Ok, guys. I took the morning today to install the CMCV I had laying around. It was no easy task all by myself and being a complete car newb, but TacoBill's writeup had my back covered.
Took me about 6 hours between drink breaks, TacoBill's read up breaks, frustrated cussing breaks, tool search breaks; I bet I could do it in an hour now, knowing what I know. Assembled everything back together, connected the battery, loaded the revised Bama CMCV Tune and... started without any problems.
On the way back from my parents house, I had two chances to go WOT, and I did feel a bit more snap on my neck; but nothing jaw dropping. I also noticed the exhaust note changes slightly, specially on deceleration. It kinda smooths it out; you get less of the bubbly rumble and more a hummmm kind of sound.
I think at this point I'm ready to give up on mods that make you go
. I just haven't felt that feeling since I first drove my car with the CAI/tune.
Oh and also. Don't do like I did and buy the Steeda Billet CMCV thinking .70" bigger than OEM will benefit more. When I was installing mine, I noticed that, indeed, they are bigger, but the manifold runners are still OEM size and so are the... hole thingies leading to the cylinder. So in essence, I think I added an extra "chamber" for the air to pass through before getting to the cylinder, possibly causing turbulence. Unless you are planing on boring out the manifold runners and your engine block, you won't gain any more than with the OEM CMCV replacements.
My .02