Justin: If you're in the market for a super affordable intake for your 2015 through 2017
V6 S550 at home that will really pop under the hood. Well, then the SR Performance kit that
we have here today might just be the one for you. Now, the SR polished intake will be the
most affordable in the category by a pretty hefty margin and will be a direct bolt-on,
no tune required option, and can be had for just right around that $100 price point.
So, let's just cut right to the chase, guys, and call this thing what it is. And that
is a very budget-friendly or entry-level intake, no ifs, ands, or, buts about it. Now, therefore,
it's certainly not gonna have some of the more elaborate features of your more expensive kits,
maybe like a fancy sealed airbox, or a roto-molded plastic intake tube with brand names stamped all
over it. Instead, the SR kit is as bare-bones as it gets. But even with that being said, it's still
gonna come with everything needed and everything that most other kits in the category will deliver.
Now, this is one of only a handful of options currently available in the category with that
polished finish. One of the others is from K&N, which is their series 69. And that system,
by the way, is more than double the price of the SR option on the table today. So, again,
if you want the flash, you don't need a big brand name attached to it, well,
then the SR Performance is certainly an option that you might wanna check out.
But talking about what you are receiving here with the SR kit, obviously, the biggie is gonna be that
polished aluminum intake tube. Listen, I'm OCD, I might shine this thing up a little bit more,
but it does have a nice shine right out of the box. You're also receiving another
staple in the intake category, of course, and that is a reusable high flow filter,
it is washable, it is reusable, certainly gonna save you some dough in the long run
compared to replacing that cheap paper element factory filter every 10,000 miles or so.
Then you're also receiving all of your couplers, clamps, all that good stuff needed to get the
system in place. And then finally, guys, you have your included heat shield here, which will help
in blocking out some of the hot engine bay air from entering the filter itself. But
ultimately, if you want a true cold air intake system
going with a sealed enclosure will be one of the only ways to really achieve that.
But we know this is a budget option, we know that it can be used either with or without a tune,
and then it's not currently CARB certified at least at this time. What about some of
your other benefits with the SR kit in place? Well, obviously you're getting the aesthetics,
right? You're popping the hood, you're seeing the flash of this system
certainly gonna jump out at you but let's talk performance and other benefits.
Now, a lot of owners have complimented the throttle response increase with this system in
place. Certainly, a noticeable increase in sound coming from the 3.7 under the hood under hard
acceleration, thanks largely to that open-element design. Kind of the give and take of that design,
yeah, you're not really getting the heat fighting benefits of a sealed enclosure
but what you are getting is a lot more noise and that's one of the big reasons why owners
consider an intake like that in the first place, in addition to the power benefits.
Now, talking power here with this kit, listen,
the realistic expectations I always tell owners no matter what engine we're talking about,
typically high single-digit low double-digit gains without the use of a tune, and obviously that will
depend on your car, the system you are placing, the condition of the filter you are replacing,
there's a lot of different variables out there. But at the end of the day if you
expect or maybe look forward to high single digits, low double-digit gains without a tune,
then you should be in good shape. But now we wanna shift gears and get into the installation process.
And, guys, if you didn't know intakes are basically, I would say the gateway drug to
wrenching on your own ride. Even if you're new to wrenching on your Mustang, this is always
the best place to start because they're very easy, very straightforward to get installed.
Site's gonna call this one pretty solid one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter, maybe an
hour at most to complete from start to finish. But now to give you a better idea of just how
things will go down on your V6 at home. Here's an AM customer to walk you through it. Check it out.
Man: For this install, you will need
some type of ratchet, various extensions long, short, the supplied Allen key,
a 13-millimeter socket, a 10-millimeter socket, a 5/16-millimeter socket, and a 7-millimeter socket.
Okay, so you first wanna make sure that you have all your components that came with your kit. Next,
you're gonna remove your breather tubes and just move them out of the way.
Next, with a 7-millimeter ratchet, you're gonna remove this hose clamp.
Next, you're gonna remove the 10-millimeter bolt that holds down the airbox.
And then you can remove the factory air
box. This is gonna be a little slug, and then remove it off of the throttle body.
So, next step you're going to assemble the two pieces of the heat shield using
the supplied hardware. So, I'll take the bolt and the washer on the one side and thread it through.
At this time we're just going to hand-tighten it
till we get it all in place.
There are six bolts that go across the bottom of the heat shield.
So, using a 7-millimeter ratchet on this side and the supplied Allen key on the other side,
tighten down all the bolts.
Next, you'll insert velocity stack here as shown,
you'll take the reducing coupling as well as the second two largest coupling.
You'll insert that on the backside just like this. And you'll tighten this down using a 5/16.
Next, you'll use the supplied heat shield and seal it around the perimeter of the heat shield.
And then from here, we'll just trim off the excess.
Next, we'll take the L-shaped bracket and the bolt marked 8.8 as well as the large
washer and this is gonna be the largest bolt. We're gonna find our threaded hole
that is on our frame close to our fan here. We're gonna insert it like this
with the back of the L orientated out towards the driver's side. So next, we're gonna insert our
complete heat shield, we're gonna line everything up here. Your top bolt is gonna go in here and I
just get it hand-threaded for now, using the supplied other two small bolts and washers.
This one will connect down here to the L-shaped bracket. I'll
use our 10-millimeter ratchet to tighten.
Next, we're gonna install the reducer onto the throttle body. And
make sure that it's all the way flush against there. I'm gonna take one of our hose clamps,
insert that over, and then we're gonna tighten it using 5/16 ratchet.
[inaudible 00:10:59] that nice and tight, no movement. So we'll install the other one on the
other end. I'm not gonna tighten this one all the way, I'll just tighten to keep it on there
as such. Next, we're gonna install our filter onto our velocity stack utilizing the large hose clamp.
I'm gonna put it in. Lock this orientation, make sure it's slipped on all the way,
nice and snug against there. And again our 5/16 we're gonna tighten that hose clampdown.
Once you get the intake tube nice and positioned in there,
make sure it's good and tight and in the right spots, tighten down your hose clamps.
Once again, these are gonna be 5/16.
Next, we're gonna reinstall our breather tubes and they should just snap right
into play. Push them in and pull back on and make sure they are secured in there properly,
as such. From here, you're gonna turn on the car and let everything run.
Justin: So, if you're looking for a very budget-friendly intake that will also pack plenty
of flash, be sure to check out this option from SR Performance right here at americanmuscle.com.