I only have a bit over 3000 miles on the car, but I had some free time, so I figured I would go ahead and install the BMC air filter I bought before I even got the car. Of course, there is a trade-off of going to a higher-flow air filter with reduced filtration level. My calculation: I’m going to be increasing power substantially more and I live in a relatively clean environment. The more the airflow, the bigger the difference the lower restriction air filter will make. On a turbocharged car, reducing the pressure drop before the compressor inlet is doubly important.
Changing the air filter on the 718 with the turbo 4-bangers is a bit involved. It starts with removing these five panels: two back corner panels, two side panels, and the center cover. I was able to pull them all off with just my fingers, so no tools required. They were still a bit tricky to remove though. Why do I have the piece of blue tape marking where the center cover mates with the interior engine cover? I’m going to modify more stuff to make air filter maintenance easier.
Keep an eye for these black cone pieces on the side panels and don’t lose them. They often stay in stuck in the car when you pull the panels out.
Well, I can see how excess coolant flows out and onto the ground now. That’s a nice quick-connect fitting for the overflow coolant tube; the quick-connect reduces the time for attaching the tube to the coolant filler neck on the manufacturing line and also guarantees a leak-free joint. Check out that wad of formed foam sound insulation sitting over the top of the strut tower.
You can pull out interior carpet cover over the engine after removing the five panels. Check out how much insulation foam is on the underside of the carpet. The stuff is somewhat dense and relatively heavy too. My arm gauge is a bit out of calibration, but I’d guesstimate the cover is roughly 10lbs.
To remove the engine bay upper bulkhead panel, you have to remove a plastic panel to the side of the seats. Doing so uncovers two screws on each side of the chassis brace that need to be removed. Once that brace is removed, you can remove the plastic panel underneath the brace which gives you access the front-most screws of the upper bulkhead panel over the engine.
4 comments
that is an absurd amount of work for an air filter replacement
I’ve heard with practice, it can be done in 45 minutes. If done by the dealership, the question is how careful are they and how many little black cones will they lose. Also, getting the lid back on properly seated and sealed takes a bit of work. I didn’t have it seated correctly the first time.
There is a big intake restriction after the intake filter, just before the turbo. There’s a company “Ragdoll Motorsports” that has replacement turbo inlet that showed great results on the 2.5.
Already have that on the way with a bigger spinny thingy that does the ‘hint hint….’ more airflow part.