J!m
05-20-2003, 12:55 PM
Well, I FINALLY got my snorkel. What the hell is that you ask? it replaces the duct from the radiator support to the front of the air box with a new one- this one has an additional duct (about 1-1/4 in pipe) out of the bottom that inserts into the left brake cooling duct for aditional high-pressure air.
Instalation took maybe an hour? As I was doing an oil change as well as changing my front sway-bar end links (totally shot...) at the same time. I also cleaned and waxed the back side of my wheels, it seems that a ton of tar was sucked into the brake duct and blown through the rotor and onto the inside of the front wheels...
Anyway, the biggest pain is relocating the horn. I ended up having both horns mounted to the out-board location, by sandwiching the inboard horn's spring bracket under the outboard horn, and bending a bit. I also un-plugged the low-beam on that side for a bit more room to work (the air-box was removed as well, if this was not understood).
Then you will see a slightly oval marking on the brake duct, toward the rear of the car (there is a rounder one forward- this is for the alternator cooling on the Euro M3 cars...). I plunged in with the Dremmel, and then cleaned it to the edges with the sanding attachment. This worked perfectly, and I did not have to remove the duct. I think it was better than a hole-saw would have done by a long shot.
The new duct was a bastard to install, because three things have to line up at the same time, and there is no room to work. I had to move the radiator rearward a bit (simply un-clip the top mounts), but I did not have to un-do any hoses.
The new duct has a foam seal on it. There are no fasteners involved with this install. Just the clip on the radiator support, same as the original one.
Instalation took maybe an hour? As I was doing an oil change as well as changing my front sway-bar end links (totally shot...) at the same time. I also cleaned and waxed the back side of my wheels, it seems that a ton of tar was sucked into the brake duct and blown through the rotor and onto the inside of the front wheels...
Anyway, the biggest pain is relocating the horn. I ended up having both horns mounted to the out-board location, by sandwiching the inboard horn's spring bracket under the outboard horn, and bending a bit. I also un-plugged the low-beam on that side for a bit more room to work (the air-box was removed as well, if this was not understood).
Then you will see a slightly oval marking on the brake duct, toward the rear of the car (there is a rounder one forward- this is for the alternator cooling on the Euro M3 cars...). I plunged in with the Dremmel, and then cleaned it to the edges with the sanding attachment. This worked perfectly, and I did not have to remove the duct. I think it was better than a hole-saw would have done by a long shot.
The new duct was a bastard to install, because three things have to line up at the same time, and there is no room to work. I had to move the radiator rearward a bit (simply un-clip the top mounts), but I did not have to un-do any hoses.
The new duct has a foam seal on it. There are no fasteners involved with this install. Just the clip on the radiator support, same as the original one.