The TV install went fine, other than a banged-up thumbnail from trying to get the stock wires and heat shields off.
I took my time with the Vari-Ram install, everything went pretty well except that the piece of tubing they supply for connecting the new airbox with the MAF housing was made of fairly thick rubber.? I had to grind down the lip that went into the MAF housing so that it would fit and stay put.? I was perhaps a little concerned that this new airbox just rests in place with no brackets or bolts or anything holding it in place, but with all of the other ram-air parts and stuff, it wedges in pretty good and isn't going to go anywhere. I took out two of the push-pin clips holding on the top of the grill assembly, then I found a couple of old shock absorber bushings I had left over from some long-gone vehicle. These worked great as spacers to keep the grill assembly lifted up for airflow, and I could put the push-pin clips back into these to both hold them in place and restore a semi-stock look to things.
Boy do I already dread the process of changing / cleaning that air filter.? It'll be a time-consuming thing to do....
As to the driving changes, it's a little early to tell.? SOTP wants to say it's a little more responsive, but mainly I'm interested to see what happens to the fuel mileage.? So far I've only driven just a couple of days back and forth to work so I haven't had a chance to tell yet.? I'm going to Missouri this weekend so I'll have a couple of good highway cruising tanks to see if it makes a difference or not.
As to noise, the Vari-Ram is perhaps just a bit noisier at WOT than stock, but not much.? That's probably because it uses the stock tubing from the MAF to the throttle body, with all that extra noise and flow plumbing it contains.