I still want one

 

Oh, no apology necessary. You know when I look at the design of this thing I see every reason why it should work.

The size of those scoops is pretty significant. They are WIDE open. And their position in the front surely means that it will take in no underhood air whatsoever. All the air it gets will come from the outside of the car. None will come from under the hood. That certainly has to be a good thing if one is looking for the best performance.

And that air supply should be abundant because of the size of those ducts and the movement of the car. In other words, this intake is certainly not restrictive. Quite the opposite.

So I can see why you guys are getting the great results you are getting. It goes to the design. it should work and I intend to give it a long time to prove itself.

So far, I would have to give it a passing mark. Not an "A" mind you but a "B+". And thats only because of the build quality. Very good, mind you, so I do not want to give the impression that I am saying that it is crappy, but not great. They could have done better.

I made these posts not to deter anyone from purchasing a Vararam, that is not my intent for I am quite sure that I would buy another one in light of it's design. The design is ingenius and well thought out. I can't overemphasize that. I just wouldn't install it myself.

Also let me get this out of the way. Nothing is 100% foolproof when it comes to the possibility of hydrolock. You can hydrolock an engine with the stock airlid on it. But with the Vararam, because the seal between the foglight shroud and the airduct is not air tight, (remember the duct is braded to the OEM foglight shroud with 3 brads at the top only) any water that makes it into one of the foglight shrouds will have a tough time making it all the way up the chute, past the filter, into the MAF, into the air duct, through the bellows, into the throttle body and into the engine.

You would almost have to be trying to hydrolock your car to have it happen with the Vararam.

As I think about it, this is probably why the Vortex is so notorious for producing hydrolock. With it, the water has a considerably shorter distance to go, because the "duct work" is so much shorter vs the Vararam. With the Vortex, once a big enough splash gets under the cut radiator shroud, then sucked up into that short "duct" or clear box sitting on the radiator shroud, and then through that small cylindrical filter its over..... its onward to the throttle body.

In fact, once it makes it through the hole in the shroud, it already is at the filter, then onward and upward!!!!! Its a much shorter distance to the throttle body through the Vortex plumbing than through the Vararam plumbing.


I wrote this for the guys to know going in that it is a tough install. I can't blame anyone for the install being so difficult as this is a result of the design of our cars and the performance goals of the Vararam. GM never meant for this to be installed in the first place. The average owner was never meant to gain access to the areas you have to "visit" to get this thing installed, so of course its not easy install.

Bottom line is you need to be better than average with a wrench if you are going to attempt this. You don't need to be a pro, but you need to be good and you need a good assortment of tools and PLENTY of light. Extensions, metric and standard sockets, swivels, needle nosed pliers, a finger ratchet helps, any thing you have for hard to get to areas, and I believe a Torx for those OEM airlid studs in the frame which I forgot to remove. Power tools, while not crucial, will help in removing /replacing any of the radiator shroud screws and cut your time.

For the folks at Vararam, about the only suggestions I'd make, as a customer obviously and not an expert are:

1. I 'd have the airbox open from the front instead of the top. Like a clam shell. A front half and a back half where you could take the front half off to gain access to the inside of the airbox. Maybe a slide in, tray type configuration from the front of the box. This way you don't have to worry any about the airlid sealing on the backside against the radiator shroud, nor do you have to disconnect everything to install a filter. You would just open the panel to the front of the box. As it stands it now has a top portion and a bottom portion and you have to remove the top portion to change the filter.

2. I'd make the K&N or some other quality filter the standard filter. It wouldn't necessarily have to be a high flow filter, it could be paper. Purolater, AC Delco, Fram, etc, and let the customer decide if he wanted to drop the extra dough for one of the other higher priced oiled filters.

3. I'd improve build quality and alignment, whatever it took. As far as build quality, its not that far off, it just needs to be tweaked. It can be done better.

 

Good points EB2003. Hey make sure you post your corrected times after you run. I am curious to see how this does compared to your blackwing.

 

A slide in air filter is a great idea!

 

Congrats on getting it done, know your going to enjoy it.

 

 

EB20003, your experience is one of the reasons (along w/ inferior build quality) that I finally decided against the Vararam in favor of an MTI ram air box.. The MTI looks to be a superior design as far as hood closure, fit to the MAF, etc. And no need to cut the shroud; it comes w/ one.. And as far as the Vararam offering a "significant" performance gain over the MTI..

Anyway, good luck (buy a K&N filter for that thing if you want the motor to live) and definitely keep an eye on the airbox lid seal!

 

Dan, I do not know of any issues with hood closure, fit to MAF and you don't cut the shroud with the vararam.

 

Thanks Dan.

A K&N is definitely in my future. I may even take further steps to seal the airbox as Patches did. Unfortunately I cannot find his write up on this.


The MTI scared me off because of the experience NeptuneBill had in post #12.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=850500

 

Dan, are you sure you're talking about VARARAM?

 

Well, anyway, seems that this is the K&N airfilter people are using in place of the Vararam filter for anyone else interested. These run about $45.00 and are for the Triumph TR7 all model years.

Also, I have not been able to find anyone else offering an air filter for the TR7. Not Fram, AC Delco, or Purolator..

http://www.knfilterchargers.com/sear...x?Prod=33-2522

 

Sure.. I've seen / heard of several installs where the air bridge won't sit all the way flush w/ the radiator shroud, causing it to hit the underside of the hood (or at least the liner, anyway).

Don't get me wrong.. It's a great concept, design, etc. And I'm not going to sit here (like some others have) and tell you "Vararam" gains are "placebo". I know cold air / "ram" intakes work. Just (IMHO) a bit poorly executed, and to add insult to injury pricey as well. Plus, if you want real filtration you need to spend another 40 bucks for a K&N, and then figure out a way to seal the airbox properly. (EB20003), as I recall Patches simply purchased another set of those lock-down assemblies, so he had 2 on each side.)

 

Believe me, I've looked at this, and I fully intend to "mod" the mod! I'm going the cut the bottom part of the scoop back to the same level as the top part; I agree that trying to draw air from underneath the front of the bumper is not a good idea.. Maybe I'll give up .001% ram air effect, eh?

 

Well the roads were dry so I took her out and put a quick 80 miles on her.

79 to be exact, started at 15, 189 and she sits at 15, 268 now.

I got 10 miles away from home when she threw a P0128 code as I exited the expressway. To this point I could tell no difference between the Vararam and the Blackwing. I drove the 10 miles back, pulled into the garage, left it running and checked for air leaks thinking that this was what had set the code.. I found none so shut the car off and I reset the code. Turns out this is a coolant thermostat code.

Worthy of mention is my coolant temp was 174*, oil temp *156, Transmission fluid 129*. This after 20 miles. It was 33* outside.

I hit the road again. Intending to go the same distance, but after a while decided to go even further. Cruising at 65-75mph. I pulled off to the side of the road every 10 miles or so and shut the car off for a while before restarting it again. I recall that some codes set according to the number of ignitions, but I don't know if the P0128 is one of them nor how many ignitions.

After about 70 miles of up and back expressway driving, I started heading home. I started to notice a difference when stomping it from say a 65-70MPH roll. The car seemed to pull harder than before, and the KOOKS and Corsas were talking the talk.

I pulled into the garage and left it running. Tranny temps at 124* coolant at 163* oil at 162*. It was 32* outside when I got back home.
I run a 170* stat.

As a side note, I bring these up because my auxillary transmission cooler is hooked into the bottom radiator line. I have heard that this is "backwards" and that the transmission cooler will not work if connected this way. Well, all I can say is that if there is a way to make my transmission run any cooler, I don't want to know about it.

As for the Vararam

 

I hope you like it and the track results make the effort worthwile.

Cause it doesn't sound like you will be reversing this whole job...