I think I might be ok, I cut into it last night and installed the whole thing this morning. No idles issues, no lights on the dash, it's all good so far
sorry for crappy phone pictures
I don't have a drill at home and decided to cut the hole with a blade instead. The plastic cuts fairly easily, just went around a little bit at a time until it was pretty close to what I needed. I filed down the edges and made sure there weren't any stray cuts or cracks. Everything fit pretty well:
From the inside:
Before I put on the RTV, I tried to use some Loctite that's good for plastics for some added strength. This didn't work so well, and it had a bad reaction with the intake elbow. I felt the plastic get really warm, and quickly wiped off what I could. I don't think any permanent damage was done, but it was a little scary. Lesson learned.
These are with the blue RTV. I decided I'd rather use too much than too little, and I applied it on both sides of the opening. I made sure to get it in every little spot I could. I smoothed it out a little bit with a business card before I left it to cure:
I let it cure overnight , and by morning the RTV was ilke rubber. I squeezed and twisted everything around and it was surprisingly strong. I wiped everything down one last time and went to install it. Everything fit pretty well, and it has a lot of support on it's own. I thought I was going to have to tie it down somewhere but it's ok on its own.
I fired the car up and everything is good. Idle is proper, no check engine light, and thankfully no leaks that I can hear. I haven't noticed any change in engine response or performance.
What I
have noticed is a familiar growl when I put my foot down to the floor. The noises from the intake are much deeper than they were before, and there are especially good throaty sounds from 1500-3500rpm with lots of throttle. If I drive the car lightly I can't tell any difference. I can only hear a difference when I bury the pedal, which is nice.
The changes in sound at the top end of the rev range are less noticeable. I can still hear the deep induction noise, but it doesn't sound like it screams at a higher pitch. I remember my old 3.0i had an absolutely piercing wail around 6-7k, unfortunately I'm not getting that same sensation with this setup. I don't know if there are any other differences within the firewall, or the if the added plumbing changes anything, but the sound is not piercing in the same way I would describe the other one. I currently have the rearmost piece of foam within the sound generator removed, I might remove the other one and see what that sounds like later.
I went for a long drive through the hills this morning and I haven't had any issues so far. I hit some big potholes and tried to toss the car around a bit, everything is still tight. After the long drive with a hot engine, the sound generator and plumbing were only warm to the touch.
Overall I'm happy to have done it, and I'll definitely be keeping it on. Now I just feel like I have to go for an intake and headers to get the top end noises I dream about
