Whew! It's been a hell of a weekend. Decided to tackle my earlier series Vararam VR and VR Intake install over the weekend.

I did a lot of research on the install, since I've heard some rather frustrated people that could have probably pulled the whole drivetrain in less time than to install this. It already had another CAI on it, but not a true CAI, it just sat under the hood pulling in hot engine air.

So I remove the old one, and start tearing the front end (more or less) of the car out to accommodate the tubes. That went fairly well a few cuss words here and there, but overall took about an hour to remove all the pieces and add the left and right tubes. Got the tubes both aligned and bolted up. Then came the power duct. I have no idea how any human on the face of the earth could connect the adapters that came with that kit. The 4" piece that connects to the Vararam filter fits just fine, but trying to connect that power duct, forget it! The power duct has the same OD as the adapter, there is no way that is going to fit. I tried for several hours to get the power duct side to fit. Tried heating the adapter up so it would expand, no go. WD-40 on the inside of the tube, no go. You name it. I finally just used some of the tubing pieces from the previous CAI to get it mounted. As others have stated, it looks like the CAI (from the filter side is about 3/4" to low or the engine is setting about the same distance to low. It took a lot of creative engineering to get everything hooked up, including cutting almost every adapter to size. We shall see how it goes performance wise after I get a few miles on her. No codes yet, so that's a good thing.

We shall see. One thing I would recommend is to NOT bolt the air rams up to the font end. They will align themselves just fine once everything is attached. Otherwise it may interfere with fan shroud installation. Trust me on that one.

Whew...

 

I want to get this as well Let me know what difference you feel and see in mpgs as well. Also does it make your C5 sound different when accelerating or if you smash the gas pedal?

 

I had the same issue. No codes or anything here either, it's been about 1000 miles. Brilliant design, terrible execution on manufacturing.

 

I assembled the ram tubes with the adapter to connect the pieces as a unit before dropping it into the engine. That way, after I bolted it to the front fascia, it was just a matter of connecting the rest of the ductwork inside the engine bay. Really not that difficult to get it in this way.





Added an extra latch on each side of the filter box to secure the filter better.