I had a Callaway Honker on order for a couple of weeks from TByrne. Both Callaway and TByrne were class acts by telling me that the Honker was on Backorder and would not be in on time for a yearly Quarter Mile meeting with a bunch of people from work.

So I cancelled my order and bought the Excelerator inlet from MTI Motorsports. David Coates even shipped it 2 day air to make sure I got it on time.

So here is my install:

Here are photos of what it looked like out of the box:

Hardware including rivets, drill bit, hold down bolts, and genuine GM MAF gasket.



Looks almost the same as the Honker



Another view:



The filter made by Green Filter:



To tell you the truth, the filter question really worried me. I was afraid that the Excelerator might have an inferior filter to the Callaway. So I sent an email to Green Fitler and got the following back:

"Audrey Sentz" <ASentz@greenfilterusa.com> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: "Glenn Lane"


Yes that is our filter in their intake, we do not sell them to anyone
except the company that sells the intake. They should be able to help
you out with a replacement filter.


Thank you for your interest in Green Filter USA.

Audrey Sentz
asentz@greenfilterusa.com
724-430-2050

-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Lane
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 1:39 AM
To: Audrey Sentz
Subject: Green Filter for the Corvette C6 Xcelerator Cold AIr inlet
made
by Xcelacorp

Do you make the green filter for the subject cold air inlet system? If
so, how much is a replacement filter?
http://www.motorsporttech.com/c6_air_intake01.asp
Thanks,
Glenn Lane



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On to the install. I had already cut up my original shroud by trying to make a homemade cold air inlet (that didn't work), so I ordered a new shroud from Gene for $31 shipped to my door.

So I installed the inlet and put tape along each edge of the original shroud. I then measured where the tape was and transferred this to the new shroud. This allowed me to cut up and install the inlet to the new shroud as Steve (CBFR) was not available until later that night to help me take out the old shroud.

Here's a photo of the trial fit to find the location of the tape:



I then put the tape on the new shroud and using the supplied template I found the best location for the filter housing. You only have to locate the housing from side to side during the trial fit. The front to rear location is already determined because of a bend in the shroud that matches a bend in the new filter housing. I found the template kind of hard to get perfect, but it was good enough. I then used the actual filter housing to determine where to drill the 1/2" holes that locate the corners of the filter cutout in the shroud. After drilling the 1/2" holes, I then used the masking tape to connect the outside of the 1/2" holes. I used a jig saw to cut out the filter opening, cutting along the edge of the tape. Here's how it looked after cutting:



I then used a flat file to clean up the edges and made sure it matched the mating filter housing.

 

CBFR gave me some advice, he said to use the template as a rough guide on where to drill the rivet holes. So I used 3 small c-clamps to hold the filter housing in place, used the template to roughly locate the holes, then used the supplied drill bit to drill through the shroud and the filter housing at the same time. I made sure I was drilling into the middle of the filter housing body (CBFR said the had to redrill some holes on an installation he did, but his tip saved me from doing this).



Rivets in place ready to pop:



There were a couple of raised areas in the shroud that would probably block flow into the new filter (probably insignificant), but I decided to grind them down.



Here's the finished product of the new filter housing rivetted to the shroud with the new green filter in place:

 

OK, now the hard part. Up until now I had spent 1.5 hours doing the install. Pretty simple and straight forward.

I started removing the plastic pins and screws that hold the radiator shroud in place. I ground a V into a thick gasket scraper I had in order to make a plastic pin remover. I removed the 2 on each side of the shroud underneath the car. I think I broke 2 of them. I mistakenly removed the three bolts in the middle of the spoiler (didn't need to). I removed the small screws that go up vertically (7 mm heads). CBFR came over and made me put the car up on my Rhino Ramps. He was right, there are some screws you can't get to otherwise. He pointed out the three 7 mm headed screws I had to remove under the front bumper. (Also, I earlier removed the stock filter mounting pins on the back side of the steel bumper beam using a 30 Torq, I didn't know why at the time but it would most likely hit the new filter housing). CBFR also pointed out a plastic pin on each side of the shroud that go into the A/C condenser. The pins push back towards the back of the car.

Thank goodness for CBFR, I could not have removed this shroud by myself. He got underneath the car and pulled the wings inward while I pulled up on the shroud. After a little wrangling (CBFR at least was wearing thick gloves), the shroud came out. Putting the new one in took a little persuasion, but not that bad.





We then put on the lid, tightened down the thumb screws and tightened the MAF gasket. We were done and it looked great:



Next posting and I'll discuss performance gains.

 

Great write-up. On a side note, my Callaway Honker did not come with a new GM MAF gasket...

 

CBFR and I went out and ran the car and it felt good, but heck, I DO NOT believe in SOTP's testing.

So off to the drag strip. My first run is normally my best. 77 degree night, 30.07 barometer, 30% RH, I ran 12.57 at 114.73. OK, this was my best trap speed (the best indicator of HP). My car consistently corrects out to 117.4 mph if I'm running in 70 degree or warmer weather. However, the colder it gets the less it corrects out to. In the high 50's the trap speed corrects out to only 116. Correcting out the 114.73, put it at 118.13. So I picked up .73 mph. Plus, I was probably a little heavier (fuel). I'm estimating that I picked up around 7 to 8 hp over my old setup. I forgot to mention, I was running a K&N Air Charger inlet before, so this is not compared to stock.

In addition, I feel the car is more consistent. I ran 6 runs, all between 12.563 and 12.658 and 114.73 and 114.01. I hot lapped the car for 3 runs and it did get slower, but not as much as before.

My son came over today and we did some logging. I only went around town so I couldn't get on it too much. With 77 degree ambient and letting the car idle for 5 minutes, the IAT's were up to 105F. Just driving around town, the IAT's dropped to around 92F. When I got on it in first and second, the IAT's dropped to 84, but they were still dropping when I would let off at 50.

So, overall, I like the product. It's well made and added some power.

A big thanks to David Coates of MTI, very classy guy and great to do business with.

Thanks,
Glenn

 

Thanks for the information!

 

Nice write up. And with the exception of the wings for the rediator shroud tabs, the product looks exactly like a Callaway Honker. Right down to the enclosed hardware.

Glad to hear that you are pleased with the gains.

 

glenn, let me know when you want to data log both of our cars, it would be interesting to revisit the iat issue again...btw, glad to help you out any time.

bretthunter, i know you had done some limit data logging with a bottom feeder, do the iat seems about right with your experience? thanks

 

Great write up and a job well done.