I just got my LPE Cold Air Intake from UPS today and I was looking through the installation instructions and it says that I need to drill 2 holes into the metal of the car in order to secure the plastic block off plate to the car using plastic fasteners. For those of you that have purchased and installed LPE CAI's, did you follow the included instructions completely? Is this drilling step necessary? And for those that read this that have purchased other CAI's, was drilling necessary for installtion of those as well?

 

There was no drilling or any other modification of my car required to install my SLP CAI. The blockoff plate that surrounds the tubes for the CAI simply snapped into place.

 

you will need to drill the two holes b/c the plastic screw thingys will hold the plastic oval thing in place. its simple, just line everything up mark the holes with a marker, remove everything, drill the holes, reinstall everything and put the two lock screws through the holes. its not totally necessary to drill the holes for the screws but seeing as how they are already drilled on the plastic template it makes more sense and makes the install look cleaner...30 minute job...you can do it !

 

Drilling the holes is so you can hold down that plastic piece that separates the air filter from the engine bay, therefore not sucking in hot air from the engine bay.

I did not feel like drilling holes so I used self taping sheet metal screws. I thought that was easier than finding the right sized bit that was also sharp.

 

You could probably install the LPE CAI without screwing down the flat plastic piece but it would have nothing to hold it in place. It's not a big deal to drill those holes.
I also had to trim the flat piece some to make it lie flat,