Well, I finally got around to installing my Vararam B2. I have to say that I impressed with the results, the intake was all it was advertised to be performance wise. It also lived up to its name installation wise. It was by far the single most difficult intake that i have EVER installed. My arms nice and scratched up and my fingers are raw from turning tiny bolts and screws in difficult to reach areas. It was well worth it and a good time though!!!

For those wondering on costs. I spent $200, including shipping, on the intake itself. It then cost me a few hours, an adult beverage or two and ~$5 in clamps. Thinking about it, I regret not using the stock clamps as they are a cleaner install. Note that I bought the intake used. So grand total, not counting labor, I spent $205 on the install. I cant reiterate enough the power gains that resulted from this $205, it amazes me every time I think about it.

I would also like to note at this time that I personally used "The Cajun Dude Installation Instructions". There is no doubt that this saved me a large amount of time and frustration. Feel free to use his instructions, here, in place of mine or use either as a supplement as you see fit.

Depending on the style of jack you have this can be quite difficult, which sounds silly. However, the car is so low that my floor jack would not fit under it. In light of this I do plan to go out and purchase some 56” long ramps. In any event, if your floor jack is like mine, I found the best way to go about getting the car off the ground was to pull the drivers side (I suppose the passenger side would work too) front air dam loos for more clearance. In my case I removed the 3 screws holding the front end and then just loosened the rear and rotated it back out of the way. At that point I was able to slide my jack in under the center of the engine cradle. Keep in mind I was only able to move the jack handle up and down by about one quarter of an inch at this point and just slowly worked it up. I raised the car to the level where I could get the jack stands underneath the front tow hooks. More important than anything here is to make absolute sure that your car is 100% stable as you will be crawling around under there and there is absolute no space under there if it came down on you. If you are unsure about stability, go buy ramps.. period!!! Myself, I chose to only raise the car high enough to get my jack stands under it and then I lowered the car on the jack stands and kept the jack itself under the cradle with some pressure against it, this way you have a fail safe. You will find this way a nuisance as the jack does get in the way at times, but it is WELL worth it considering the cost of the car falling.

Simply disconnect the ground cable from the battery, no tricks here. Since your battery is exposed it is even easier, though ugly as sin. If you are like me, make plans to fabricate/purchase a cover to go over this in the future. It is also fair to note here that I might want to think about upgrading batteries as well.

Removing the stock air filter is pretty simple. Just grab the tabs that say “Release”. There is one on each side of the MAF, pull them both. You'll notice that the “Release” levers are simply attached to bands strapping over the top of the air box, simple yet nifty at the same time… make servicing the filter child's play.

Now that the air filter assembly is out of the way, its time to remove the intake hose. To get at the hose just pull the drivers side portion of the top air box unit a bit to get access. There is a toothed clamp holding the hose in place, the best way that I found to remove this was just with a screw driver pulling vertically against the teeth until they no longer catch, releasing the pressure. Once you have the clamp removed, just twist and pull on the hose to remove it. Don't worry if you drop the clamp, you are going to basically pull the entire front end of the car apart anyway, so it will fall out… that being said, chase it you must.

Next on the list of items to remove are the MAF cables. There are two cables to remove, one on the air bridge and one attached to the MAF. Both are simple to remove, they each have a plastic keeper that simply needs to be raised before pulling straight out on the cables. The MAF cable has the plastic keeper on the under side of the connector and the air bridge connector has the plastic keeper on the upper side of the connector. Note that you MUST pull the keepers loose before you go pulling on the cables as if you do not you risk pulling the wires loose from the connector itself.. you don't want to do that.

I removed the air bridge, MAF and lower air box assembly as one piece. There is no reason not too really. Note that the previous step shows the two rubber grommets removed from the air bridge itself.. what can I say, I got impatient. If you haven't already removed these, now is the time. Choose the best way for you but I simply pulled up on the air bridge assembly and the rubber grommets came right out of the plastic loops built on to the air bridge. Once you have these removed simply pull back at the angle of the air dam to remove it. Note that you may need to wiggle side to side for this step as well. Don't get too carried away at this point if the assembly seems stuck. Instead go back and double check that you disconnected all of the cables and/or you do not have anything caught in a way that will damage something before getting hasty with the piece.

Last but not least, its time to remove the upper air box assembly. Pull it as hard as you can, get frustrated and realize there is something holding it in. Then go ahead and remove the Torx 30 bolts holding it in place and it will almost fall out. Yeah… guess whether or not I went the best route about this, I will let you figure out the order of operations there. Unfortunately, I did not snap a good photo of the bolts themselves, but if you glance underneath the assembly you will see them at towards the front of the car. They are at an awkward angle depending on the type of wrench you have, I have a 180 degree wrench, a low profile 90 degree would be ideal. Instead I had to use a crescent on the square shoulder of the torx head and turn it by hand.. which took forever. If you are itching to go buy something at this point in the drill, this isn't a bad one… but not fully necessary.

I would also like to note two things here… there is a good chance your air dam will be very dirty, if you are like me you will go at it with cleaner and what not. If you do this, like I did, you will be doing it in vain as you are removing the thing in the next steps anyways and it is MUCH easier to get at when removed. I should also note that Cajun Dude does have a good shot of the torx bolts holding the upper assembly in place… what can I say, he is better than I am!!!

To Be Continued…