Everything went pretty smooth except for one of the bolts that hold the wp cover on, but we eventually got it. Throttle response seems great, and the temp. gauge hardly creeps up. Loving it!

One thing that I SWEAR happened though, was that the car seemed to have become a bit louder? This all in my head or is it a good possibility? Not a concern at all except for my mental health, besides louder is better!

 

theres no way your car got louder from a waterpump and thermostat. its in your head

 

Was thinking maybe the cai was causing the slightly louder exhaust note. I know the t-stat wouldn't do it :P And I dunno... I did all those things at once and I swore it changed

 

Not the exhaust, but if the LPE has an open-filter, then it's possible you're
hearing the "roar" of the air sucking in the filter.

 

My dad's 5.3L Avalanche with just CAI roars, but the roar is from the CAI.

 

CAI's dont make a difference in noise. I think even a stock exhaust makes enough noise to the pint where you can't hear the air swishing because of the CAI. On my old 98 v6 mustang I could hear the CAI all the time sucking air. Never heard it once on the LT1, perhaps it is because of the rubber elbow.

 

I can clearly hear my cai at idle sucking air from all the hondas. Stock exhaust. However, If he means the exhaust note, I never noticed a difference.

 

I have the SLP also and I can hear my intake sucking in the air. I don't think it made the exhaust louder, but having a cold air intake is definetly a different sound than a stock intake.

 

You guys must run some panzy exhaust if you can still hear the CAI

 

Too funny Back in the day (70's), it was popular to run "turbo" mufflers to keep the
car quiet (many of my friends retained the stock rims and ran slightly wider Mickey
Thompson tires), effectively duping the would-be competitor. It's hard to gauge a car's
potential which you cant hear. Some of meanest cars back in those days (in these here
parts, anyway) were sleepers.

 

My hooker catback opens up pretty good at wot... otherwise it is pretty tame. I still think my marbles may be a bit loose. Who knows

 

Are you saying the stock exhaust is not the baddest exhaust ever made?

 

I just drive w/ the cutout open all the time so I dont have to hear all the creeks from the dash and get angry. lol

 

Nitelite, was your car tuned for the 160 by any chance?

 

I don't remember if I had pcmforless tune it for the 160 stat or not. Chances are no, not sure if I can shoot bryan an email and he still has my order on file. At any rate, he only drops the temps that the fans kick on correct?

Maybe I should shoot an email his way