Inake

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

come on man, you're smarter then that.
anyways, OP my bud just bought a cold air kit and catback off of ebay for his 2k5 or 6 tiburon. I actually hate his car but there was a noticable gain just off the air kit before we put the catback on //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif from ebay too

It depends on the car and the quality of the intake.

I'm a dub/audi guy, myself, and with the exception of maybe 2 tested brands, the entire array of 'upgrade' intakes for the mk4 engines actually DECREASE performance.

I know certain cars can make marginal gains with a new air intake, but you have to understand that as long as the tube is physically large enough to flow enough air to keep added strain off the engine, the ports, the flow of the head itself, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and the cam duration are going to be the limiting factors in how much air actually makes it into the engine. And if you actually open the hood of your car, most cars (honda civics INCLUDED) have cold air intakes from the factory, that draw air from behind the passenger side headlamp, well outside the heat of the engine.

Minus certain cars, which are engineered terribly from the factory (mazda speed 6's for example) you wont gain much by simply changing the TUBE that the car sucks air through.

You'd be much better off putting a k&n drop-in instead, and saving the rest of the money for some upgraded software, a cam, a new intake manifold, or some other upgrade that will yield you more noticeable results. That way, even though you're dissatisfied with the results of the purchase, you atleast have a re-useable air filter to save you some $$ down the road.

 

[M@nJo 10+ year member]

spend a little more on something good so u dont have to worry about misplaced hardware/shit falling off while driving/etc.

http://www.importhorizon.com/intake.html

IMO, go for a short ram intake cause an CAI wouldnt do too much on that application. mostly if u live in an area where it rains a lot.

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

Do a GFI. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Better results than an SRI, and much safer for daily than that frontmounted piece of shit you posted //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Alpine CDA-9815 10+ year member]

Stay away from the ebay crap.

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

front mount style intakes sorry but are way lame and really arnt that great. might as well get a turbo, etc with a real fmic.

but really dont wast money on that stuff. a modified stock air box can be just as good.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Then I would just get a short ram kit from a reputable company...AEM, Injen, etc...
Or hell, just throw in a K&N Filter in the stock box...

AEM. AEM > all according to this test

http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/filters_test/2/

And the only reason you would want better flow is to increase hp.

 

[bbka 10+ year member]

Look into making your own and get a good filter for it (K&N or whatever), any cheap eBay kit will probably work, mount it in a place that will get cool air to it (bumper area usually). Don't waste money for an overpriced intake, it's just a fricking pipe with a filter. Short rams will just hurt performance, seeing as it sucks up all the hot engine compartment air. I'd just leave it stock personally, you won't notice any difference, except for sound, unless the stock intake has a bird stuck in it.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Look into making your own and get a good filter for it (K&N or whatever), any cheap eBay kit will probably work, mount it in a place that will get cool air to it (bumper area usually). Don't waste money for an overpriced intake, it's just a fricking pipe with a filter. Short rams will just hurt performance, seeing as it sucks up all the hot engine compartment air. I'd just leave it stock personally, you won't notice any difference, except for sound, unless the stock intake has a bird stuck in it.

Please refrain from making uneducated comments. SRI's dont **** in purely hot air. For instance in my car, there is a duct behind the headlight and a duct from the fender that fed the stock airbox with cooler air. Mind you this is a 1991 nissan... performace wasnt their main goal or else they would have left the SR20DET in it. Anyways, most all cars have ways of getting air thats less hot than whats in the motor bay. Also, the aluminum used in QUALITY kits resist heat soak many times better than stock plastic or cheap ebay kits.

 

[bbka 10+ year member]

Please refrain from making uneducated comments. SRI's dont **** in purely hot air. For instance in my car, there is a duct behind the headlight and a duct from the fender that fed the stock airbox with cooler air. Mind you this is a 1991 nissan... performace wasnt their main goal or else they would have left the SR20DET in it. Anyways, most all cars have ways of getting air thats less hot than whats in the motor bay. Also, the aluminum used in QUALITY kits resist heat soak many times better than stock plastic or cheap ebay kits.

How about your refrain for being an idiot? If your intake is getting cool air from the fender, then it would be a cold air intake, not a short ram instake (I don't care if the box says short ram). When I say "short ram", I am just talking about the intakes that sit in the engine bay. Anything else I wouldn't consider a short ram. OBviously we are talking about different things.

Either way, wasting money on just intake/header/exhaust won't really give you enough performance to make it worth the money spent imo... The companys always claim it adds X amount of horsepower, but in the real world unless your car is already modded (cams, high c/r pistons, etc...), it will add very little power and just change the sound of your car. Having a 2 page thread about intakes is retarded.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Still not true. For instance, my car came stock with tiny exhaust piping with crush bends in it making it very restrictive. I put a catback on it and i noticed it revs a bit faster, has a little more power, and throttle response is better. After my intake i noticed a lot of difference. With my header, i felt a little more on the midrange-> topend, and it sounded a whole lot cleaner. No longer that raspy ricey sound.

 

[bbka 10+ year member]

No, what I said was true, we obviously just have very different opinions on what is quick/fast. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif We also have different opinions on what is worth the money. To me, unless it adds a decent amount of power (forced induction or high c/r all motor setup), it's not really worth it. Some certain all motor cars will benefit from your basic I/H/E and tuning though. Your stock intake must have been REALLY shitty to see a gain, if there was a gain (only the dyno will tell you). Don't always believe your *** dyno, your ears and mind can play tricks on you after installing parts. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif My *** dyno is actually pretty accurate with my car, but I know my car very well, so I can tell the difference 10whp/1psi of boost. I was out racing one night and it felt a little slower, sure enough I was only boosting about 9psi, and I am usually about 10psi. Less than 10whp gain or loss will be kinda hard to tell a difference imo, sometimes I notice when the weather is different, but then again then the *** dyno does lie.

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

getting headers/exahust/intake are a nice way to go still if you just wana open things up in the car more.

not everybody needs a super fast car to look cool.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Your stock intake must have been REALLY shitty to see a gain

i'm not arguing with you here, i know vw/audi group uses the same airbox on every engine from the 1.8t all the way to the 480hp 4.2 turbo, but it really IS possible that some cars just come with just plain BAD equipment from the factory.

Bottom line, is make sure you buy a product that has PROVEN results. There's people testing equipment like this all the time, and some products work, and some don't. And on some cars, the factory equipment is just as good or better than the aftermarket stuff.

But i would say that the bottom line here, is that a slapped together ebay product, with no proof of results, or 3rd party testing, is probably not a good purchase.

I know i'm comparing apples to oranges here, but it's sort of the same thing as upgrading your head unit. There are good and bad head units out there, and cars come with good or bad factory equipment. Just because you swap it out doesn't mean you're necessarily making an upgrade, if that makes any sense.

Making hp, or more specifically, increasing airflow, doesn't just happen by accident, it needs to be a proven quality product, that was designed RIGHT, and actually works.

And furthermore, i know i'm getting away from the core idea behind this thread, but upgraded car parts usually have a tradeoff of some sort. When you change an exhaust pipe, or an intake manifold, or a cam (or pretty much everything) you're trading one thing for another. Bigger exhaust pipes, for example, open the car up to have better flow at higher RPMS, but the larger diameter pipe decreases air velocity, and thus loses efficiency in the lower engine speeds, so you trade torque for horsepower. Horsepower is USUALLY better, but what i'm trying to say, is that car parts need to be designed for a specific purpose, designed and engineered CORRECTLY to meet that purpose, and the results need to be proven, and displayed to show the end results.

And i'm sure there's some junk cars out there, where he stock parts were just designed willy-nilly, with no reason behind the engineering, but most of them ARENT. the factory parts are designed for the optimum balance of power, and driveability. more peak hp doesn't necessarily mean it comes without a cost. You may be able to maek more power up top, but you may have a harder time engaging gears without the engine bogging down, and may need to drive the car differently to keep it from losing power on the low end.

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

i'm not arguing with you here, i know vw/audi group uses the same airbox on every engine from the 1.8t all the way to the 480hp 4.2 turbo, but it really IS possible that some cars just come with just plain BAD equipment from the factory.
.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/peace.gif.2db28b618ed8d1964ebbe2f5021d2c39.gif

also if you smooth out the stock air box. you are even better //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

the ol' swiss cheese routine, and snow filter removal are proven effective