Did the mods on my `90 G60 today. I bought a Stage 1 Chip from AutoTech for $275, and the K&N filter for $42, $10 for shipping. Also got a Euro-Sport exhaust system from EuroSport Accessories for $195+$20 shippiing.
Did the filter first. I would suggest taking the whole air box out if you want to do this, the clips are impossible to get off with the airbox in the car. Remove the air intake from the G-Charger (mine had a little oil in it) and the 2 vacuum lines from the back. There is a rubber band on the inside and back of the box to hold it down. Pop those off and it slides out. Saw the "Made in Mexico" stamp on the metal under the box. Pop the 4 clips and put in the new filter. Close the clips, drop it in, put the 2 bands back on, and reconnect the 2 lines and air intake. Done. Took about half hour because I tried to get just the clips off, and also washed out the airbox. If I did it again, I could do it in 15 minutes easy.
Next was the exhaust. Started by putting the car up on ramps and took off
the clamp at the back of the cat. and bewteen the 2 mufflers. Tried to pry
off the hangers, but it's too difficult, the the new system included all the
hardware, so I just cut the old ones off. Had to cut the pipe in back of
the suitcase muffler and pulled the rear off. The rear muffler was in
pretty good shape, and the exhaust pipes are really thick steel. Next I
cut the front hangers off and dropped the pipe and suitcase muffler. The
muffler had a lot of ruse and few holes, which is why I did this in the
first place, it was getting annoying. The OEM exhaust system is really
heavy, I probably dropped 50 pounds with the new one. The Euro-Sport system
has, in order from the front after the cat., a glass pack resonator,
crossover pipe, turbo rear muffler and tail pipe. All clamps and hangers
are included. The instructions are pretty poor, and I found that the best
way to put it together is to put the pieces on from front to back, pounding
them on one by
one, then putting the clamps on after it's all together. I cut about 4" off
the tail pipe since it stuck out further than the bumper, and it was all
installed correctly. Not sure if it was supposed to be like that, or if I
got the wrong tail pipe, but it looks cool cut short. Sticks out about as
far as OEM, but it's silver. The entire system is 14g steel, pretty big
pipes compared to the OEM system, and "aluminized". It's a pretty good
system for $200. Especially considering the OEM system is $1000.
As for sound, it's definately louder than stock. It has that glass-pack
muffler rumble at idle, and has a louder tone as you accellerate, but only
at the beginning, as you get up to about 25 MPH and let off on the gas, it's
about the same, maybe a little louder than stock. With the windows rolled
up, no radio on, you can only hear it at idle and when you first pump it.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it so far. It took about 2.5 hours to do the
whole thing. A lot of the time was getting the new pipes to fit, they're
really tight.
Last I did the chip. What a job. Took me about 60-75 minutes, I didn't
time it. The instructions are pretty poor, they should include some simple
pictures. First you pry up the cover over the "brain" and remove the cover
over the air intake. It took me about 10 minutes extra to clean it out.
There was about a whole tree worth of leaves stuck in there. I'm going to
start cleaning this out regularly now. After pulling out the intake cover,
you remove one nut for the box frame, pull one vacuum line and snap off the
main electrical cable. (anyone know what the vacuum line is for?) After
this, patience is neccessary, since you have to slide the box and it's metal
frame to the outside of the engine compartment then pull it out. It's a
trick taking it out.
Next you take out 2 screws to get the box off, then 7 screws to open the
box. Next comes the what I thought was the hardest part, getting the
stupid plastic clips off the IC board. Take out 5 screws to get the RF
shield off
the chip, pull the chip, put in the new one and put it all back together.
Again it's tricky shoving it back in the car. Once it's in, it's pretty
easy to reconnect it all and finish. Luckily it started back up so it seems
everything works.
I love the difference in the ride. I haven't done the after measurements yet, but the car seems to have the pull at 2500RPM that it used to have at 3500, which is a big difference. Maybe I think I feel it since I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, but it's definately better. I'll get the "after" times done in the next couple days and post them.
Start to finish the whole job took 4 hours. I wasn't rushing and took a few breaks. If you have all the right tools and manuals you could do it all in 3 hours easy.
Now the car is lighter (only by about 50 pounds), faster and louder. Next step is new springs and shocks, but I'll wait till the stock ones are bad.
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