Power Intake Installation - June 23, 2008

With all of the intake parts ready for installation, I was finally able to finish the intake relocation. Here are the main steps I took in order to get to this point:

These steps don't include some of the measurements I took to choose tube size, coupler size, etc. The entire process is shown through the updates posted on the site.

Before installing the intake, I took some time to clean out the remains of the battery tray area. I used sandpaper and a steel wire brush on a dremel to remove most of the rust. Unfortunately, in some places, the sheet metal had rusted all the way through. In other places, the metal was extremely pitted because of the extensive rust. I cleaned out as much rust as possible so I could paint the area for now, but in the future, this sheet metal needs to be replaced.
I then prepared for paint by masking off everything around the tray area that I didn't want to get paint on.
I cleaned the metal with Simple Green followed by acetone.
Next, I applied two coats of white Rust-Oleum primer to the area.
I followed the primer with two coats of DupliColor red paint.
After letting the paint dry for several hours, I removed the newspaper.
With the paint dry, I was able to start working on making the supports for the MAF sensor. The A'PEXi Power Intake kit came with supports intended for the position of the MAF snesor in an SR20DET engine. However, I was able to bend the supports (using a hammer and vice) so that I could bolt the MAF sensor to the battery tray sheet metal. One of the supports wasn't long enough to reach the battery tray, so I took a strip of metal and bolted that to the tray. Then, I attached the support that came with the kit to the support that I fabricated. I simply drilled through the tray and used a nut and bolt to hold each of the two supports to the chassis.
Since the MAF is now on the other side of the engine bay, the wires that connect to the MAF must be moved to the other side. This was simple since the wires run from the right side of the engine bay anyway. There is a group of wires taped together that run over the top of the fan shroud from the right side of the engine to the left. I cut open the electrical tape that holds the wires together to separate the MAF sensor wires from the rest. Then, I wrapped the MAF snesor wires and the rest of the wires separately with electrical tape to make two groups of wires. Now, the MAF sensor connector can be moved to the right side of the engine bay and connected to the MAF.
At this point, I connected the two vacuum hoses that go into the intake. The larger hose needs to have a few inches cut off the end to meet the pipe on the intake properly.
Next, I installed breather filters on the valve cover and the PAIR valve air intake.
I removed all of the stock intake parts from the left side of the engine bay. In addition to the stock air box, there is a resonator box right in front of the left front tire that can be removed. There is also a second smaller resonator on the right side of the radiator that can be removed. It's attached to the fan shroud with three bolts. The picture shows the room freed up in the left side of the engine bay as a result of removing the stock intake parts.

I drove the car on the street with the new intake and did a few acceleration runs on the highway. It feels about the same at low RPMs but seems to pull a little harder and accelerate faster at higher RPM. I had to cut some of the padding from underneath the hood since it was rubbing on the valve cover breather filter.