Just finished installing the Steeda CAI and tune tonight. These are a few photos of the final installation and the original air filter box removed. Installation was pretty straightforward and easy. Took me about 4 hours, but bare with me i'm pretty **** about all the little details, so i took my time to do it. Overall it was a very nice fit and finish installation. I'm happy with the product. All i would add on this Steeda kit is that they provide a bracket to hold the sound tube to the CAI, which is something that is on the stock air filter box. Then the tune went it, at first it didn't work cuz i needed a firmware update, but after i updated the SCT programmer, eveything went smooth sailing. The tune took about 20-25 minutes to fully download.
All i had time to do is start up the car and listen to her. The sound is crispier, , you can hear the air being sucked in through that big air filter element. You can immediattely tell it does breath a whole lot better. Throttle is very responsive, no lag whatsoever. Sound is different as well, at least at idle. Will go for a ride tomorrow after work and will update this thread. I can tell you guys that the skip shift is definately gone, speed limiter is higher, so is the rev one.

Original air filter box


Another view



Finished installation of Steeda CAI







Just came back from doing a ride in the newly tuned 5.0
The car is a totally different beast, it pulls very hard through all gears. Throttle response is improved a lot over stock. It really wakes the car up. Nice thing is you can really hear the air being sucked in through the CAI, even from the inside with sound tube still connected. At WOT it pulls like it wants to take off, it's even scary to a point. Sound at idle is more noticeable. But this beast needs an exhaust bad with a tune like this.
Was doing 60 in 5th gear with buddy in his 5.0 in front of me , saw this highly modified Audi pulling right beside me like he wanted to go, so i proceeded into middle lane and floored it till at least 7000RPM and passed him like a rocket shooting for the stars. My friend in his 5.0 rolled down his window to hear my car pass by when at WOT and said the sound was just crazy.
Very happy with the tune.
On a less positive note, i noticed that the skip shift is still programmed in the ECU, was told by Steeda people that it would be taken care of.
Will have to look into this with them and my vendor.
Something else has happened but i'll post a new thread on it. So go read it boys.

 

oh hellllllll yes

 

Nice bro. Mine is a couple days away, so keep coming with the feedback.

 

I couldn't stand to not go for a long ride after the install, no matter what else I had to do!

I like the Steeda kit, only thing I would want to do is paint all the bare aluminum matte black, the bright air sheild just looks out of place under the hood.

20-25 minute tune download must be telling of the more sophisticated PCM in the new Mustang, only takes about 5 minutes in my '04.

 

That rubber lining is a pain in the *** wasnt it, Id like to replace it with something more form fitting, im open to ideas. Also the first time I closed my hood, was I the only one sweating wether the intake was too high?

 

Looks great Dan!

for 75-100 bucks you could get the aluminum anodized any color you want. Much better look than paint.

 

Looks super.

 

video?

 

Yeah, but I have a great way to make it look good and almost like the black plastic in other areas underhood for about $6, then it will all blend in together and make it look like it came that way.

 

Looks great congrats sir another tastefull mod done on a gorgeous stang

 

May i ask what you're referring to ! Rattle can paint or something ! I'm not too crazy about the bare aluminium finish either and taught i't be nice if they would make it off the same kind of plastic finish some of the other parts are made of.

 

Chris, that will probably be a winter project . It won't stay as is believe me. Speaking of project, how is yours coming along ?

 

I cannot either, but this is all the time i have left working 12 hours a day these days. it's just crazy.
Tomorrow night is boys night out. Going out with other 5.0 's.

 

Install looks great! Wait till you go for a drive!

Also the air box is Stainless Steel, not aluminum. It can easily be powdercoated to any color or painted. Also a nice feature is it still uses the factory air inlet on the bottom.

Glad your Happy

 

I painted some parts on my inlet manifold for my blower and used wrinkle paint but put it in a warm oven to speed drying time and that made the wrinkle pattern flatten out slightly making it look more like the finish on the underhood black plastic. The paint sticks very well if you sand the surface with some medium grit paper first too.


I would give up sleep to go drive!

 

An alternative look is to get it powder coated. Lots of interesting colors to choose from. By the way, is the heat shield in aluminum or stainless?

EDIT: Ha Ha! What Long Stroke said...

Disassembly is 95% done, going in tomorrow for the final quote, presumably will drop the car off Monday. In the process I've discovered that the left rear quarter has already been repainted once. It was an excellent job, almost impossible to tell it was done. Hope the new job will be as good.

 

Looks very nice. Cannot wait to hear your impressions tomorrow.

 

Dan doesn't know how to use the multi-quote button...n00b (/post *****)!

 

"Then the tune went it, at first it didn't work cuz i needed a firmware update, but after i updated the SCT programmer, eveything went smooth sailing. The tune took about 20-25 minutes to fully download"

can you expand....(know nothing about how to do "the tune")

btw: looks nice...

 

Have had the Steeda CAI on mine for a while now.
Got it and a custom tune from Evolution Performance as soon as they were available.

It does look good and sound good at idle sucking the air.

Although it did not take me four hours to put in, only about an hour.