Did you guys have to take your mass air sensors off there mounting brackets to make it fit? Did you have to enlarge the hole in the fender to fit the fender-mass-air tube?
i have speed density i had to buy the section that goes in place of the MAF, everything fit fine, the hard part was getting the filter clamped on with my hand inside the fender...
I just installed a BBk about 2 months ago... I think I still have the instruction if you are interested let me know and I can email or fax them... And yes the mass air sensor brkt. gets removed. No cutting is involved of the innerfender. The old filter box drops out the bottom of the inner fender. Hope this helps... troy
Thanks 89blackvert! But I got it installed. The only problem was that the fender tube barely goes into the inner fender enough to clamp the airfilter on. I wouldnt be surpirsed if it fell off if I were to hit a bump too hard.
90 Red LX, every test I've seen has shown pretty much no performance increase. I got it just cause it cleans up the engine bay a little and I wanted a connical K&N type air filter, and it was cheap.
I have the BBK fenderwell cold air kit and I think it's pretty crappy, actually.
a) The tube that goes into the fenderwell is tacked in two places to the plate that mounts to the wall and one of the tacks broke the day I installed it, so it's barely connected.
b) The same plate is supposed to mount to the stock mounting screws that the stock airbox mounted to.... but the top screws (which stick out due to thier rubber bases) stick out too far for the kit's plate, so when you try to mount it, the whole plate has about a half-inch gap between the plate and the wall. I had to rip the stock screws out of the wall and only mount the plate by the bottom bolts. This was the only way to get the plate flush with the wall.
c) The top and bottom tubes BARELY even go together and hook up on the intake side. The cuts in the tubing are angled very poorly and the only thing that even makes the kit leak free is size of the rubber connectors.
d) Once installed, the top tube hit the strut tower. No matter how I tried to adjust all the pieces, it still hit. So I had to hammer a flat spot in the strut tower so it wouldn't hit. I've had this kit on two different cars and had the same problems on both.
e) Eliminating the MAF bracket is no big deal really, since it hangs there ok without it..... but the MAC cold air kit comes with a replacement bracket that does allow mounting the MAF in the stock location. Not absolutely nessesary.... but a nice touch.
f) After removing and re-installing the kit a couple of times, for various reasons, the blue rubber connectors now have cuts in them from the metal rings and I don't know of anywhere to get replacements. BBK should sell them seperately.
A couple of my friends have the MAC kit and I've even installed one and it's a better made kit. The tubes fit together better, the rubber connectors are better, it comes with the MAF bracket, and the kit installed without hitting the strut tower and without modifying the stock airbox screws.
Sorry to rant.... I would just reccomend the MAC kit over the BBK one. They don't cost a TON of money or anything, but they shouldn't have SO many problems for what they cost. If I could do it again, I'd probably just get the Moroso kit or a regular panel K&N filter and spend the extra money on something that actually does something.
Just my $.02
Badpony...had the same problem with the connectors. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and look in the plumbing section. I picked up 2 rubber pipe connectors that had alum full length covers over them. I had to use some plumbing tape to make the CAI pipe big enough to seal but it worked and it looks better then the blue BBK connectors.
I had some of the problems.. Mine fits together, but it took some muscle. And I had the problem with the rubber base screws on the fenderwell like bad pony described. Thats the reason I have hardly enough tube in the fender to clamp the air filter on to it. It looks good. But Im not impressed with its quality at all.
5.0CRAZY, yeah if I hadn't ripped those screws with the rubber bases off, there's no way I could have gotten the filter to attach inside the fender. The plate mounts perfectly flush without them there and the lower two bolts hold it on fine.... and there's plenty of tube to mount the filter to in the fender.
mustangsquared, I already spotted those plumbing connectors in Lowe's. They would look very cool if I could get some to work. I've been meaning to go to Lowe's, remove the CAI tubes and take them in, and find the best fitting sizes. Those connectors definately wouldn't tear up like the BBK ones did.... they are way more heavy-duty than ANY CAI kit's connectors.
To those that had good luck with the BBK kit - I'm glad it worked good for you. Maybe I just got a bad one or something. The only things with mine that I would consider to be actual "factory defects" would be the weak tack welds at the plate and the angle of the cut on the tube at the intake side. It's not angled right at all. This kit fit the same way and I had the same problems when it was on my 90' GT, and now on my 91' LX.... so I know it's not a unique problem with a specific car.
The rubber connectors only started to rip after being installed and removed a few times. The MAC kit's connectors seem to be made of something different... the connectors are more "spongy" than the BBK's.
I got the BBK over the MAC because MAC's products in general aren't always exactly known for their superior fitment. But the few MAC ones I've seen, and even installed, were made and fit better than my BBK.
I'm not knocking BBK in general. I know they make some very good products and are widely used by many people. I think I just got a "factory second" or something.
Those rubber screws you guys keep talking about are double sided studs. You are supposed to take the "rubber screws" off before you install the air federwell piece. The federwell piece should sit flush against the inner fender. Go to home depot an get some hose Clamps, not the snake screw ones but the clamps you have to squeeze together to open. You should also use a file and take the sharp edges off of the tubes before you install it. I for one thought the BBK piece was a piece of s.h.i.t. I sold it and bought a power pipe instead.