Well fellas, I know I've been preaching the fact that my car is about to get paid off, and you're tired of hearing it, but bear with me, lending your attention may be fruitful!

Factors that led up to this point
1. Car is finally getting paid off
2. Car needs some serious TLC
3. My stock air box is falling apart
4. My KSport Coilovers are dying
5. My softtop has more holes in it than a cheap hooker wearing some old fishnet stockings.
6. My fenders need to be repairs/repainted
7. Back fenders/quarter panels need to be rolled/pulled/flared
8. A/C needs to be put back in (or maybe not)
9. Headlights need to be polished to remove the cloudy look
10. Red Carpet is fading due to wear and tear
11. Would like to replace the seats due to normal wear and tear
12. Radiator has a small leak
13. Alignment is needed
14. Rattling from various parts in the engine bay (may be loose nuts and bolts)
15. Maybe a repaint



As I replace/repair each item, I will cross it off my 'To-Do' list.
1. Car will be paid off mid April
2. TBD
3. Researching aftermarket intakes as we speak, I'm leaning towards the K&N FIPK, but been hearing great reviews about the PasswordJDM. I don't know if I'm willing to shell out $1000 on something so vulnerable, being in the very front of my car)
4. Researching the ride height/comfort level of Koni + Swift Spec-R vs Bilstein PSS9
5. Probably will just patch those holes until the softtops becomes so far gone, that I can't fix it with a patch
6. Will most likely get the Shine +25 fenders painted to body color instead of repairing the OEM.
7. Will most likely get this done when the Shine Fenders get painted
8. Probably won't happen
9. Hopefully will get done b4 car is paid off
10. Red Carpet will be used until it falls apart, then I'll just buy some new OEMs
11. Recaros probably, but not gonna happen until the very end.
12. Simple fix, will get this done b4 april
13. Will get an Alignment after I get new suspension (will probably be the 1st thing I'll do, suspension + alignment)
14. I'm constantly trying to figure out where it's coming from, but seems to go away with warmer weather. *shrugs*
15. This will probably be the last thing I do, and when it gets done, it'll be White + White Pearl.

 

16. Order a new bumper


ordered...

 

nice, i'm getting work done on my STI it needs some TLC too, s2k is in the hospital at the moment

 

3. Intake ordered.

 

What kind of intake did you get? =0

 

COMPTECH !!!!!

 

yup comptech!


i got it in on thursday and installed it the same night. i'll do a write up on it after a couple days.
i'll give my thoughts on the kit in bullet/outline form:

* opened up the shipping box, and everything was properly packaged, oddly it wasn't packaged in a comptech box, but jus a generic shipping brown box.
* once i dug deep enough and everything that was in the box was now outside the box, i wasn't very impressed with the build quality of the item, i assumed that the majority of the intake kit was made out of carbon fiber, when in actuality it was mostly plastic. the only carbon fiber piece was the top of the intake box... purely cosmetic usage of carbon fiber.
* after ripping the old intake box and starting on installing the ct intake, the instructions weren't very clear on where to mount the horn assembly. per the instructions, the horn was to be placed in an area in which the intake housing was going to sit. i went ahead and mounted it elsewhere, due to the shortness of the wires and wire harness that were to be plugged back into the horn assembly.
* after spending some time figuring that out. i was able to start on the installing the intake filter, tubes and gaskets
* the intake filter and the intake tube it attaches to went easy
* from the intake tube then attaches to a gasket that connects to the throttle body tube where that attaches to the throttle body itself via gasket.
* my concern at this point was that the gasket that attaches to the throttle body has a little dog leg in it. for some reason or another, CT decided that they were not going to make another throttle body tube, but they were going to make a new throttle body gasket that would be an adapter that was off centered to make up for the imperfection. i'm not thrilled about that throttle body gasket, but so far it seems to work just fine, i'll keep a closer eye on this to see if it causes any issues in the future.

after letting the ecu adjust, i took it out for a spin to see if there was any different in throttle response and hp gains. off of the butt dyno, the car feels as though its able to take in more air, seems a bit faster, the throttle response is definitely noticeable and i'll see if there's any gas mileage gains.

 

BALLIN ! How does it sound ?

 

oh yea, about the sound. under normal driving conditions, like taking it easy, the CT intake is well behaved, in fact, you can barely notice it. under wide open throttle or even aggressive driving, the intake wakes up.

 

i've found the issue with the rattling ... apparently the catalytic converter is rattling right onto the side of the underbody, seems to me, an easy fix would be to purchase a new exhaust ... a cheaper fix would be to just move it.