a_e_r's build thread
 

Now that photobucket is cooperating, I can post build pics. First up, the CAI.
Build pic 1, CAI kit
Build pic 2, "old air intake"
Build pic 3, kit tube/sensor neck, decided not to use, as the plastic tube would have broken in the attempt to make it work
Build pic 4, finished

i cut the hose that runs from the intake to the valve cover and used a small coolant hose to make it long enough to fit with the intake. works great, try it out.

Not bad at all.... You should consider direct linking the pics and attaching them with the (IMG) tags (but with brackets) so the pics will load instead of having to click the links.

03GXeco is right btw... it makes a load of difference. You can also use rubber fuel lines. You can buy the hose for less than $5 at Auto Zone.

ebay kit?

I may do that then. As for posting links, I'm posting from my phone. I'll try to change it in a bit.

Yes. Was $38.50, free shipping. I've already noticed a bit of an increase in mpg. On a full tank, a trip to work and back, the needle moved a bit less with the kit. Plus, it sounds better now that the silencer is out. Has a nice, throaty rumble now, and I can hear the air whistling across the butterfly valve when the pedal is down further.

which kit? honda accord?

Nope. Actually said "99-05 Grand Am 3400". Same body & engine, so I figured why not.

The parts interchange. The only thing unique to the GA is the head lights, tail lights, body cladding, transmission gearing, and interior. The 3400 are the same. I used to have one sooo.... yeah

While not explicitly related to a build, I have these books for my specs and info.
Unrelated pic 1, service books

Those books are the best!

BTW don't call your CAI a racing CAI. It sounds ricerish... not to flame you or anything but you know where that might lead to with the others.

That's where it came from, L3 racing. I wasn't trying to say it was made for racing, but I can see how that might come off as rice ish.

Those books, I thought would be either harder to find or more expensive. I got lucky, though. I found them on ebay for $25+ $8 s/h.

I figured that one out after reading it a couple times but then I thought regardless, that's just asking for trouble the way it was worded. Sometimes that's all it takes for something to mean something completely different.

They're hard to find after a while. I've been trying to find a good book for my Camaro and my Cutlass Supreme and no luck.

What kind of effect will removing the air dam beside the foglight have? A buddy says it can make the brakes a bit hotter, but will increase air flow to the CAI.

Just ordered new lights. 35w/8000k light blue HID lights (w/ballasts). Will install when they arrive.

It has no effect on your brakes. And if you domt track the car even if it did make the brakes hotter you honestly wouldnt notice much at all.

It also really won't help flow to the CAI either because its under the radiator, not blocking the CAI filter. If anything is blocking it its the fog light. (If you have one) if this car is driven in the rain I would leave the fog light in place to help protect from water during rain driving.

I have a CAI of course on mine. With stock fogs removed along with the extra plastic that surrounded the fog light in the bottom bumper holes. So basically it's a giant hole to my filter... well with cars on the highway throwing water at your front end I managed to suck water up my intake. The car bogged reallt bad. I had to remove my intake and tear apart the top end to clean all the water out, luckily I didnt hydrolock, but anymore water could have caused some damage. But yeah I had some standing water in my accordion tube as well. Wasnt good at all...

luckily I have very rare chances where I have to drive the car in the rain. But 99.9% of the time my car is a nice day car only. Doesnt see snow at all, and very low chances on rain. But if I get caught in a good rain I actually pull over to wait for it to pass because if I drive to long in it it sucks up the intake. So im very cautious on that now. Lol


But its july now and my car has only seen rain twice this year. :)

I have the fog light in, but I took the air dam out. Not seeing any real improvement on power or efficiency, so I'm thinking about putting it back in. I still have the plastic flap under the bumper.

The plastic flap under the bumper is the air dam/wind deflector. What you yslkin bout

I was talking about the plastic that is right by the foglight.

Oh yeah you may get more air. I have all mine removed. But its not as safe during rains.

And no. It does NOT direct air to your brakes. These cars dont have that feature.

But if I only have the plastic by the fog light removed, there isn't as much worry from water intake, right? I avoid large puddles when it's raining, and I don't get too close to people when it's raining out of habit.

It would help if the fog light also blocked it but up to you. If you notice your car chugging one day shortly after driving in heavy rain you will know why.

When my Alero was a daily, I NEVER ran a CAI. I ran it for 3 days, didn' feel comfortable with it in the rain, now I run a WAI, until track day when I run a CAI and I run a clean, new filter that now probably has about 50 miles on it. I have an old filter I use as a cap because the CAI lower tube in always in the fender, just not hooked up to the intake ;)

The 35w 8000k hid kit came in today. The wire on one of the bulb plugs is loose, to the point that I had to wiggle the wire so it would come on, so I need to get a replacement. The ballasts work, and the one side that the wires work that I hooked up work perfectly.

Good thing a set of 2 9006 hid bulbs isn't that expensive.

Finally got everything together and in working order.
Build pic 5: ds light assy.

Build pic 6: ps light assy.

Build pic 7: lights after sundown

Got a second vehicle today. 99 Olds Bravada. Bought it from a guy who had it as a project car.
I'll post pics tomorrow when it's light out. I'll post them here to keep from making another thread. Edit: got pics.

Is your alero decommissioned now?

I love the Bravada Grill It looks cooler in a S-10 with GMC headlights

Nice man. I've always liked the Bravada's and the fact that they came with a console shifter instead of the column shifter that the Blazer and Jimmy came with.

No, the Alero isn't decommissioned, just got the Bravada as a backup. Plus, the Bravada being AWD, I can go places the Alero can't.
The Alero will continue to be my dd, the Bravada will be the backup/weekend driver.

The guy I bought it from had already put a 75mm ported throttle body, mild ported heads and NGK stage 1 plugs in it. I gotta say, for an suv, it had a damn good ride over the rough interstate home.
I read on the blazer forums of how sensitive the smart trak awd is, like sharp turns at low speed will engage it. They were right, turning down a street in my neighborhood, I went sharp right, and I could hear one of the front tires trying to scoot around.

Ohh ok. I noticed the Alero didn't have the front plate, that's why I asked.

Will you be placing the new fruity standard tags on the Bravada?

The thing about the Alero plates is that I was a little naughty. There was a problem with the title, so I couldn't get tags for the Bravada yet. It is insured. I would never drive it without insurance.
What I did was took the front plate from the Alero and put it on the back of the Bravada to get it home. I had some friends tailing me in case there were any problems.

You have to have a plate to drive it from where you bought it? Here in Michigan you have like 7 days to register your car.

^^ Pennsylvania has a tag shop on just about every corner.

Buy a car from somebody, you and him go to the tag shop, title is signed, you get a new plate on the spot. His plate comes off, your plate goes on.

I found out you can drop a SBO in the S-10 body. I think you need "D" body motor mounts, and shorty headers :coolio:

There's a lot of potential with the Bravada. I've seen online where one guy put a supercharged 383 stroker in a Bravada. That's overkill,I think. The power/weight ratio is thrown way off.
I did see where a guy put a GMC Typhoon engine (stock turbo 4.3 v6) with performance cam and heads, into a 91 Bravada. At 23 psi boost, he's run a 12.04 1/4 @ 112 mph.
Not the fastest, but considering its an suv, it is.
I'm not going that far with it, but the guy I bought it from gave it a good start for me to run with.

The title issue came up because of a little ink smudge by the sale date. The lady at the Dmv said it was an alteration which voided the title and I had to go about getting a bill of sale, which they didn't accept. It was all a big mess, but I finally managed to get plates for it. The standard "Virginia is for lovers" plates.

Hahaha You could have just printed out a temp pass from the DMV. It's $5 and perfectly legal to drive for a day.



Virginia and DC is like that. You can't drive tagless after purchase and all odd and ends (aka inspection) have to be done before you receive the tag. However, if you go on the DMV site (for each location), you can get a trip permit which basically means it's a transport permit.

Maryland is like PA, tag shop everywhere you go, bring a title and $250 and it's already taken care of. Some even fake inspection from what I'm told.

Why SBO when you can LSx? But that's just me, I like fuel injection and coil packs.



Bravadas are nothing more than Blazers which are nothing more than an S10 with a SUV body. Parts are plentiful for these things, although the Bravada is the forgotten variant so body stuff is harder to find than motor stuff.

Yup, that sounds like a typical day for VA DMV transactions. Gay ass tag included.

They effed up my Cutlass Supreme's title because of a pen mark on the odometer.... so they put not actual. They wanted me to get a new MD title and have the seller resign it. Of course, the deal was shady because I bought it from a dealer but the dealer didn't want to put it on his lot (because it needed a lot of work) and he never transferred the title to his dealership's name. He basically gave me an empty title.

The Camaro, they just found it sketchy because the car was titled in MD, sold to me "in Georgia" (because the guy flips cars using someone's dealer paperwork but an Indiana transport tag) and found its way to VA. He too effed up my mileage, and I had to drive around for 150 miles to get it right because inspection/emissions would report the actual mileage which was off. Shit sucked

and I can't drive around with that fruity ass tag in DC. I live in DC but register in VA. It's embarrassing in itself to drive around with VA tags but having that stupid slogan just makes it worse. I liked the Jamestown tags better.