Installation of the RS Akimoto air intake onto a 1996 Camry 5S-FE engine
Step 1
Get rid of old air box and inlet tube. Disconnect intake tube from throttle body and air box by loosening the clamps. There is (1) tube attached to the intake tube; disconnect this. Remove the (3) bolts holding down the air box. These bolts are under the filter itself. The air box has (2) tubes attached to it. One is actually the air temperature sensor.
Step 2
Attach the flexible reducer that you got with the new Akimoto intake. (Mine was yellow). This piece gets attached to the throttle body. Reuse the original clamp that was used to attach the old intake tube to the throttle body to attach the new reducer.
Step 3
Prepare the new intake to be installed. Insert the metal intake tube into the cone filter. DO NOT attach clamp yet. Figure out a good spot to mount the bracket to hold the intake in place. This bracket will be slipped under the clamp used to hold the cone filter (this is why you don’t attach it yet). Look in the photos below to see where I attached the bracket. I also had to bend the bracket at a 90° angle. Again, refer to the photo to see what I mean.
Step 4
Install the new intake. Route the new intake tube through the wires and tubes so that nothing is being pulled are moved out its natural way. Place one of the clamps you received with your new intake over the reducer. Insert the new tube into the throttle body reducer installed in step 1. Be sure it goes all the way into the reducer. Rotating the entire intake while pushing it into the reducer makes it easier. When it’s in, be sure to rotate the intake downward so that the cone filter is tucked nicely behind the battery and will suck most of its air from the original port used by the old intake. Tighten the clamp at the reducer.
Step 5
Bracket installation. Again referring to the photos, you will see the odd shape my bracket has taken. All I did was to make the 90° bend at my bench vise. Then when I tightened the bolt I used to attach it to the body, it bent to conform to the shape below it. Move the intake and the bracket near each other so that when you install the clamp it can go around the lip at the end of the bracket as well as the cone filter. Open the clamp up all the way. Install clamp in a position so that when you tighten it down it catches the bracket and the filter. Tighten the clamp.
Existing bolt already installed.
Notice how the clamp goes around filter and bracket
end.
Step 6
Place the intake air temperature sensor into the hole in the new intake tube (there’s a black grommet in this hole). The wires will be rather short to get the sensor into the tube all the way. I loosened the clamp that holds the bundle of wires the sensor is connected to. This gave me a little slack so it wasn’t pulled so taught.
At
this point the install is pretty much done, except for the following issues:
- The two tubes shown in the two pictures below did not have a connector to be attached to upon completion of the installation. In the original setup, these were each connected to the intake tube; the first pictured below was very close to the throttle body and the second was attached to the air box. To complete the installation, I cut a new hole in the new Akimoto intake tube and attached a piece of ¼” vacuum line to both of these tubes. Everything seems to be working OK now (no ‘Check Engine’ lights!!). If you do this, be sure to cut the new opening in the intake tube with a good, sharp tool. I went out and purchased a new Unibit step drill. This made a nice, clean hole to insert a grommet that holds the vacuum line in place. Then, using a tee, I connected both the hoses below to the new vacuum line.
Goes to canister
- There was a box connected to the old intake tube that I cannot put back in (obviously). Since the installation, I have learned that this box is merely a ‘muffler’ to quiet the flow of air going into the old intake tube. Therefore there is no problem with not reinstalling it.
One last note:
Be sure to check for any looseness before you take it out
for a test run. Also, check it again after a couple of miles to be sure nothing
has worked its way loose.
One final picture of
how the engine now looks:
