Busy Weekend:Takeda Intake & Exhaust and Tanabe Front Strutbar
 

Well after only owning the car one week I was getting anxious with the parts just sitting in my living room. I purchased the Takeda Intake, Takeda cat-back exahust, and Tanabe strut bar from Auto City Imports. Here is my journey/review of the parts.

I will start with the easiest thing first: Tanabe Strutbar:

Nothing out of the ordinary. Just the usual strut bar installation. It connects on all 3 points of the strut. I raised the car for installation since it was already raised for the exahust install to get the full potential of the strut bar. Here are a few pictures of the finished product.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed3.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed4.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed2.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...intsalled1.jpg

Secondly: Takeda Intake

Again nothing out of the ordianry from the usual intake install. Everything went very smoothly. I elected to keep the sound tube and drilled a 1inch hole on the side section for the sound generator.

The only beef I have with this intake, and probably GReddy is the same since they have the same air box, but the bolt that holds in on top in front doesnt fit perfectly. Maybe its just me but it angles as it gets tighted making me guess that the area for it is too large and cannot compensate for the smaller size of washer and bolt. Regardless of that though the bolt still made it tight enough along with the bolt that holds it on the bottom. It doesnt move so I am still very happy with the intake and the install. Here are a few pictures of the finished install.

Unboxing--
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...ntakeinbox.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...RS/intake1.jpg

Installed--
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed1.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed3.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed2.jpg

And finally: Takeda Cat-Back Exhaust

This install was super easy to do as well. The only thing I may have to do is go back under to fix the exhaust and re align it. To me the left tip seems to be sticking out more than the right. Again no big deal and a great install.

Unboxing--
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...haustinbox.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...S/Exahust1.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...S/Exhaust2.jpg

Installed--
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed1.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed2.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed4.jpg
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...installed3.jpg

Overall the exahust and intake I am hoping will work well together since they are the same company. The exhaust note is mean and holds that boxer engine sound. I liked this exahust also because it was different. With the outlets comming out of one side of the muffler. Plus with the 4.75" tips they fill the bumper out nice and just plain looks mean from the back. If anyone has any questions regarding the parts please ask and I will try my best to answer.

I like the strut bar.. Haven't seen that one, and I was thinking I needed a Triangular one, but given theres already a set of braces in stock, Maybe that type is best... I like the color for my Firestorm too... Hmmm.... I'm not a fan of the exhaust tho... Hate seeing the pipe below the muffler.

strutbar looks nice, I'd consider buying it
I'm betting you will like the intake too, looks sweet as well

not to be overly critical, your post and pics are great, I dig the tips alot...

I'm surprised at the look of the piping- is it even stainless?
that muffler with the afe patch welded on looks an aweful lot like a magnaflow to me...

aesthetically, this looks less than optimal to me: pipe just doesnt look right there going across like that

I'm betting it sounds nice and looking fwd to your drivers review about any power gains felt etc

Looks great! I have the same setup minus the strut bar, Cusco on mine ;)

The AFe exhaust sounds amazing :thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks...according to AFE it is stainless steel. And yeah a lot of people dont really like the look of this exhaust because of that cross pipe. But thats partially why I got it, I like it and I wanted to be different.

Can't really tell from the pic, but did you transfer the grommets from the stock intake over to the aFe intake? That could account for the bolt/washer seeming to be too small.

Hmm no I didnt. And I didnt even think of that. I may have to go run outside and see if I can transfer them over.

I haven't installed my aFe intake yet, but I'm pretty sure that is in the instructions to move the grommets over.

Wow thanks you were right. Reading back through the directions it does say swap over the gromets. Now its perfect. Thanks for the catch.

No problem. Glad you got it worked out.

Totally not feeling that exhaust, but as long as you like it. Digging the strut bar though.

Tap'd from my G-Nex

I really like the look. just wish that brown spot was cleaned up.. i bet scotch bright will fix that in a jiffy. The red strut bar looks nice too. lookin good so far :thumbsup:

i like the bar and the intake but that low hanging pipe on the exhaust looks weird. Just my .02

thanks for all the feedback guys...i went back into the dealer to get an alignment after installing the strut bar (they are free)...and ill be re adjusting the exhaust tomorrow. It looks like I forgot to tighten a clamp down and the muffler wasn't sitting straight in the hangers so nothing a little tweaking can't fix.