I would truthfully drop a K&N in the stock air box location. I am not a big fan of KKM anymore mainly because of their customer service. I called there wanting the SVT kit for my SE because it included a connection to the air inlet pipe from the fender (which I had salvaged a round inlet from an SVT to make the connection) and personally to me, the chrome end adapter and short piece of blue hose made it look finished off, as well as channeled colder air from outside into the intake. When I called up there requesting the kit, I gave the salesman my model year and make of Contour. He then proceeded not to tell me the exact difference between the kits, but tried to convince me that I didnt want the SVT kit because of some kind of mounting hardware difference and the absence of the provision for the IAT. I do not like being told how to spend my money. I did not claim to know it all, and was trying to find out honestly how the kits differed, and all this person wanted to do was to sell me something that I didn't want, when all I was asking for was the chrome cap and hose to finish off the end. He proceeded to get really rude with me and said "So it doesn't have the connection at the end... woo-hoo. Stick a piece of dryer hose into the end of it or something". Right. Like I am going to spend 100 bucks on a kit only to make it look unfinished and homemade. However, I thought about doing this anyways and then anyone who tells me that it looks cheap at a car show can be given free advertising for KKM as to the quality of their products.
Secondly, higher flow is what you want, but I do not like the idea of taking stagnant air from inside the engine compartment alone... I like to channel as much air in from the outside as possible to get a good intake charge. Several people have mentioned the KKM kit, but then seal off the filter in order to reduce heat soak and connect it to the fender duct. Well, to me this is the same as dropping a K&N in the stock airbox location, as making the heat sheild just seals off the open element on the filter all together and creates a new box around the filter, taking in air from the outside only.
Until KKM can sell me a kit for my SE that includes provisions for the chrome end cap and silicone hose to attach to an SVT fender duct, as I can mount the IAT with the kit from BAT, and until they can provide better information on their products in their ad prior to me calling, I will continue to put the negative word out on the KKM kit to help other people out who dont like to be told exactly how they should spend their money by someone else.
However, if I could make an SVT kit work in my car, I would MAYBE be up for buying one.... does anybody have any info on either or both of the two kits so that I know how they differ as far as mounting other than the IAT location? If anyone remembers or has notations of all the screws, nuts and bolts and brackets that come in the two kits, please e-mail me or post here. If all I am looking at is the relocation of the IAT, this is not a big deal. However, if there is some custom bracket that only an SVT engine compartment (which I assume to be the same as the SE's compartment other than the high perf. engine) will accept that I will need to adapt to, then that will be more of a challenge and may be a deterrent.
To all those who want to flame me for bashing KKM, I do not know it all, and never claimed to, but am trying to add to my knowledge in order to make an educated decision, and those who try to stand in my way and make those decisions for me only succeed in making me try harder in accomplishing what I want and also make me want to try to discourage other people whom I consider friends from buying their product so that they don't get tricked into thinking someone else's way. Just trying to look out for all of you who want an honest opinion, thats all. Peace.
