Red Factor
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RedZ Intake
These pictures were taken on March 24, 2003
After about a month of waiting I finally received my intake from M and S Production. He ships it via United States Postal Service and uses 3 day service. Now don't order from him and expect it to be at your door in about 3 days. He also has to cut the Mandrel bent tubing to custom fit your engine bay. He then takes it to a powder coating place to coat your intake any color you want. He packs the intake up very well so that nothing gets damaged during delivery. It is a pretty simple design and can be made by yourself, but it is so much easier to just buy it already made. It would also look nicer from him since he has been doing this for years now. Out of a 10 I would give this product a 9 because I have never rated anything a 10. It comes close though. It was $103 shipped to my door via paypal. It is $100 if you send him a money order.
I started the installation by taking the stock air box off. This was really easy to do. All you needed was a screwdriver and a socket wrench set. You first have to unscrew the top of the air box off and loosen the clamp that holds the intake hose to the air box. You then pull the top of the box out gaining access to the filter.
After that there is a hex head socket that attaches the air box to the battery clamp. Take this off with the addition of loosening the clamp that holds the intake hose to the throttle body. When this is all done, just pull the entire box fixture out. Make sure that you disconnect the hosing on the intake before you remove it. It is that easy.
I kept my stock air box because I figure if I sell my car (have no plans to) then I can sell the intake for more money then my original air box. It is a really ugly box. Looking at the picture you notice that the stock air box pulls in air through the small slit in the front which is referred to as the snorkel. It is a very small hole that the engine has to breath with. The aftermarket intake is so much better.
Here are some more pictures of the engine with the air box off. The pictures show my stock throttle body which I am going to replace soon. I want to purchase a 62mm throttle body from FDP Performance and port and polish my upper and lower intake myself and maybe even the cylinder heads one day. I'm researching the process of doing those procedures for when I do buy my throttle body.
Now for the RedZ intake. Installing this item was easier than taking the stock air box off. First you have to put the rubber coupler that was provided onto the throttle body. Tighten the clamp so that it will not move or slide along the throttle body opening. This is very important to tighten because if the intake were to accidentally fall off during driving, then many problems could occur and could potentially be damaging to the engine. For example: particles can now enter your engine that the filter would have stopped. Then attach the filter to the piping and slightly oil the grommets with WD-40 so that the hoses and air sensor can easily slip in the intake piping without damaging any of the rubber. This should also provide a better seal. After that slide the intake into the coupler and tighten the clamp so that the intake will not move. The kit only comes with 2 metal clamps so you will have to use one of your existing ones for the intake to be installed. After everything is tight and the intake is stationary, plug the air sensor back in.
One thing that needs to be modified is the plastic hose the fits into the top part of the intake piping. It is too short to be placed into the intake. I extended it using ½" heater hose and two small metal clamps that can be bought at any local auto parts store. I then used a saw and cut the hose in the middle. Make sure you clean the hose, after you cut it, of all plastic material since this can easily be sucked into the engine. After you modify that part plug the hose into the intake and start her up and enjoy it.
Here are some before and after pictures. Looks a lot better with the RedZ intake.
Stock air box
RedZ Intake
Was this modification worth the time and effort? I would say yes. Most enjoyable $100 I have spent on my car yet, and it was incredibly easy to install.