Vararam V6 intake installed!

[Nova65SS]

I will take a close look at it again tomarrow and see where we can pick up some space. If it floats somewhat with the additional space, the unit shouldnt be "pushed" off by the radiator. I dont think the plasticweld will be a problem. Its not a glue really -it is literally like a plastic "weld" and surprisingly strong. I would clean up the little bits before I mounted it and not worry. My ONLY real problem so far has been at the TB/horn. I wonder if you simply got a bad insert. The replacement parts I recieved werent bolted together so maybe it slipped by. I work in an industry that uses alot of threaded brass inserts from china and japan- I have seen a couple that werent machined all the way through. If its SAE grab a tap and goto town I guess. Metric ...if you can find a tap.

[sales@vararam.com]

Call us tomorrow so we can solve your issues!!!

[cntryman77]

I understand what you are saying bmore & agree with nova...we see bad threaded inserts from time to time as well...since it's brass, running a #10-32 thru it may be the easiest...again I know what you mean about a replacement part being right, but this may be the easiest fox for you

[VR Baron]

We saw alot of these fitment issues with the airlids for the 4th gen.Quality, finish and the glue, all over the map on the different lids. But I dont like the lack of movement with this Vararam in regards to the engine as it will move. I would think after awhile may have problems. Some of the lids we saw even cracked after time from the engine torquing over! At least we had a accordian coupler from the maf to the throttle body for movement.Hopefully all will be good here but there just doesnt seem to be any extra room at all to play with. I'll keep the Injen

[ChadG]

So I drove to work (18 miles, mostly highway) today for the first time with the Vararam on. I know 18 miles isn't even close to achieving the learning period for the ECU, but I'll talk about what I noticed IMMEDIATELY. For comparison purposes, this is the ONLY performance mod I have on my car - it is completely stock otherwise.

First of all, I was skeptical about the reports of the changing in the exhaust sound - but there is a deeper, throaty growl when you hit above 2k RPM. This thing sounds great.

Secondly, the throttle response is very noticeable. The entire drive the most I depressed the accelerator was about 1/2 way, and the vehicle responded very nicely. I was surprised at how smooth the vehicle accelerates, I was going 80 with much less "effort" than it took before. The engine never really sounded like it had to work to get me up to speed, it just did. Smooth, silky acceleration! Very nice driving experience so far, I can't wait to log some more miles on it and go wide open throttle.

I will check my installation before I drive home (I put my tools in the car today just in case). My unit was sitting about as perfectly flush as I can imagine, and the fit was EXTREMELY tight - no play whatsoever. So we'll see if it gets out of alignment after some driving, but so far I'm very impressed.

As far as the people saying "I'll keep my Ingen." It looks to me like the installation of the Injen is much more complicated than the Vararam. I didn't have to remove a wheel, pop the wheel well, and change a water bottle - I bought an extra set of brackets to modify for 20 bucks and kept the stock ones with the orginal intake.

I'm a physicist, not a race car mechanic, but the science of this thing just makes sense. It is pulling fresh air from the grill, not from behind a fog light, head light and the surface area of the aperture for the air to enter as well as the surface area of the filter itself seems greater than that of other intakes. Combined with the fact that the plenum tapers down to the throttle body should produce a kind of Venturi effect which will result in increased airspeed into the engine.

Overall, I'm impressed with the construction quality of the product (even though I had a brass grommet issue like Bmore and was able to resolve it, and I had to file away a small amount of glue to get the MAF in) and am even more impressed with the customer service of Vararam. These guys are serious about wanting to create happy customers, my interactions with them have been fantastic - we can use more companies like this.

More to follow - hopefully all good to come!

For those that are going to make fun of me for quoting physics, here's a quick primer on the Venturi effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect

[E.T.]

Originally Posted by blackbee

We saw alot of these fitment issues with the airlids for the 4th gen.Quality, finish and the glue, all over the map on the different lids. But I dont like the lack of movement with this Vararam in regards to the engine as it will move. I would think after awhile may have problems. Some of the lids we saw even cracked after time from the engine torquing over! At least we had a accordian coupler from the maf to the throttle body for movement.Hopefully all will be good here but there just doesnt seem to be any extra room at all to play with. I'll keep the Injen

Steve, VR's customer service seems to be great so far, but what kind of guarantee do you offer on the unit? After a while, if the plastic cracks or something like mentioned above, is that covered??

[PoorMansCamaro]

Originally Posted by ChadG

So I drove to work (18 miles, mostly highway) today for the first time with the Vararam on. I know 18 miles isn't even close to achieving the learning period for the ECU, but I'll talk about what I noticed IMMEDIATELY. For comparison purposes, this is the ONLY performance mod I have on my car - it is completely stock otherwise.

First of all, I was skeptical about the reports of the changing in the exhaust sound - but there is a deeper, throaty growl when you hit above 2k RPM. This thing sounds great.

Secondly, the throttle response is very noticeable. The entire drive the most I depressed the accelerator was about 1/2 way, and the vehicle responded very nicely. I was surprised at how smooth the vehicle accelerates, I was going 80 with much less "effort" than it took before. The engine never really sounded like it had to work to get me up to speed, it just did. Smooth, silky acceleration! Very nice driving experience so far, I can't wait to log some more miles on it and go wide open throttle.

I will check my installation before I drive home (I put my tools in the car today just in case). My unit was sitting about as perfectly flush as I can imagine, and the fit was EXTREMELY tight - no play whatsoever. So we'll see if it gets out of alignment after some driving, but so far I'm very impressed.

As far as the people saying "I'll keep my Ingen." It looks to me like the installation of the Injen is much more complicated than the Vararam. I didn't have to remove a wheel, pop the wheel well, and change a water bottle - I bought an extra set of brackets to modify for 20 bucks and kept the stock ones with the orginal intake.

I'm a physicist, not a race car mechanic, but the science of this thing just makes sense. It is pulling fresh air from the grill, not from behind a fog light, head light and the surface area of the aperture for the air to enter as well as the surface area of the filter itself seems greater than that of other intakes. Combined with the fact that the plenum tapers down to the throttle body should produce a kind of Venturi effect which will result in increased airspeed into the engine.

Overall, I'm impressed with the construction quality of the product (even though I had a brass grommet issue like Bmore and was able to resolve it, and I had to file away a small amount of glue to get the MAF in) and am even more impressed with the customer service of Vararam. These guys are serious about wanting to create happy customers, my interactions with them have been fantastic - we can use more companies like this.

More to follow - hopefully all good to come!

For those that are going to make fun of me for quoting physics, here's a quick primer on the Venturi effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect

Taking the wheel well liner and old washer bottle out is not complicated. And you don't have to take the wheel off. There's more than enough room. The reason people (me) don't see it worth replacing my injen, is because the performance gain isn't enough to justify the cost. Everything you said about the vararam, a ton of people have said about their injen. And there's proof that the injen is one of the best intakes available, if not the best. You can use all the theories you want for why you THINK the vararam is better then the injen, but until there is proof, all it is is one persons opinion. For instance, get the IAT temperature and compare it to the injen. To see if your theory is correct. And the jury is still out on drag times. Still too new I guess. But if the fast list starts to get replaced by vararam users, then I'll consider switching.

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

The reason people (me) don't see it worth replacing my injen, is because the performance gain isn't enough to justify the cost.

You will always be able to sell your Injen and recoup much of your money.

[IndeedSS1]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

Taking the wheel well liner and old washer bottle out is not complicated. And you don't have to take the wheel off. There's more than enough room. The reason people (me) don't see it worth replacing my injen, is because the performance gain isn't enough to justify the cost. Everything you said about the vararam, a ton of people have said about their injen. And there's proof that the injen is one of the best intakes available, if not the best. You can use all the theories you want for why you THINK the vararam is better then the injen, but until there is proof, all it is is one persons opinion. For instance, get the IAT temperature and compare it to the injen. To see if your theory is correct. And the jury is still out on drag times. Still too new I guess. But if the fast list starts to get replaced by vararam users, then I'll consider switching.

You need to borrow one and then decide whether it's worth switching. Theorizing is one thing, trying one for yourself is another.

On the street I'm not sure you can compare IAT's. Look where the sensor sits in each cai and the material each one is made of... I know you guys know where I'm going with this. A lot of people will talk about feel. I think the difference in feel may be a combination of heat of the cai and airflow path. Under lighter throttle (daily driving), where heat isn't being displaced as quickly like at WOT, it's going to have an effect on performance, whether it's hot enough for the IAT readings to pull timing yet or not. jmo

[scrming]

Originally Posted by E.T.

Not having any room to flex concerns me. I'm sure the engine moves a bit. Have you ever revved it with the hood popped? You can see the whole engine sort of twist a little bit (or maybe it's the car)...at any rate, there is movement.

For reference:

[PoorMansCamaro]

Originally Posted by BackinBlackSS/RS

You will always be able to sell your Injen and recoup much of your money.

I paid 287. I'd be lucky to sell it for 150. And that's too low already. Essentially, I'd be paying over 500 for the vararam.

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

I paid 287. I'd be lucky to sell it for 150. And that's too low already. Essentially, I'd be paying over 500 for the vararam.

I'm not sure what you can get for your Injen, but modding is a hobby and it cost money and it's fun to try new stuff. So, it's all good.

[PoorMansCamaro]

If I can borrow one I'll be sure to try it out! Lol

[ChadG]

Originally Posted by scrming

For reference:

For what it's worth, when the engine revs it's displacement is lateral and the Vararam has plenty of room to move on that axis. The limited axis of movement for the Vararam is forward and backward in the engine bay from hitting bumps etc., which would hopefully be absorbed by the rubber bushings in the radiator brackets.

Only time will tell how well this holds up, but I think the V8 set up is very similar have we heard any issues regarding those?