MrWizard

Can people please give me pro's vs. con's price diff, performance difference, and so on.... Im considering putting one in.... i know i will lose part of my warranty, but its just the throttle body warranty correct, information would be appreciated....also if you could recommend a type of cold air/ram air i would appreciate it.

xviper

Noone makes a true Ram-Air intake for this car. The "snorkel" is about as close as you can get and its "ramming" effect is minimal. For a true Ram effect, you'd need to cut a hole in the hood directly above the intake system and mount a hood scoop. This hole must be completely sealed to the intake system so you get minimal leakage. The scoop must also be of adequate size to bring in the appropriate amount of air (no restricted flow).
If you want a performance intake that is also a Cold Air Intake, then get ones like the AEM, PRM, Comptech, etc.

Wildncrazy

Why should you lose any warranty?

Magnussun something or other act says they can't void any part of your warranty unless it can be determined that the aftermarket part was directly responsible for the failure

rworne

Magnuss-Moss IIRC. True, but when they refuse to honor the warranty anyway, your only alternative after playing phone tag with AHM is to go to court and make them honor it. That leaves the question as to the cheaper solution: fight it in court, or pony up the $$$.

All I know is that I am not doing squat to the car until it is out of warranty. That may or may not be a long time depending on the reliability between now and 36K miles.

MeWannaS2K

Very true. The sad thing is that so many people are tricked into believing that some CAI's are ram air,...such as the Mugen CAI. This just isn't true at all. On top of that, your speed would have to be at or above 90 to 100mph to see any horsepower increases. And the increases would be very minimal. Ram air is pretty much a myth if you ask me. It is possible, but it's not worth the effort. It's only worth it if you drive an SR-71. Now their ram air works great. The engine doesn't even need an ignitor after the ram air is engaged. The air is compressed so much that the heat lights off the fuel. Now that's some compression!

xviper

I think you hit the nail right on the head. A "real" world example might be the Hayabusa and Ninja 1300 motorcycles. Ask those owners when their RamAir effect comes into play. It's something like over 150 mph before those engines really benefit from the Ram.

1AP12NV

The unfortunate problem with this debate over the two types is that gains from the "snorkel" intakes cannont be measured as they are made at speed.

My thinking (and the reason I am going with J's) is this:

The respected JDM tuners (Mugen, Spoon, J's) all make snorkel type intakes. None of them produce AEM style ones, is there a reason for this? Maybe not, but I'll side with Mugen's design principle any day over AEM

Just my $0.02

-J

ultimate lurker

Three things:

1. Snorkel style intakes retaining the stock airbox are, I believe, legal in some forms of production racing in Japan. Hence, they are a good choice.

2. At low speeds, snorkel style intakes which retain the stock airbox _increase_ airflow restriction. This may be offset by cooler intake temps, and ram effects as speed climbs.

3. Ram air is not to be ignored or trivialized, even at the speeds that many of us travel on the road courses, or even the freeway. Depending upon the application and its effectiveness, ram air designs on motorcycles can begin to show positive airbox pressure as low as 80 mph and as high as 110 mph. Sport Rider did a two part test on this several years ago on a variety of production motorcycles. Maximum power gains were in the vicinity of 7-8% at 140-160 mph, but positive gains were shown as low as 60-80 mph where the ram air function offset airbox _vacuum_. Yep, there is a vacuum in your airbox. If ram air can help offset that, it can result in small gains. Something to think about.

UL

1AP12NV

Also good points.

Russ

When you discuss intakes and their affects on sportscar performance, what is generally considered a sure bet is that cooler air from outside the engine is more beneficial to performance than warm air from within. With that in mind, snorkel intakes or any such type which gathers air from outside the car and snakes it to your filter is going to be an improvement over OEM assemblies. As speed increases, so would the benefits but this does not imply one has to exceed 125mph to notice the difference. The RSX-S is a fine example of this. Cold air intakes on that car routinely exceed the dyno performance results of short ram models which retain the filter location sans any type of outside air extraction. It would only be common sense that at speeds of 60mph +, those benefits would increase as speed increases. A gain of 2hp is still a gain. I guarantee you cutting the faux brake duct and snaking tubing of (name your material of choice) up through the wheel well so it stops just short of your filter (assuming one is located there) is going to make for a more productive intake than leaving the filter to fend for itself with engine bay air. The term RAM air has a wide variance of meaning. Any air being "rammed" into the front of the car into a tube or snorkel, even at 60mph is being "forced" into that hole or entry point so yes, it is a RAM air intake. It helps that the point of entry is as close to the filter as possible (as XViper suggested) but again, there are poorly designed RAM air kits and well designed kits. Muscle cars have it right. Most aftermarket import kits are weak interpretations of the design though at worst, still retain performance benefits over the atypcial OEM intake whose priority, even for automobiles leaving the docks labeled as "sportscars" is sound control, not performance.