First on the agenda is going to be degreasing the engine/bay, and getting the car on a dyno locally for a baseline. Keith is roughly two weeks out on the ECU, so that will give me time to get the intake manifold off the car and start sizing up what I want to tuck/reposition/clean up underneath the intake manifold. I'm searching for a set of used Bavauto headers, we'll see how that pans out. Would really like to do coated headers and then stainless all the way back.
To-Be-Purchased (For those thinking about going ITB themselves, will update and add items as they come):
E36 4Cyl Throttle Cable (necessary for LHD cars, but not really advertised up front)
PS Reservoir and Lines
AEM 30-2310 Inline Wideband
GM Open Element IAT
Intake/Exhaust Manifold Gaskets
Bitch Tube O-Rings
Whatever I need to clean up loose ends in the bay
Bluetooth Serial Adapter for MS
Filter Socks
ITG Sock:
Going for this overall look, maybe with a wrinkle blue on the valve cover to match the anodizing:
So, on to the kit itself. I'm a picky guy (especially for a silly $1400 intake), and I want to give an honest account for anyone thinking about buying from RHD, or doing ITB's in general as the documentation is lacking. I was a bit miffed that Rama's prices went up right before he was able to fulfill my order, but so far he and his product have been worth every penny. Kit arrived reasonably well packaged 5 days after it left RHD. Only shipping casualty was a SLIGHT dent on the non-flared end of one of the trumpets, resolved with a few light taps with a socket.
Quality Gripes: The finish on the inside of the trumpets is a bit rough. Nothing performance affecting, but I'm going full disclosure.
The castings for the manifolds themselves are also a bit rough (porosity issues, mainly), mostly on the underside. Again, non performance affecting. I suspect most if not all of these parts are made somewhere in Asia in order to get to a marketable price point, and if that's the case I'd say Rama has done a great job as far as quality control.
Finally, one of the screws I received for the trumpet clamps was shorter than the rest. It still worked fine.
Design Gripes: The linkage arms for each throttle pair are clamped onto the butterfly shafts at whatever angle you so desire. The relative positioning is then adjustable from there via a set screw. Being OCD, I spent a good bit of time trying to get all of them completely vertical (even though these won't see the car for a month or two). It would be nice to have the arms keyed to the shaft similar to how the TPS is, but I'm not sure that that method would give the adjustability you'd need (gripe possibly invalid). I imagine I'll need to remove the trumpets and ram tubes in order to keep the throttles closed while fine tuning the linkage once everything is on the car. The throttle return spring also seems like it might be too weak, but we'll see. Dyno4mance (my main source of info pre-purchase) on e30tech ended up adding a spring as seen in the above picture. He also claimed that the provided TPS didn't hold a calibration in Megasquirt, so I'll address that if it proves to be an issue.
Again, the above is me being as nit-picky as possible for anyone who needs reassurance before pulling the trigger. Those are legitimately all the issues I ran into while assembling the kit off the car. I probably stared at the kit sitting on the table for a good 45 minutes this evening. The machining is fantastic aside from the one issue mentioned above. No hole misalignment bullshit, everything is precise and nicely finished. One bank is predrilled for an air line to the brake booster, fitting included. O-rings fit perfectly. The anodizing looks excellent, and is consistent part to part. All the hardware is stainless, and all threaded parts assembled smoothly. Overall: A high quality product for a good price, cannot wait to get everything on the car.
Kit Contents:
Anodizing:
Throttles:
Trumpet with Clamp:
Assembled sans linkage:
"Master" Bank:
Middle "Linkage" Bank:
Assmbled with linkage:
Linkage close-up:
More assembled:
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