Vararam Review...Buyer BEWARE
I was going to start my own thread on this, but being this one has so many views and seems to be going strong, figured i'd leave this here.
This is my 2-ish year ownership review of the VARARAM system for a 2007 era ram, with a 5.7.
The system comes out of the box looking like a classic orange mopar six pack air cleaner...and thats where my compliments end.
This thing was an utter piece of garbage form day 1 of ownership. Install Instructions were incorrect, they shipped incorrect hardware, the throttle body coupler is too short, the hoses cannot route the way they recommend. Again...a less than seamless install, and took me several rounds with their reluctant customer service team to send the correct parts. After standing back and looking at my install...i noticed it sits crooked, and that this massive contraption only has a driver side support bracket, and it droops to that direction. It's designed to just "ride on" the coolant res with no brackets or support on that side, The plastic housing is thin and flimsy, and the entire thing is held together with pop rivets and smeared on RTV.
Service intervals: During oil changes, I do my inspections and I begin to notice that the "hoses" scoop up all kinds of road debris...I regularly open this contraption up to find leaves, rocks, feathers, you name it, hiding in the back of the housing. I also note that their crap silicon adhesive that holds this POS together are starting to work loose, and also all the dime store pop rivets that hold the hinges on, are pulling out of the 1/8 inch plastic.
ETC...
*rivets pulling out of plastic
*"cover" cannot hinge and open as intended because of firewall clearance
*scoops up road debris
*rides directly on washer res
* Too tall, so it also rubs on the hood insulation
*completely discolored from interference with other engine bay components
*metal components rusting
And the biggest foul, the plastic case that is supposed to be "sealed" now has 3-4 HOLES in it where the cheap, thin plastic has been rubbed clean through from hitting other engine bay components, and the intake manifold.
FAST FORWARD 2-ish years.
Notice my truck begins getting 15 MPG instead of the usual 17. So that weekend leads to an oil change and a set of plugs. I open to hood to find that the silicon coupler that holds this POS onto the throttle body, has torn...so the MPG decrease was because the TB was pulling DIRTY, UNFILTERED air right from the engine bay!. Not only was it sucking up all the crap from the bay, but the china "breather" that vararam supplies is also a service item. Being it was full, my engine also had the pleasure of sucking up all the dirt and oil fumes that the breather kicks out.
I went to pull this thing out, and fix the coupler, and all the issues above had intensified. Hinges physically dislodged... rivets missing, the "hood pins" are completely rusted and coming apart. And I had the remnants of a bird IN THE AIR BOX....not in the hose...not halfway in the intake scoop... IN THE AIR BOX.
I’m done with this POS, and I’ll be ordering a simple KNN, or equivalent. I'd put the stock box back on...but you have to remove and discard your factory bumper filler, and the factory air box support bracket...to install this snake oil box of jokes.
attached is what it's supposed to look like...and what it ends up looking like after 2+ years...