It's Christmas eve and look how many of us are posting. Not sure what to make of this. Anyway, went to work this morning for three hours, then gave Petunia a bath and wax. While doing so my Christmas present to myself, a certain CAI from Needwings, arrived. So I'd thought I'd post my observations and experiences on installing the CAI.

So on to my notes:

First off, the intake kit was beautifully packed - a steamroller would have had to run over the package in order to damage the parts inside. The kit was complete with all required hoses and clamps and even a CD with installation instructions. It even had a license plate frame included - nice touch!.

Minimal tools required - 8, 10 and 11 mm deep sockets or wrenches, and an additional 10 mm wrench (a 7/16ths wrench substitutes nicely). Also a medium flat blade screwdriver, a towel, and for me, a hammer and long marlin spike. You will also need Adobe Reader 8.1.1 to view the CD. Lots of sites offer a free download. Just remember - Google is your friend.

This is rather obvious but open the hood the full 90 degrees.

My valve cover breather hose was already disconnected from the intake. Not happy about this. My grill was also broken - the far passenger side mounting tab was broken under the attaching screw. More unhappiness. I found a large enough washer to go under the screw head and reach over to the unbroken portion of the tab. Even painted the washer black so it wouldn't be as noticable.

My throttle body connection came off easily once I unlatched the upper clip. Not sure if the throttle body connection lower clip naturally releases after the upper clip is unlatched or if the lower clip was even latched in the first place. After what I've seen so far I'm beginning to wonder....... At any rate unlatching the lower clip will be a challenge so do the upper one first and then see if your throttle body connection can be rotated off without unlatching the lower clip.

The grill is easily removed - remove the 4 screws at the top, pull the grill forward, and then reach behind the grill and lift up on each of the 4 locking tabs at the bottom and pull the grill off.

Remove the passenger side horn from it's attaching bracket and remove the bracket also. My passenger horn wiring was routed in front of the main vertical bracket, not behind as shown in the instructions. This meant that I had to unplug the wires from the driver's side horn to be able to route the wire bundle over to the driver's side. This will make sense when you look at how the horns are wired. Remove the driver's side horn from it's bracket and the bracket itself. Needwings provides two brackets, one with two holes in it and the other with threes holes. Attach the longer three hole bracket where the driver's horn bracket was mounted. Attach the two horns to the bracket. The three holes in this bracket are not equally spaced but you should be able to figure out which end goes where. Don't forget to install the wires back onto the horns. I also tie-wrapped the wire bundle together where it folds back on itself between the horns.

The radiator pass through piece is fastened in place with two pins as shown in the instructions. The vertically mounted pin in front can be pried off with a large screwdriver. The horizontally mounted pin on the radiator support bracket is far more challenging to remove. I resorted to knocking it out with a marlin spike boldly embossed with a warning not to use it as a punch. So much for heeding warnings. Unfortunately the pin popped loose and fell down under the radiator. It eventually wound up on the floor but to save yourself some grief put a piece of tape over the front of it so it won't go flying away.
The pass through piece was a little difficult to pull out. Pretty much lever it sideways towards the driver's side and then pull it up and out. There is a nutplate (for the grill) above the piece and this nutplate can be pried off to provide a speck more clearance for removing the pass through piece.

When reattaching the power steering cooling line with the Needwings bracket (the shorter bracket with two holes in it), push the line back towards the radiator as far as possible. You are trying to make as much room as possible for the K&N filter. When attaching the bracket to the cooling line, use the wrench on the bolt head and the socket on the nut. Don't forget to re-install the screw on the attaching bracket on the driver's side.

Put the towel on the bumper before installing the elbow fitting. Push the elbow fitting as far as possible onto the hose else it may stick out to far and interfere with re-installation of the grill. Also position the clamp as shown in the instructions otherwise the clamp will hit up against the radiator support.

As noted in the instruction, use a towel to cover the passenger side heat shield and also cover the fender with a towel or something similar. I spent quite a bit of time bent over the fender and there was a real possibility of scratching it if it wasn't protected.

The 90 degree coupler gave me all sorts of grief. It was just small enough that it would not slip over the throttle body with any kind of ease. About three quarters of it would fit on and I had to use a scribe to pry up the remaining quarter edge to get it on. I positioned it as best as I could and then clamped the coupler down so it would not pop off when installing the rest of the intake.

I did not attach the end of the 27 in breather hose until after everything else was installed in case the hose needed to be trimmed. I did eventually cut off an inch and a half before installing the hose on the valve cover. I routed the hose low and behind a wire bundle coming off the fire wall so the hose would not press up against the bundle. I then routed the hose over another hose and between the driver's side heat shield and a gray vertical cable (as shown in the instructions). I also tie-wrapped the hose to a lifting eyelet (this is something that doesn't really need to be done - I just did it out of habit from tie-wrapping hoses and cables on aircraft engines).

The elbow fitting the filter was installed on needed to be rotated around a little until the filter was positioned where it would not interfere with the grill.

I could not find the extra piece of felt to cushion the intake from the coil packs so I tie-wrapped a cut up piece of hose to the intake to act as a cushion. It's not pretty but it works.

Gave the horns a toot just to make sure they were working.

Went for a test drive but traffic prevented any good runs. The engine sounds more authorative, the pickup and throttle response seems better, and the supercharger does seem to pull more strongly once revved up. Further testing is definitely needed!

Things to do still: Inspect the system to make sure nothing has come loose. Replace the cushioning hose piece tie-wraps with clamps - same effect but it will just look better.

Areas of concerns: The intake 90 degree coupling is under a lot of tension, at least in my setup. I spent maybe an hour fiddling with it and still am not real satisfied with the outcome. This is one area that I think needs to be looked at. Maybe have one end of the coupling longer, or redo the angle of the mating end of the intake, or maybe make the intake straight and use two 90 couplings. I'm just concerned that with the tension the coupling is under that it could slip off the throttle body.

Another area that I'm not really satisfied with is with the filter and grill. My filter is up against the power steering cooling line and the grill. Needwings did a good job in fitting the filter in considering the space available but I'm just leary of the contact since I've seen too much damage from this kind of contact in regards to planes. I think I'll grind away the back of the grill for additional clearance, and pull the filter forward a tad to clear the power steering line.

Last area of concern is the two horns on one bracket. On a plane that bracket would be guaranteed to break from the extra weight. On the car this setup is probably just fine but for my own peace of mind I think I'll rig up a support for the bracket.

Good job, Rob. Wouldn't hesitate from buying further products from Needwings.

As always, this post has not been run through a spell checker.