Really.
Guess I'll keep my "ran an Alta over 2 years" mouth shut. What do I know?
Andy and I were some of the first people to comment on it.

Since I still have the whistle( very mild) and all I have left is the Alta hose then it must be the hose.

It's the dam hose. Curse you Alta and your defective hose

 

Naw it aint just the hose. Its the lack of restriction with the airbox. My car had the Alta CAI w/o hose for almost a year and the whistly was there. Its not any different with the hose on.

 

Yea that's been my thinking all along.
Glad you confirmed the hose question though.

 

You have a PM

 

i thought that whistle was the throttle body opening and closing. makes a sucking noise and stuff.

 

SOrry about the delay we didn't get any notifications until today! So very sorry for the huge delay!!

The whistle is normal, but the VGS that a NAM member came up, and adjusting the spring in your air bypass valve, will help it go away. But not completely, it just gets better.

Even in stock form that whistle is there. But the plastic fire wall, sealed air box, and the resonator chamber in the fresh air tube dampen it down. The whistle is from the TB plate being opened just slightly. THis is not uncommon in the aftermarket intake industry. I can think of some Honda v6 intakes that had a similar problem, but it was more of a bee buzzing sound at idle or just off idle. Which by the way is much worse compared to the whistle.

kurvhugr,
At this point no, but we can offer valves, Ti retainers and springs for the drivetrain. These are parts made by Supertech. They allow for 8000RPM, or more if needed!

But at this point, i would leave the heads up to a head porting shop. Since we are not head porting experts, and we don't market other peoples parts or head jobs as our own, we most likely will not do this.

VBG,
Hmmmm, like this?? We have this in the works, and something you might see for SEMA!!



PassatDoTd,
Sorry!! We rely on the NAM notifications, and we didn't get any! I know that makes us look bad, after we just said we are here all the time! Sorry!

jd72277,
Sorry you feel that way. What kinds of info would keep you interested?

 

In chronological order:
Saying that this is a forum is not a wise-*** comment. Nor is the obvious fact that it is a PUBLIC forum, meaning anyone and their mom can post whatever they want, whenever they want (within the NAM content guidelines of course).

Alta has an email address. They also have a website with contact numbers and maybe even a fax number if you would like your query to remain confidential.

On the other hand, the purpose 95% of NAM'ers are here, is to interact with other NAM'ers. To draw on and contribute experiences, lessons learned, and to have a good time. Being rude to someone offering their opinion and or help is pretty low, imho.

 

Unfortunately, head porting shops are hard to find around here. Like the philosophy though.

Does that mean you haven't had any pm notifications lately either? [hint, hint]

 

Cool, that looks good, I'm guessing that that is insulated with more than just metal, since metal transmits heat so well??

Here's a pic of mine:



In addition to the visible covering over the top, the insulation covers all the metal walls on the inside of the Alta airbox. Also, I've built a simple metal wire bracing system that sits between the filter and the thermal insulation to keep the thermal insulation in place and to keep it from contacting the filter directly.

I and a couple of friends have been and will be testing this design (I've made the same for them) with dynos and performance computers. There is an obvious reduction of the SC whyne, and for the first time we are seeing some early indications that our butt-dyno feelings may be substantiated by real HP gains (~5 to ~10 OHP/WHP average), although as you know there are so many environmental variables involved with measuring performance that it is hard to say anything for sure.

This testing has only been done in Southern California during the hot summer, so there may be variation in other areas due to climate and temperatures. But in order to be seeing that kind of result with thermal insulation, my guess is that with a standard Alta CAI installation that doesn't have a top, the free flow of air works, but the cold air doesn't. I don't have one of the new Alta airbox covers (or any top other than the thermal insulation), so I can't tell you if that would make any more difference. This thermal insulation design would fit under the Alta cover, btw.

Feel free to PM me if you have any thoughts or questions about this.

Best,

-- Don

 

kurvhugr,
Just sent you back a PM!

VBG,
That shield is aluminum boded to fiberglass, and is good to 400 degrees. The temp isn't a problem, but its main thing is it will reflect the radient heat away. By no means are we saying this will make big power, but it will help keep things cool! We truley only made this because people have asked us. And we like making people happy!

Very interesting though on your top!

 

Very nice, aluminum bonded fg... Thin too . Good protection.

Am I guessing correctly that this would be mounted on the outside of the airbox?

Will there also be a layer of this material available for with your top?

Best,

-- Don

 

I don't know why you feel it necessary to rehash something wagnbat. Apexer and I have already worked things out (with an apology from me to him, fyi).

But I stand by what I said. This is the "Official ALTA Q&A thread". So I was looking for an official answer. Whether I email, phone or put it here shouldn't matter.

I've been around here long enough to know the purpose of "95% of NAM'ers here". And 99 times out of 100 I'm supportive and thankful. So often these days there are smartasses all over this forum who throw in their annoying comments just to **** people off. I took apexer's comments that way. As I said, we continued our discussion in PM so as not to dilute the thread anymore. Why don't you do the same.

 

VBG,
The top material won't be too far off!

PassatDoTd,
You have every right to use this Q&A thread to contact us. That is exactly what is for! But sometimes there is a delay in getting the notifications, which means there might be a delay in getting back to you. So if you ask us something and we don't respond in day or so, it couldn't hurt to email us at tech@altaminiperformance.com, or even use AOL instant messenger to get in touch with us.

Its 105 today, and its time to go home!

 

Electric blue might be nice, and it'll still show the dirt. Matches Kingbourne wires too.

 

I had no problem with the length of time you took to reply. Wasn't a life or death situation. I was just curious. Thanks for the answer.

 

Any new info on CARB certification for the Alta intake?

 

Alta 2,

I bought your CAI off of Ebay and loved it! Just wondering about the situation with the CARB sticker and can I get one if I bought it off of Ebay?. All so I like the cover you guys came up with but, your web site does not have a price for it and does it fit ALL of your intake old and new? How much is a replacement filter. Mine is the old style and likes to slip off and I ripped the collar a little bit trying to crank down on the worm clamp to keep it from falling off.

I then bought your exhaust, The center pipe seems to like the passenger side of the car where the center hanger likes to bounce on the heat shield on the passenger side and there is bearly amount of hanger on the drivers side. So I took the locking collar off the rear hanger ( and replaced with a collar off my rotisery stick off my grill ), pried the exaust over and attached it. After bolting everything back together it still favors th pass. side and is pulling the driverside mount way over. My fear is that it is eventually going to rip that mount. Any ideas? Plus I have about 2,000 miles on the car and the exhaust is blowing insolation stuff all over the back of the car. With out touching it it looks like oil because it is fine and shiney. It gets annoying hearing from people asking if I have an oil leak.

I just bought your 15% pulley and can't wait to put it on. will it cause more stuff to come out the exhaust?

Thanks Tavis

 

BluecooperS,
At this point PAINT is not an option, and would make the price of the part more than most people are willing to pay. But what we always suggest is talk to you local

04SDmini,
Got some good news Friday! Things are starting to happen! Things should start happening very soon!

travis1,
The filter is an item we sell, just give us a call. This goes true for the top. The webiste is a little behind, as this is changing significantly in a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't worry about the mount ripping, but there is a way to fix it. If you can imagine the hangers, they point straight up in the air. IF one is bent slightly it can make it more wobbly than normal. If this got damaged in shipping, the exhaust can be a little loose? So you can also spread them out a little, creating a triangle. This will help stabilize it.

On the material coming out the back, this is somewhat normal for a new system. The insulation in the muffler consists of Stainless Steel and fiber glass. The SS is layered first, then the glass. The SS protects the glass from melting with the heat. So some of the glass will sort of filter throught the SS when new. After the system is heated up and carbon buids up, this goes away. It is just one of those things that is normal on these types of mufflers. Changing the pulley will not effect it after a couple weeks of driving.

You will love the 15% pulley!!

 

Thankyou so much for the reply Alta 2! I really do love your products and I always claim " powered by Alta " to all my MINI friends.

It's not that the exhuast is woblely, It seams like it is off to one side ( the passenger side ). It is actually is very stable on the car. Before i put the collar on, the P- side hanger would rest on the heat shield and with normal engine vibration it would vibrate against it and make noise. the D- side had maybe a 1/4 inch or less in it's hanger on that side. So I pried it over and put the collar on and when I released it pulled back over pulling on the D- mount. It does not hit the P- side anymore, I was just worried with the constant pull on the D- mount it will eventually rip it.
TAvis

 

Paint color? I thought we were discussing the color of the filter element. Gotta say, the drop-in panels are kind of electric blue and they really aren't attractive when they're dirty.

 

tavis1,
No worries, those mounts are very durable.

BlueCooperS,
Sorry! I am with you now! The filter element may not change as we now have the box top to cover it up. So at this point we are going to make the filters a color that shows dirt (so you know when to clean it) and a color that suite most everones needs. But if enough people as, we can do a dark grey which looks very cool, but hard to tell when it is dirty.

 

NAM communitiy,
We have gotten some calls from customers on our box top, and how it doesn't fit or isn't what they expected. I would like to open up a conversation regarding this to help better explain to customers how the box top fits and is attached. If anyone has questions or concerns please let us know.

 

The written installation instructions are not complete. Also, my black box top came with a silver screw. No big deal, but shouldn't come with a black screw? What do you do with the 8-10 inch rubber strip?

 

I’m interested in getting a top for my Alta CAI. Can you elaborate on how it should fit.

I assume it will fit over the ECU. One other thing I have an M7 strut bar will this pose a problem?

Thanks

 

Larry changes have been made, to make things clearer, thanks to your help and a couple of others. The black screw we are working, on. That rubber trim is for the back side of the top. It basically creates a seal like the plastic wall used to do.

One thing we goofed on was where the top goes. Meaning the top should fit on the inside of the front edge of the box. Some people have been putting them on the outside, and the bracket doesn't line up.

That is why we wanted to open a discusion about this to help people out.

Its one of those things that is so simple to install, that no knowing the small detail about the lip, can really make it a PITA to install.

scmcs,
It fits over the ECU and it will clear you strut bar. A very helpful NAM member helped us with the test fit to show this.