Installed this today along with the ER Z4-specific charge pipe and Tial BOV.
Everything went pretty smoothly. I was able to get this done on a pair of ramps in my garage. I'm actually not sure it would have been easier with a lift because I found it very useful to be able to work from above as well as below.
The biggest PITA was trimming the plastic horizontal air dam that directs air from the front grille to the intercooler. The OEM intercooler is about 4.25" deep and the ER unit is about 6" deep, so you have to trim 1.75" off to get it to fit. I typically suck at things like this, but trimmed it pretty damn cleanly, if I do so say so myself. Of course, there was little black plastic dust all over my face, hair, mouth, clothes, etc. It's not fun.
This is definitely not a plug-and-play install. Aside from needing to trim a significant chunk off the horizontal air dam, the install requires you to remove a short section of rubber tubing that is held on by a single-use clamp. You have to break the clamp to remove it. So flipping the car back to stock will require a new air dam (probably a $25 piece) as well as a new clamp or tube.
That's the downside. The plus side is that my charge-air tract consists of nothing but large diameter, metal tubing from turbo to intake manifold. It can only help with throttle response and minimizing pressure drop. And, obviously, the ER FMIC is absolutely massive and will no doubt help keep IATs in line.
One huge gripe, though, came when I tried to install the Tial BOV. Money must be
really tight at Evolution Racewerks these days because they could not have been more stingy with the vacuum line they included with the BOV. Given that vacuum line realistically costs a retailer $0.10 a foot, common sense and good customer service would dictate that if your customer needs, say, 16 inches of vacuum line, you provide them with 24. Not Evolution Racewerks. If you need 16 inches, you get 12 and not a sliver more.
The 12-inch vacuum line that ER includes with the kit should have been closer to 16 inches, at least if you want some slack in the line. As you can see from the photo below, the 12-inch line results in a very taut vacuum line from BOV to intake port. Obviously, it would have been much appreciated if ER had shipped the unit with a good deal extra, just in case.
No problem, right? I mean, this stuff has got to be easy to get at the auto-parts store . . . right? I went to O'Reilly's, NAPA, and AutoZone. All three only had two options for vacuum line that were anywhere near the ballpark. One of which I call "gnat's vagina," as it's way too tight and won't connect to the BOV. The other is like the Panama Canal and is too loose for the port on the intake manifold.
I have no idea what I'm going to do. But it's very, very frustrating that an involved project like this is ultimately stymied because ER didn't have the good sense to include a little extra vacuum line with their kits. (And by "extra" I mean "enough.")
