. I understand this product is new and there are quite a few bugs to be worked with, but present research tells us all that an open element filter in the engine bay is not a good thing. The airbox is a must, especially with you turbo'd guys and your high intake temps.

Are there any plans for this in the future or have you decided that design would be to expensive to fabricate?

[legacy92ej22t]

I agree that it would be really nice to see a unit with either a boxed in cone (preferable) or panel filter that pulls air from the fender or have the intake extend into the fender. If it was "bolt on" i'd probably buy it.

[Rallitek.com]

This was a custom piece, it is not for sale. The product was made without the customers car in our shop.

On our website we have a cf cold air box with hood ram scoop you are more than welcome to order one.

We believe that with a properly sized IC under hood temps are not an issue one need to be worried about with an under hood filter. The intake air temp would only be high at a stop, the turbo heats the air more than the engine bay would. We believe one would get better results from installing a front mount IC if one was worried about intake charge temps.

We wanted to help David because he is a good customer.
We appreciate the work he did to make the part fit since we have never had his car in our shop. We realize that doing what he did was above and beyond what one would expect from a mass produced bolt on part. This was not such a part, it was custom fabbed from one of our NA intakes we have to cannabilize, thus the cost being the same as the NA intake. This didn't even factor in the work we did in our shop to convert it.

Less anyone read into our posts feelings that dont exist, we are glad he got it to work, sad it took him time to fit it and dissapointed it didn't work as we sent it. We hope to contribute to this forum the information and expertise we have accumulated.
Sean has an MBA in automotive mechanics and worked as a Subaru service manager for seven years prior to founding Rallitek.

Feel free to e-mail us at sean@rallitek.com for hints and tips to shoot the breeze or find out what you can do to increse the performance of your older model Subaru's.

We are also proud to offer a range of NA performance upgrades for ej25 motors including complete valvetrain kits, piston work either higher or lower compression, head porting, valve seat matching and cryo treatments for trannies and motors.

We'll see you guys around here, take care and remember to keep the shiny side up, and the rubber side down!

Sean & Mike

[JasonGrahn]

It's good to have you guys on board. It's good to see you've actually got the background to be making and selling these parts, unlike other vendors that have come and gone.