GT John

Got home a little early Friday, so thought I would get a jump on installing the WMS CAI and Ram Hood.

First thoughts when opening the shipping boxes (2) are;
1. There is nothing cheap about any of the components, very well laid out and constructed.
2. The installation instructions are pretty good - could use more and better quality photos of the installation
process.
3. All the parts to assemble the CAI were there.

Deconstruction:
Taking out my C&L True Flow (powder coated) CAI, radiator guard/cover and radiator fill tank was no problem. Note: Make sure you have something to catch the anit-freeze in before you remove the radiator fill tank and connecting hoses. Expect to replace 1 gallon of yellow anti-freeze. Yep, the whole gallon.

WMS CAI Ram Hood Assembly:
Pretty straight forward stuff here. I installed a "Therma-Tec" heat barrier on the under side of the Ram Hood to help keep the Hood cool. Turned out pretty nice for something that no one will ever see. [&o]
Installing the hood support rod keeper is a real PITA, you may have to enlarge the hole a little. I used a round file. Oh yeah, dont put the round file away just yet. You will need it to file 2 slots in the ram hood, one for the factory hood support rod and one for the hood latch l___l thingy.

Saturday morning (install day)
Mounting on the Ram Hood is pretty simple. Expect to remove 1" of plastic from the vertical passenger side back hood piece where the intake assembly passes through. I used a hack saw. The drivers side is okay.
The factory push pins will reinstall okay except for the 2 push pins in the very front that connect the hood to the front grille, there you may want to use regular push pins, like the ones you get from Auto Zone. Or use small round file to enlarge the holes unitl they line up with the holes in the front grille. I used regular push pins.

Installing the radiator fill tank (in its new location) had me guessing though, WMS needs more pictures for this one. In the package they ship this big round bar of plastic/pvc. This is the support for the fill tank. DUH!
When I got the fill tank installed the first thing that came to mind was........this things mounted too high and I wont be able to close the hood.........dont worry.........there is plenty of clearance for the hood to close.

Installion/modification of the MAF wiring is straight forward. I would encourage anyone doing this not to use the supplied "butt connectors" in electronics this is asking for problems. Take the time to solder the wires and use small shrink tubing to cover the solder joints. The supplied wire covering is not long enough if you use the total lenght of wire supplied, like I did. Back to Auto Zone. [&o]

After installation, fill up the radiator tank with anti freeze, start the car, bring it up to operating temp, turn the car off, let it cool, add more anti freeze. Retighten the MAF hose clamps. Take the car out on the highway and run it for a while. Add more anti freeze, retighten the MAF hose clamps. You will find that you have used a whole gallon of anti freeze. And that retightening of the MAF hose clamps was neccessary.

Now for all of you that are running the C&L with a custom tune like I was, this next part is pretty interesting.

The car started just fine, I backed it out of the garage, turned the engine off, went back in the garage and cleaned my mess up. Got back in the car and started the engine............darn [&o] the "Check Engine light" came on.
I kinda half way was expecting this to happen since the Spanish Oak continues to monitor and record (adjust)
A/F.
Opened the hood disconnected the battery lead, waited about 30 min (had to take a shower) then reconnected the battery lead. Started the car.........no "Check Engine Light".

Took the car out for a nice 70 mile highway drive. I wanted the Spanish Oak and my 93 Octane Extreme Tune to re-educate themselves to the new CAI. That worked

Took the car to my local Dyno shop, the owner had asked that I come by after the install so that he could check it out. He thought it was a pretty good idea and asked if I would like to dyno it.............heck yeah.
But this time I wanted to dyno the car with the hood closed. (never have been able to understand why guys have their cars dyno'd with the hoods open, my hoods always closed when I drive)

Could'nt get on the dyno yesterday, there was one ahead of me trying to get 550hp out of his 5.0 stang.

I dont expect to see any horse power addage on the dyno. The WMS was installed because it makes sense to have the intake in the front of the car and not buried in a wheel well somewhere. Also given that I am very well educated in thermal dynamics and the behavior of air in ducts, air moving in and unobstructed path with no turns or bends is way more effecient. The WMS system offers a straight path to the throttle body. Just like the Dodge Viper and the Corvette.........to name a couple.

Thats all for now. The GT is running great, just as before. I have piece of mind knowing that the air intake is where its supposed to be.

I'll have the GT dyno'd this Saturday to check out the A/F's............if I can get there early enough.

Later

jaiasmit

Great write-up. I installed mine about a month ago from stock. I'm actually going to the dyno tomorrow to get a custom tune at Brenspeed. Switching to 93 octane and having him tune for the WMS. I'll post some numbers when it's done so all can see the difference the WMS makes on 93 octane from stock.

GT John

I may have been a little hasty in my report as far as CEL Error Codes go. Right now I'm running Freds 93 Octane Xtreme Tune with the WMS. I got 2 error codes this morning when restarting my car at the gas station this morning.

CEL Error Codes: P0172 and P0175.

I'm trying to find someone who can tell me what these codes are. Or point me in the direction where the error codes are listed.

I'm reasonably sure the errors have to do with the A/F.

I have the SCT ll so I was able to clear them. However I expect they will return unless I make some changes to the GT's programming.

The install really looks pretty neat. I'm trying to locate a chrome stick-on mustang to stick right in front (on the ram hood) of the air breather. Should look pretty cool.

As soon as I get a digital camera I'll post pictures of the WMS System.

Thank you.

RED121572

Gotta pic?

jaiasmit

Here's some pics of mine after the install.

https://mustangforums.com/albumphoto...Type=1&apage=1

or, you can just click on the little camera icon underneath my name on the left side.

cekim

http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/index.php
Running rich on both O2 sensors if I have that right...

viking396

Nice write up save for one thing, if having the CAI in front with no bends was the absolute in better flow, it would beat the others in competition which it hasn't done, it wasn't worse either but logic would agree with you, straighter is better, shorter run into the throttle body should be better however it hasn't proven to be the case. I like that CAI and debated buying it but decided on the TI instaed, maybe because I'm lazy......not sure.

classj

Shorter runs to the intake arent always better. In fact, usually, a tuned intake pipe of proper legnth will usually make more power than an open one. It is more how the air is guided into the intake.

Example. Dyno a carburated motor with a standard 14"x3" round air cleaner, nothing special. You might get one number. Take the air cleaner off, thinking ahh, more power, cooler air. You almost always lose 5-8 hp. The air cleaner actually makes for less turbulance.

I would be curious how this all works out. If you are running rich that means to me that the C&L was a bit more free-flowing.

But cold air is better. How does that system deal with rain?? Looks like it would just get wind blown right into the air filter.

cekim

Which brings me back to a thread from a while ago in which I wondered aloud if all the CAI stuff wasn't almost entirely about "the tune"?

The answer regarding the intake is not really straight/curved/long/short/tuned but rather is it a "constraint" to the system or is the system constrained more so elsewhere in its ability to suck air in (determined by measuring vacuum drop at the start and end)?

As I said back then, I can believe that Ford's choice of filter element is not ideal given cost/supply constraints.

BUT, given that one can use a blower with the stock intake box and even the 475HP upgrade to the saleen blower still uses the same box with a larger tube, methinks that this part of the "system" is not really the limiting factor for N/A setups.

Same goes for the lousy return on investment for larger throttle bodies on N/A setups...

All of that says to me that most of the benifit is coming from the tune pushing timing+AF the setup closer to its more efficient ideal rather than the safer median chosen by ford to work "everywhere".

"Ram-Air" is another issue entirely, but this setup isn't really a ram - you would need to rework the grill at a minimum or poke a hole in the hood...

That and rams (for my purposes) take too long to give me the power I crave (you have to be moving)

It does look nice - I will give it that and all the tests say it is about the same, so no harm done I suppose...

GT John

Exactly what is going on. The engine is now running rich.
Since Fred at Evo wont mail his tunes out so that I might adjust the A/F using the SCT Extreme Software I am left with only one option and that is to dump Freds tune and go with Doug at Bamachips. Doug has done some work with the WMS and will email tunes.

I am not going to debate over which CAI is best. The decision to install the WMS HV System was based on getting colder air to the engine during warm months. All of my driving is at highway speeds of 70+ mph. My GT does not go into the city at all.

Thanks for posting the location of the CEL error codes. The location has been bookmarked for future reference.

Thanks again everyone.