McCall
05-13-2009, 07:52 PM
This past Friday I decided to pop the top on a few cold ones and install my new Vararam intake along with a heater hose relocation kit, HSRK, all new stainless engine-tops bolts, as well as remove the engine cover along with the intake cover (under the fuel rail). First, the pics:
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077693_cP2km-M.jpg
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077699_2FhFo-M.jpg
A couple thoughts/opinions-
Overall it's a well designed system. It fits pretty good and sounds great. There is not any more noticable notice coming from the motor (sans covers) when crusing around and you can really hear the motor growl when you hit the gas! I also felt a difference in my seat-of-the pants meter (unplugged the battery for 2 hours) so overall I'm happy with the intake and the overall engine bay clean-up.
On the flip side, I think Vararam "cheaped-out" on the intake hosing. First off, Red?? Come on, this is not a Civic. Give us the option for black please. Secondly, I just don't like the silicone intake hose inside a hose design for the purpose of making up the different diameter of the MAF vs. the throttle body. There are plenty suppliers who build purpose-built transition hosing that could pull off this application perfectly. For example-
http://www.turbohoses.com/Transtion2.JPG
I, for one, will be buying one of these correct transition hoses and that's a bit of a shame for a $350ish intake system.
Another point, you can tell that Vararam did not pre-fit the '09 model when designing their system. Apparently GM changed the wiring loom that runs along the radiator from '08-'09. Mine was not plastic loomed as I have seen in other install pics (and the instruction manual) and now the wiring contains a very large electrial connecter in the center that appears to be tied to the exterior tempature sensor (inside gauge). To make matters worse, the wiring for this connector is very short and doesn't allow for much wiggle room. With this connecter in the way, in order to run the main loom behind/underneath the intake, I had to unwrap all the factory tape (done very poorly by Holden btw, bad on them). Once apart, I pulled out the wiring related to the electrical connecter and them properly re-taped all the rest of the wires. If I had a plastic wire loom sitting around in the garage at that point I would have installed it as well. I will be going back and doing that. Now that this electrical connecter is seperated, I'm still trying to find the best way to run it in front of the intake without it just falling down in the area in front of the radiator. There's not a good place as I can see to simply zip-tie it out of sight. I think when I install the wire loom, I might have to just integrate it back into the main wiring and run it all in front of the intake in that gap between the intake and radiator support.
Here's a pic of the connector and related wiring I'm talking about-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078167_UYv8K-M.jpg
Any ideas would be appreciated.
One last install tip, when running the new PVC hose from the intake manifold to the intake hosing, I cut it a bit longer and placed the 90-degree brass fitting underneath and simply re-routed the hosing overtop the throttle body and around underneath the intake hosing. This gives you a much cleaner looking install. Seen here-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078241_LWTGX-M-1.jpg
I also unbolted the radiator tabs from the core support and removed them as well. The instructions don't mention this but why bother leaving them on the car?
Here's a good shot of the heater hose relocation. It was easy to install other than having to work with the factory clamps (I just hate those)
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078314_WaCDh-M.jpg
And finally, a newly exposed intake manifold with all new stainless hardware. It really cleaned up the look of the engine-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077152_aYZCM-M-1.jpg
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077693_cP2km-M.jpg
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077699_2FhFo-M.jpg
A couple thoughts/opinions-
Overall it's a well designed system. It fits pretty good and sounds great. There is not any more noticable notice coming from the motor (sans covers) when crusing around and you can really hear the motor growl when you hit the gas! I also felt a difference in my seat-of-the pants meter (unplugged the battery for 2 hours) so overall I'm happy with the intake and the overall engine bay clean-up.
On the flip side, I think Vararam "cheaped-out" on the intake hosing. First off, Red?? Come on, this is not a Civic. Give us the option for black please. Secondly, I just don't like the silicone intake hose inside a hose design for the purpose of making up the different diameter of the MAF vs. the throttle body. There are plenty suppliers who build purpose-built transition hosing that could pull off this application perfectly. For example-
http://www.turbohoses.com/Transtion2.JPG
I, for one, will be buying one of these correct transition hoses and that's a bit of a shame for a $350ish intake system.
Another point, you can tell that Vararam did not pre-fit the '09 model when designing their system. Apparently GM changed the wiring loom that runs along the radiator from '08-'09. Mine was not plastic loomed as I have seen in other install pics (and the instruction manual) and now the wiring contains a very large electrial connecter in the center that appears to be tied to the exterior tempature sensor (inside gauge). To make matters worse, the wiring for this connector is very short and doesn't allow for much wiggle room. With this connecter in the way, in order to run the main loom behind/underneath the intake, I had to unwrap all the factory tape (done very poorly by Holden btw, bad on them). Once apart, I pulled out the wiring related to the electrical connecter and them properly re-taped all the rest of the wires. If I had a plastic wire loom sitting around in the garage at that point I would have installed it as well. I will be going back and doing that. Now that this electrical connecter is seperated, I'm still trying to find the best way to run it in front of the intake without it just falling down in the area in front of the radiator. There's not a good place as I can see to simply zip-tie it out of sight. I think when I install the wire loom, I might have to just integrate it back into the main wiring and run it all in front of the intake in that gap between the intake and radiator support.
Here's a pic of the connector and related wiring I'm talking about-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078167_UYv8K-M.jpg
Any ideas would be appreciated.
One last install tip, when running the new PVC hose from the intake manifold to the intake hosing, I cut it a bit longer and placed the 90-degree brass fitting underneath and simply re-routed the hosing overtop the throttle body and around underneath the intake hosing. This gives you a much cleaner looking install. Seen here-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078241_LWTGX-M-1.jpg
I also unbolted the radiator tabs from the core support and removed them as well. The instructions don't mention this but why bother leaving them on the car?
Here's a good shot of the heater hose relocation. It was easy to install other than having to work with the factory clamps (I just hate those)
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535078314_WaCDh-M.jpg
And finally, a newly exposed intake manifold with all new stainless hardware. It really cleaned up the look of the engine-
http://mccall.smugmug.com/photos/535077152_aYZCM-M-1.jpg