Hey everyone,
Just thought I show the fruits of my labour yesterday
I finally picked up a few items, including my shifter cable bushings, Injen CAI and Cusco 3-pt strut brace. Plus a few other goodies...
Here are the shifter cable bushings installed. I decided to do it at the same time as the CAI, since you have to remove the stock airbox for both installs anyway.
And here is a shot of the CAI and brace installed.
I was pleasantly surprised by the CAI... I was expecting a bit of a change, but nothing much. It actually makes more of a difference than I thought, and gives the R18 a bit more juice
The sound around 3-4k also puts a smile on my face! I don't know if the sound might be helped out by the Si exhaust, but it might.
The only problem I had with the CAI install was that the 17mm breather tube was about 1mm larger than the breather fitting on the CAI all the way around, and so wouldn't fit on its own. I think it was the fitting on the CAI that was the problem, not the tube, since the other end fit fine. Luckily my neighbour had a spare 1" gear clamp, and I used that to secure the tube onto the CAI, with no further problems, and no CELs
The strut bar is a bit more of a subtle addition, keeping the car flatter in turns. It makes it feel more controllable, and less "jumpy," especially if there is a bump in the road during the turn.
Among the other "goodies" that arrived were my Corsport endlinks, SS brakelines and front and rear Hawk pads, with a shoutout going to Tai @ Corsport for his true-to-form excellent service, despite my constant PMs
Goodies that have yet to arrive are my Megan downpipe, Megan H-brace, front & rear BDI rotors, G2 caliper paint and interior LEDs.
Once I get those, I think it'll be time to start a thread for everything I've done, and make it all available in one place
****EDIT****
Here's a drive-by video for sound... unfortunately my camera picks up a lot of background noise, so it doesn't really do it justice.
And I have to post this for a laugh. My girlfriend's PRICELESS response when I was trying to explain how to work the "movie" function
****EDIT AGAIN!****
Here are some more pictures of today's additions:
Megan downpipe:
Megan h-brace:
Downpipe installed... the install was fairly straightforward, except for the fact that you need three nuts, bolts and washers to join the downpipe to the exhaust, since the stock bolts are welded to the downpipe.
A shot of the new bolts... I used M10x30 bolts with M10 washers and nuts.
Megan h-brace installed... very easy install, but the only difficulty was actually getting the 17mm bolts on the subframe loose, since they were stuck on there like a bastard.
Side shot of the brace installed... fortunately, it doesn't reduce ground clearance by much.
After fence-sitting for a while, I finally decided to add the Injen and Megan stickers on the rad cover. At least they're not visible from the outside of the car
I'll make an "all-car" thread once I get some time!