K&N 57i install on a Mitsubishi GTO (3000gt)

At the end of my last entry I alluded to the removal of the air box, although what it was might not have been that obvious due to its JDM AF label. First on the agenda was a little tidy under the bonnet. 

This is a relatively old picture, it's from when I first got the car, I wasn't planning on doing this today, but couldn't resist once I got started so apologies for not getting a pic in better light.

Pic from 'Winter nights by headlights' meme I did last year

You can see that under the bonnet the deadening is not in good condition at all, it is frayed and falling apart. So do I replace or do I..... who am I kidding, sound deadening delete all the way!

Close up shows clip, but also how bad the condition of the sound deadening really was 

Simply held on with these clips, they came off with ease by hand, but used pliers anyway for the most part to save any chips in the paint. I saved the clips in best condition to reattach the heat shield.

After sound deadening delete

Looking much better already! I think I'm going to keep at the engine bay tidy up, little by little over the summer, as it would be a bit of a beast of a job in one go! Especially with not trusting the electrics enough to get a jet wash in there! 

The aftermath! more than happy to get this discarded! On to the intake!

The first step is to disconnect the negative side of the battery, working on the car alone the last thing I wanted was a ss-ss-shock!

Yes, it's a Pokemon reference, yes, I am a geek...

 As my car is a unicorn in among the GTO/3000gt as it is both twin turbo and manual, the vacuum line for the transmission is then disconnected. Followed by the Mass Air Flow Sensor Plug.

MAF and tranny vacuum line

The lid of the air box is then un-clipped, and the hose clamp in the above picture loosened slightly. The air box lid and MAF sensor will then come out as one unit.

Air box lid with MAF sensor attached, connected by 4 bolts on each corner of the MAF

When I removed the air filter I was a little shocked, as the car was supposed to be serviced and MOT'd in July last year, and sat on a dealers forecourt from then till I bought it in September/October time.

Not only was the filter packed with leaves and stones, but the rubber was also perished and split along the sides. Cracking job with the service there... The car must have been able to breathe about as well as a life long chain smoker on a stroll up Mount Kilamanjaro. (Babyshambles gonna be stuck in my head all night now)

When you remove the filter you will then be able to unbolt the air box, and then it will pull straight out.

Once the box is out you are left with a decent amount of space for the new intake to fit into. The mass-air sensor can then be unbolted from the air box lid.

PAUSE

I would like a take a moment to pause here and reflect on this step. Of every step in the process this was the hardest by far! 3 of the nuts came out no bother at all! But the backing plate of the last one just spun, tearing chunks out the plastic.

I ended up waiting for Mrs 3oD to get home, and using my rotary tool to trim away the excess plastic and using a 14mm spanner to hold the backing plate whilst Mrs 3oD turned the 10mm nut on the other side. Even with the combined brute force of the two of us we still had to stop for a break after 10 minutes of wrestling with it... at which point I asked Mrs 3oD which direction she was turning the spanner..... it then came right off.... *Face-palm*

Couldn't resist the Ash face-palm after using him for the shock pic earlier!

The sensor is the connected to the filter adapter using the nylock nuts from the intake kit. and should look something like this.

Almost done!

Be sure to use the short bolts on the top, and long ones on the bottom. The long bolts then have the brackets attached to them, loosely for now. This is then slid back into the intake hose in the original location from which it was removed and the hose clamp tightened. The brackets should be maneuvered over the bolts used for the stock air box, and then nylock nuts applied. once everything fits nicely together it should then all be tightened down.

The MAF sensor is plugged back in and the vacuum line reconnected (if required). The new 57i filter is slid onto the adapter with a hose clamp and tighten down.

The battery is then reconnected. Being careful not to jump if it sparks slightly and drop the bolt for the connection to the negative and have it NOT hit the floor. I didn't do that.... honest.... it didn't take 20 minutes to retrieve from the depths of the engine bay at all... OK... maybe that happened a little.

The car is then ready to go with its sexy new intake fitted. As it sits in the location of the stock box, it still gets the same good supply of cold air the stock box did, but can now make much more use of it! It also has the added bonus of sounding even better! I tried to take a video of the turbo noises with the new intake, but only had my phone to hand which didn't do it justice, so that will probably follow later.

Check out my last entry - How to Sleepy Eye / Lazy Eye a Mitsubishi GTO / 3000gt

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BMW 320D M Daily Driver - What mods would I do?

So in my last post, I reviewed a BMW 320D M, and said I would talk through any mods I was thinking in my next post, so here goes. My 11 things I would do to the car. I was torn between doing a list of 11 because I would want 11, or 10 because of ocd.... 

As this car would be a daily there is nothing too brash, not trying to turn it into a race car, that's what the Mitsubishi is for after all. This list would just be a few mods to make it more mine and less like every other 3 series on the road, because lets face, there's a lot of them about these days! Each is chosen to have a relatively high impact for a low cost. I wouldn't be trying to give the car false credentials by doing mainly aesthetic mods, more just trying to make it mine (and hopefully not rice). 

1. DPF delete

DPF

DPF is Diesel Particulate Filter and its job is to filter the soot particles from a diesel engined vehicle, it eventually gets clogged up and this can lower the performance of your vehicle, preventing the exhaust to work quite as effectively as it should/could. Rolling coal anyone?

2. Remap

BMW getting remapped

The idea of this, combined with the DPF delete, would be to give the car just a bit more of a kick under acceleration. Turbo diesels typically respond very well to remaps and gains with little/no other mods can actually be surprising. And for any eco-mentalists out there, they also help you get a higher mpg!

3. Second set of alloys for winter tyres

BMW Alloys

Where I live, I wouldn't call it mountains as such, but its definitely not flat and I've known it snow in August. With that in mind winter tyres would be a must with a RWD car here. This is the part where I would normally sigh,  and reflect on how much I miss my Hawkeye. Cue the worlds smallest violin. 

4. Refurb current alloys - blackness

Black Alloys Black BMW

If the new alloys I got were really good I would use the current alloys for good summer tyres, with summer air in them and everything. The alloys had little M badges on them though, and I really liked that.... I'm a big kid at heart really! So the second set would probably be for winter tyres and the set that/s on there would get a refurb and a black coating (excluding the M badges, obviously).

5. Window tint

Limo tint

Point 4 probably started a bit of a trend, you may notice a recurring theme here. I would probably go quite dark on the tint at the back.  Partly because black looks cool af. Mainly because very black tint would hide the child seats and any mess caused by the toddler during the week till it could be cleaned out at the weekend. 

6. Paint chrome on front bumper body colour

Black grill

I would say that I'm sure the chrome grill was in fashion 2 or 3 years ago when the car was new, but I think that would be a lie. Maybe it was and I'm just not the target market.... either way the chrome would go, and as above it would look so much meaner as a result!

7. Tint head lights/tail lights black

Black tail lights

The reasoning behind this is partly the same as point 6. I like the idea of a very mean looking BMW and think this would add to that. You wouldn't get away with going as dark as the image above for long in the UK, but I'd try and get it as close to that as I could for as long as possible!

8. Tint fogs yellow (tape x too much?)

BMW Yellow Fogs

This is a funny one, because I think only certain cars suit having this done (no, your vauxhall corsa/astra/whatever is NOT one of them). Normally I would reserve this for cool old euro rides, and certain JDM ones, but I think I actually like the look of it on the BMW's, even the newer shapes. Would it be too put to put tape X's over each of the lights as well? 

9. Roof rack, low black and aggressive

Roof Rack BMW

OK, so this may be starting to get played out, but as with the yellow fogs on the right car it still works. I would mainly do this because every other car on the road these days seems to be a 3 series, and I'd just want to break that common shape up a little. The rack I'd choose would be by no means functional. But it would be black. 

10. Tow hook

BMW Tow Hook

Depending upon the colour chosen for number 11 on the list, this would be either red or yellow as they are the colours which suit the black the best. Having opted for black and red on the Mitsubishi wold probably go yellow to mix it up. As the picture shows below I actually managed to find a company that specialises in making these just for BMW's.

Dong parts.... dong....parts.... haha

11. Big brake kit upgrade (or failing finding a cheap set, paint calipers red/yellow)

Last but by no means least (and probably first to be honest) I would try to source a brake upgrade. This would most likely be a second hand set from a proper pure blooded M3 which would be a substantial upgrade for the 320D M. Failing that I would get a tin of caliper paint and have a bash at colouring in as it would probably be mainly for looks anyway. 

I just need to stop getting myself getting distracted with a Tesla Model 3 because I quite fancy one of them now... hmmmm

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