How-To's

Click to jump to the following sections:

RAM AIR A full ram air intake
CUSTOM GRILL Clean looks with a grill
RED TAILIGHTS Tired of amber?


h o w - t o : c u s t o m  r a m  a i r

What is a ram air setup? Essentially, air is rammed from an opening in the front of the car through a tube into the air filter. This has two effects:

The engine receives cold air (according to Turbo magazine, an eleven degree decrease in intake air temperature results in a one percent increase in power)
The engine breathes more air, since air is essentially "rammed" into the engine intake. And more air means more power.

Recently, a few companies have made "professional" ram air kits available for about $250+. Basically, you're paying for carbon fiber and a name brand. But the same setup can be made using a $5 dryer hose and a $35 K&N filter and a couple of plastic ties. It won't look quite as neat as a the $250 kit, but it should perform almost as good.

Check out Imoto's carbon fiber hood with scoop intake. It retails for $600, but does it look trick. The hood is much lighter than stock, too.

There are many different ways to make a ram air setup. In mine, I first cut out a grill for both looks and an opening for the ram air. I attatched the dryer hose to the grill using plastic ties and then shoved the end of the dryer hose into the stock airbox. Finally, I replaced the stock air filter with a freer-breathing K&N. You can also replace the entire airbox and filter with a popular cone-style filter and just have the ram air hose aimed towards the cone. I didn't do this because the cone filter will still end up drawing in some hot air from the engine bay. Also, various articles show that the stock airbox design, with the resonator and tubing removed, is superior to any type of aftermarket system (if the airbox filter is replaced with an easier breathing one). I know that DINAN, an established tuner, upgrades the intake with a larger airbox instead of a cone filter.

For this installation you will need:

Parts:
- 2.5' of dryer hose, with a diameter of 2.5-3" - this can be found at hardware stores
- small plastic ties - also found at hardware stores
- a K&N replacement filter
Tools:
- utility knife or a Dremel
- Phillips screwdriver
- something to make small holes - preferrably a drill

1. Remove the front bumper to make installation easier. It is attatched by five screws on top and between the headlights and two screws in the front wheel wells.

2. Remove the resonator and tubing. See the large box filling the front lower right of where the bumper used to be? (No, not the airbox in the engine bay.) Take that out, and take out all of that contorted mess, tubes and all, until you have just the airbox itself left with the opening on the bottom attatched to nothing.

3. Cut out opening for ram air in bummper. You can cut a hole just big enough for the tube, or cut out the entire right hand molding assembly. Or, you could also install a grill. I suggest using a Dremel hand tool or a very sharp utility knife. The utility knife takes more arm strength, but will produce cleaner results.

4. Attatch dryer hose to airbox and connect to bumper. Depending on the size of the dryer hose, either shove it into the airbox or put it around the bottom airbox opening. If you shove it in, it should stay without any fasteners if the fit is tight. If you put it around the opening, I would recommend clamping it with a plastic tie. Next, poke holes into the end of the dryer hose. Then, on the bumper, drill holes in the appropriate places for attatching the dryer hose. Use plastic ties to attatch the bumper and the hose.

Depending on the length and "stretchability" of the dryer hose, attatching the dryer hose to the bumper may be done easier with either the bumper on or off the car. If the bumper is on the car, then you'll have to do it by reaching behind through the front of the wheel well by bending the plastic-rubber (what is that stuff exactly anyways?) lining the wheel well. Experiment...

5. Install the K&N replacement filter. Simply remove the four screws attatching the top of the airbox, take out the old paper filter, and pop in the new one. And of course, reattatch the top of the airbox when you're finished. Reattatch bumper if you haven't yet (duh).

Done! Now go out and take a test drive! Hopefully you should notice more torque and a higher top end. (For me personally, it increased my top end from low 120s to 130.) There should also be an slight intake noise and the car will sound throatier when stepping on the throttle.

NOTE! During the rainy months, you should remove the dryer hose. Otherwise there is a good chance that water will be sucked up directly into the engine intake. If water reaches your combustion chamber, then you can put that down payment on a new engine.


h o w - t o : g r i l l

Improve looks with a new grill. A new grill will also allow more air to come in your car, but the performance effects of this are negligible. I guess you don't really need instructions on how to do a new grill. It's pretty straightforward; just cut out the appropriate moldings on the bumper and replace it with a grill. It can be difficult to cut out the bumper, however, since it is pretty thick. There are also a few methods of attatching the grill, too.

For this installation you will need:

Parts:
- grill - choose one to your liking. Some can be found at hardware strores, or even screen door shops. It took me a while to find just the grill I wanted.
- small plastic ties - also found at hardware stores
Tools:
- utility knife or a Dremel
- something to make small holes - preferrably a drill
  or
- a urethane-metal adhesive - hard to find, but looks cleaner than using plastic ties

1. Remove the front bumper to make installation easier. It is attatched by five screws on top and between the headlights and two screws in the front wheel wells.

2. Cut out the old grill. I suggest using a Dremel hand tool or a very sharp utility knife. The utility knife takes more arm strength, but will produce cleaner results. This can take a while. Keep in mind how the grill will attatch to the bumper.

3. Prime and paint grill using spray cans. It looks very clean if you paint the grill body color.

4. Install grill using either adhesive or plastic ties. If using plastic ties, drill or punch equally spaced holes; run the plastic ties through the holes and the grill. After you're finished, all that's left is to reattatch the bumper.

Done! Now go around to show off your new grill.

Hmmmmmm.... Now that your side grills have much more air coming in, one posibility you could tinker with is venting your front disc brakes.


h o w - t o : r e d  t a i l i g h t s

Hopefully it's not necessary to go into detail on how to paint your tailights red. But here are the basic steps and some tips:

The tailights are held by screws that can be accessed by removing the covers in the trunk. Remove these before painting.
Use Testor's brand "Candy Apple Red" transparent model paint. This might take a few calls to different model/hobby stores to find.
If you want to tint your tailights instead, use Testor's tint model paint.
For protection, coat with some spray laquer.

A can of model paint costs about $3. Depending on how red you want your tailights and how much laquer you use, it could take anywhere from one to four cans or more (it took me four.)

I'm not really satisfied with the results--the tailights have a matte finish compared to the glossy finish they had before painting. I've been told the way to shine them up is to apply many layers of laquer and then lightly sand them with 2000 or higher grit sandpaper. Then polish it using some type of paint polish. I'll get around to doing this eventually.

After all this is done, it might cost $20 or more if you have to buy the sandpaper and polish. The paint alone will probably cost more than $10. If you're happy with non-glossy red tailights, then definitely get one or two cans of the $3 model paint. Otherwise, it might be easier to get a $20 can of paint made just to paint tailights red (this is available at some performance shops.) It claims on the label to reproduce the stock glossiness. I haven't personally used it, so I don't know if it does what it says. It seemed ridiculous when I first set out to do this to spend $20 on the paint, but if it really does what it says and if glossiness is really important to you, you might save yourself alot of effort (and maybe even a bit of money) by just using that. If anybody has any experience with this paint, please email me.

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