If = anyone is curious, I got a look at a completed Tii conversion on Thursday. My sister bought the kit and = had it installed by her mechanic.  = I stopped by to visit the mechanic and took it for a test drive. My thoughts and the mechanics = comments are as follows:

Positive = things:

• This is a very clean conversion. It looks = like it belongs there. The = dipstick and coolant are still accessible through the license. The engine fits with lots = of room to spare and no need to raise the deck = lid.
• The engine idles very well. There is less = vibration than a WBX on idle.
• The oil filter is very accessible and easy to reach.
• You use the stock = muffler/Cat and the stock fuel injection.

Not so = Positive things:

• The air Intake to the = Fuel injector just after the air filter has two plugs in it. It seems like these would = blow out pretty easily on a backfire or even just vibration. The air filter is also = hard to reach.
• There is no cruise = control option enabled. I = think they’ll have to rig something.
• The camshaft pulley = seemed off center and kind of warbled a = bit.
• No Oxy sensor. Could be a problem for = DEQ.

The = mechanic liked the kit and the way it ran.  = Both of us drove it up a very steep hill near his shop and were impressed = with the power band. We were able = to accelerate from 55 up to 65 on the hill. In my van, you can only accelerate to about 58. The mechanic did not have the = best opinion of Peter (the guy who sells the kit). His first complaint was that they had a bad = transistor coming off the coil. The replacement was hard and very slow to get. Once they got it, it wasn’t a Telefunkt or = Bosch but some cheap Taiwanese transistor.  = He also told me that the instructions had bad info on the scan tool. Other than those few problems, = the install was pretty smooth.  = He just didn’t like the way Peter didn’t seem so eager to help. They were led to believe this = kit had been installed many times before, but the reality is this was his first = US shipment. They were in it = for 30 hours and they figure the next time will take about = 20.

I am = very interested in the kit for my Carat. However, I would definitely miss the low-end torque. My Waterboxer is running too = well right now (knock on wood) to think about it just = yet!