What are the implications of the removed tab?
Excellent question. The implications are that you never have to worry about a vacuum leak from that stupid tab, which is a weak point in the design. I had a leak (small tear you couldn't see) at the base of the tab. After installing my FMIC, we pressure tested the entire system to check for leaks. There were zero boost leaks, but a vacuum leak at the tab we thought was minor. Depending upon engine movement/tq, the tab would either let air in (unmetered air which makes it run lean), or let air escape (meter air not making it to intake, so car runs rich). And I'm talking blow you engine vacuum leak. My AFRs at WOT went from pig rich 10.88 at only 4,000 rpms to a super-dangerous 13.82 at 6,250!! (Logs attached note AFRs!!). Here's also a vid we made of the vacuum leak at the tab (note the bubbles) so you can see what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KraYwMIr8Sk
I called CPE about it when I returned the old one, and they said the tab was "over-engineering on our part." It was just so you could mount it to the stock screw there, but it is completely unnecessary as the CPE TIP is huge, and it has no where to move anyway between the wire harness and the battery. See in the pic below with my Cobb TIP, which is smaller (and has not tab) and is not going anywhere! The "convenience" of that tab is NOT WORTH the weak point, which can lead to a tear, and you running super lean at WOT like I did, and almost blow your engine (thank God I had no knock). I said was going to shave the tab off, and cover the metal nub with RTV silicone expoxy (like JB Weld for silicone... ain't gonna leak), and he said that was a good idea. So I'm really doing people a favor by getting rid of that tab and covering it with epoxy (which was unnecessary over-kill, but it'll never leak from there).
The only 'negative' thing is the epoxy job is a little sloppy, because I put it on as were were installing the TIP like a num-skull, so I kept smudging it with my hand, lol. You could file some epoxy off, or just add some more RTV over it to smooth it out (it's like $5). In the meantime, I picked up the blue Cobb intake (everything was blue except the CPE TIP, which only comes in black), so I don't need this CPE piece anymore. Here's the all blue set up (I got the SU recirc tube in blue as well, lol. My OCC lines are blue and I'm installing that next week). I would like to have the IM powdercoated to match, and possible even the fmic, but I'm not putting my funds into cosmetics until the power mods are done (DP, MANI, 3076):
