Desnorkling..I really cannot remove that plastic..

panel. I'm afraid that it would break something. Is there any easy technique to do this? I can reach for the clip on the right side but it won't move. What tools should I use? Edited by - amgevoman on 07/21/2006 11:18:28 AM

A longish but small tipped screwdriver. There is no easy way. It takes a while to do can be irritatingly difficult, and is a bit scary, but totally worth it.

You can take a piece of firm rubber or vinyl & wedge it between the exterior grill & back portion of grill. You will need to wedge the two parts less than 3/8' to release front from back. I use soft rubber wedges about 2' wide & 1/4' thick. I also tape the body around the grill to protect. Start at two o'clock, when you feel it release, go to ten, then 7. By that time it will be released aound the perimeter. It is also attached at two center points, which will release with a little pull.Once you remove the aluminumpainted grillyou will see the four tabs that secure the rear portion of the grill. They are very easy to release. Just lift the tabs & pull out slowly.

there is an excellent article in the cayman mods forum that explains everything and shows pictures

amg, Several of us posted step by step photos. Start at the begining and work through this thread. It should help a lot. http://www.planet-9.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2363&FORUM_ID=5&CAT_ID=1&Topic_Title=Air+Intake+Mod+%2D+13+RWHP+Gain%21&Forum_Title=Cayman+Mods&whichpage=10

All of the pictorials were great, but none of the ones I found dealt with separating the two grill pieces prior to removal. Removal of the exterior grill first eliminates any damage & is much quicker.

carpetyd i was not aware of and 'extrenal ' grill piece. do you have photos?

I suggest you read Panorama, July, page 61, before you even bother trying to remove it.

P-Nut, That was written by PCA-TECH here before he ever read any of the threads here. The 3.8L engine at F-L he refers to was not run without the baffle plate on a dyno for comparison purposes, it was run in other fashions and PCA-TECH extrapolated that there was no change. Clearly, for some reason, there was a change with my dyno run so a change cannot be ruled out. Of course if others would put their cars on dynos before and after we've have more data points. Regardless of any HP gain (I really wasn't expecting any), I like the sound/tone difference, especially with the EVO intake. The two plastic pieces that make up the outer piece that needs to be removed do not need to be separated from each other, but if you do separate them it makes getting to the pins easier. I found it very difficult to separate them on my car so I didn't.

Kman S...thats is what i thought...when i removed mine...it seemed to be one piece. and to those that broke the plastic pins...replacements are available at most auto parts store...i replaced one of mine with a very similar plastic panel pins made for Ford. the dimensions are vey similar and both are plastic.

i broke off several of the pins...only cost 30cents per pin after ordering them from the dealership...no biggie.

Carpetyd, I am not sure I understand, there are only three pieces the grill comes out first then the plate and lastly the opening piece which get the mesh attached to it. I thought the pics showed pretty much all of this? Aloha Russ

For anyone yet to do this De~Snork: The best bet is to go to the 550HP SUV dealership, and order a bag of 10 pins. Cheap. When you get the OEM pins, grab the whole vent insert on the port side, near the top, and gently but firmly and quickly, snap it out and OFF your car with an "up as you pull out" motion. You really don't want to waste your time driving around finding pins somewhere, only to find that they are a little loose, or actually don't fit too well. Pins will break doing this anyhow. So what, you have a little bag full. Go for it with a vigorous gusto. P.S.... Grind those dorky raised pins completely off the snorkel mouth that supported the dorky restrictor plate with your trusty dremel moto-tool. Simply cut the pre-painted matte black gutter mesh (which should run horizontally to look best), and use small black wire ties to secure the mesh to the snorkel mouth (the part where there used to be those "posts"). Drill 1/16th holes to pass the wire-ties through, and use at least enough ties to keep that screen pinned in place all around. Snip off ties' excess. This makes a cleaner, simpler screen shape template. It's easy, fast, and cleaner visually, and gets better protection generally than attempting to preserve the integrity of the OEM restrictor plate support neccesitating trimming screen around the posts. That baffle mouth part is cheap anyway, and you'll likely never need the posts anyhow. The Mod itself is really not that much louder, that was a bit of a let down, but it really does feel a bit more eager to pull from around 3500 RPM. I immediately noticed a slight, but perceptable improvement there. A little less hesitency to blast off from midrange. If this car is kept above 4500 it will really get moving. It has long legs. Awesome automobile.

I still don't know how I didn't break any pins? The amount of pressure I had to put on it was pretty heavy. I guess I just got lucky. Russ

Same here.It seems like the pins on my car are glued. It won't go off no matter how much I try. Sigh....

The Pins do NOT need to come out, you just need to release the plastic clips that go over the pins, go view my article that shows all of the pins still in the car other than the one that accidentally came out. You need to use a thin flat blade screwdriver to release the clips that go over the pins so that the plastic frame will slide out, the PINS themselves stay in the car! (or should)

AMG, I had a heck of a time with them as well, but I did not give up. Look at this photo and you can perhaps see how the pins are released. I put the pin back in the top clip in the photo (the round piece). That little tab has to be pushed up to release it. I know it is hard to see looking at it this way. Russ

Ok here is a step by step diagram of what to do with the tab and the pin to get the grill out. You do this for each tab/pin combo, working the intake grill out as you go. I don't know what else I can do to explain this as there are lots of photos and now this diagram as well.

man...i love you guys...i havn't been spoon fed since i was a toddler.

I am a bit of a mechanical goose but the instructions allowed me to have enough confidence to desnork on weekend. Excluding paint drying, process took about 30 minutes and no broken pins. Dont care what dyno says or all the talk of taking 60miles to remap ECU or something, my car has 2000km on it and I noticed aslight difference in intake soundbut also a small but definitely notable increase on urge esp in lower rev range. Whether perception or not, the desnork was a winner for me....thanks to all that contributed. Cheers

That diagram that K-Man S posted is PERFECT! Go for it!!! Aloha Russ

RussK, You can see on your photo that there are two pieces, the painted blue grill & the black plastic grill, which snap together. I have removed mine more than twice & others more than five or six times. It just seems so much easier. Conrad

carpetyd, While separating the two plastic pieces is ideal because it makes getting to the pins a lot easier, on my car and on many others these two items would not separate without breaking. The way in which they sandwich together puts a lot of stress on some thin plastic if the pairing happens to be a tight one. If you can't get them separated then the method described above is your best bet.

carpetyd, I see what you mean now. I have to echo K-Man S, I could not seperate those two pieces without damage so I just left them together. Aloha Russ

RussK, It is very very easy, if you use my methodthe two pieces release themselves. Conrad

Thanks all. I'll give it another shot since now I have some spare time to play around with it again. I really appreciate the help.