product review: password jdm intake review
09-06-2008, 09:07 PM
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product review: password jdm intake review
What's up guys, new and old, that remember me from years past. I've been lurking around the boards for the past few years staying busy enjoying life outside the crazy forums. My car is pretty much back to stock form now; mostly sold off the aftermarket parts except for the stack cluster and other minor parts. I'm looking to build up the car again, this time picking up parts for good and having a clear idea of what use I'll want from the car. I've posted this in honda-tech.com in case any of you browse both forums.
Right now, the engine is stock. Bolt-ons include lightweight aluminum engine pulleys, hondata intake gasket, denso iridium ik24 plugs, throttle body coolant bypass, greddy catch can, spoon clutch and flywheel. The exhaust system is stock (header, cat, cat-back with gutted ap1 mufflers). The ECU is stock, all stock parts are ap1. The only ap2 part on the car is the rear differential assembly with stock LSD and 4.10 final drive.
I've ran most of the popular intakes since picking up my ap1 from Matt Piercy at Honda World in Westminster in 2001. In order of appearance, I first started off running the spoon snorkel with K&N filter, then Comptech intake, AEM V1 CAI, J's tschunioko chambered snorkel intake, K&N CAI, K&N short ram intake, Mugen V1 intake, and lastly the prototype memory fab chamber intake (minus snorkel) shown in the pictures below. The "filter on a stick" intakes were the loudest and showed good gains on the dyno with the typical 4-5krpm intake "dyno hump" resulting from the resonance intake runner length. The only other intake I was able to dyno was the J's intake. I tracked, auto-x'd, and daily drove on all intakes. I'll note the differences with the password jdm intake in the end of this writeup and mention the ups and downs.
Install: The Password JDM intake comes in a complete kit, equipped with hardware and an installation manual. The easiest intake install was the K&N short ram intake and the hardest was the J's tschunioko chambered snorkel intake since it required removal of material from the stock hood above the radiator support. The K&N and AEM CAI intakes can be tricky too for the first timers.
The Password JDM intake doesn't require the hood clearance of the Mugen and J's intake. It fits like the Spoon snorkel which makes it nice for people who don't want to cut their hoods. I know some people had fitment issues with the real spoon snorkel and claimed the spoon style (fake/copies) snorkels fit better. I never had any rubbing issues since some adjustment with the hood latch is required. One thing I've learned with the s2000: not every s2000 is exactly the same, even within the same model year (AC line routing that differed between years effected the J's racing Engine damper). My hood is already cut so it's a non-issue with the Password JDM intake. You don't need to cut your hood for the Password JDM intake. If you follow the directions, you wont have any problems. Just make sure you don't bolt anything up tight until you have it all together. It fits like a puzzle with 4 main pieces. If your bolt holes don't line up, don't force them into place as the carbon is thin and it will crack if it is extremely Sasquatch-handled! The panels will flex and give but they'll only flex to a certain point. If you have any doubts about installing this killer intake, take it to a pro that will back up their work in case you have any problems. Did I mention it weighs practically nothing? I think the K&N air filter weighs as more than the whole kit. The intake opening is HUGE. One more thing, you might need to move your hood latch for the hood to catch and close properly otherwise you might damage the intake. Mine was adjusted since running the Mugen and J's intake so again that was a non-issue. The intake install took a total 1hr, I didn't have to remove the front bumper since I'm not running any splash guard or an upper radiator cover which allowed me to snake the snorkel portion between the radiator support and bumper.
Cliff Notes: Follow install manual and don't rush it. Install takes just as long as the J's intake.
Quality: The Password JDM rates on par with the Mugen intake on quality when it comes to carbon with the Mugen having a larger weave pattern and thicker gauge carbon. There are some parts of the Password JDM intake that are thin but very strong, almost similar to the axle carbon front and rear diffusers I had, showing proper engineering resulting in a strong part with the least amount of carbon required: a really light intake. The J's intake used thicker carbon than the Mugen/Password JDM and side by side is dwarfed by the larger chambers of the Password JDM. The engine bay is engulfed in carbon for those who have a fetish with the stuff running the Password JDM intake. Lastly, the aluminum tube intakes were just that, very affordable and they worked but were very loud and throttle response seemed to be sluggish with them but I'll leave that for the drive impressions section. Almost forgot to mention the comptech and spoon snorkel intakes were most stock-like in appearance and performance.
Cliff Notes: Password JDM intake quality is like the Mugen intake (top tier quality).
Street Driving impressions: Quick disclaimer-With any intake, idle is affected slightly, as is throttle response (transient response), and seat of the pants feel. My seat of the pants feel is gauged by how quickly the car rev's through the gears and how quickly you reach a certain speed within a given distance (acceleration). Dyno charts can only be used to compare one mod to another coupled with tuning on the same car on the same dyno on similar conditions. Sure, you can compare one dyno chart to another but I think you'll be wasting you'll time as before and after dyno charts are the best for comparison purpose.
I hope I'll get a chance to dyno this intake as the seat of the pants street driving impressions give me a good feeling about this intake. It works. The exhaust note after install is a little deeper. The intake note isn't as loud as the aluminum tubed intakes (K&N CAI and AEM CAI) but the engine clearly rev's quicker and has a deeper intake and exhaust note. Seat of the pants feel indicates a strong midrange pull and no lag up top. The intake is louder than the J's, Mugen, comptech and spoon but not as loud as the AEM and K&N aluminum CAI. The carbon definitely has a role in silencing the intake note. What I noticed with the J's and Memory Fab intake was a choking effect at high rpm's. The engine simply wants to rev with the Password JDM intake.
Cliff Notes: Engine rev's are quick with the Password JDM with a good pull through the mid range + top end.
Gas Mileage: I'll post an update as I rack more miles on the intake and followup with a long term update.
Track experience: I'll post an updated review after the Sept 14th SDBMWCCA auto-x. Auto-x events are like truncated road course events where you don't spend nearly as much time in full throttle so little differences will show in your auto-x times, especially on a longer course found in the West lot at Qualcomm stadium (1.3+ mile auto-x course).
I'll post pictures as soon as I upload them from my cell phone. 2mp pictures suck but that's all I got.
================================================== ==
Update 09/11/08
Pictures: poor picture quality is due to the source, my cell phone!!!
Complete Kit:
Large intake opening
Memory Fab chamber vs Password JDM chamber
Tight squeeze above the radiator support
Large volume snorkel
Nice blurry image
Bumper opening
Picture whoring:
Memory Fab seat:
Chicken strips
More carbon bling:
Also, I forgot to mention if you don't have hood struts, you'll need them since the stock hood prop will need to be removed due to clearance issues with the intake snorkel.
Right now, the engine is stock. Bolt-ons include lightweight aluminum engine pulleys, hondata intake gasket, denso iridium ik24 plugs, throttle body coolant bypass, greddy catch can, spoon clutch and flywheel. The exhaust system is stock (header, cat, cat-back with gutted ap1 mufflers). The ECU is stock, all stock parts are ap1. The only ap2 part on the car is the rear differential assembly with stock LSD and 4.10 final drive.
I've ran most of the popular intakes since picking up my ap1 from Matt Piercy at Honda World in Westminster in 2001. In order of appearance, I first started off running the spoon snorkel with K&N filter, then Comptech intake, AEM V1 CAI, J's tschunioko chambered snorkel intake, K&N CAI, K&N short ram intake, Mugen V1 intake, and lastly the prototype memory fab chamber intake (minus snorkel) shown in the pictures below. The "filter on a stick" intakes were the loudest and showed good gains on the dyno with the typical 4-5krpm intake "dyno hump" resulting from the resonance intake runner length. The only other intake I was able to dyno was the J's intake. I tracked, auto-x'd, and daily drove on all intakes. I'll note the differences with the password jdm intake in the end of this writeup and mention the ups and downs.
Install: The Password JDM intake comes in a complete kit, equipped with hardware and an installation manual. The easiest intake install was the K&N short ram intake and the hardest was the J's tschunioko chambered snorkel intake since it required removal of material from the stock hood above the radiator support. The K&N and AEM CAI intakes can be tricky too for the first timers.
The Password JDM intake doesn't require the hood clearance of the Mugen and J's intake. It fits like the Spoon snorkel which makes it nice for people who don't want to cut their hoods. I know some people had fitment issues with the real spoon snorkel and claimed the spoon style (fake/copies) snorkels fit better. I never had any rubbing issues since some adjustment with the hood latch is required. One thing I've learned with the s2000: not every s2000 is exactly the same, even within the same model year (AC line routing that differed between years effected the J's racing Engine damper). My hood is already cut so it's a non-issue with the Password JDM intake. You don't need to cut your hood for the Password JDM intake. If you follow the directions, you wont have any problems. Just make sure you don't bolt anything up tight until you have it all together. It fits like a puzzle with 4 main pieces. If your bolt holes don't line up, don't force them into place as the carbon is thin and it will crack if it is extremely Sasquatch-handled! The panels will flex and give but they'll only flex to a certain point. If you have any doubts about installing this killer intake, take it to a pro that will back up their work in case you have any problems. Did I mention it weighs practically nothing? I think the K&N air filter weighs as more than the whole kit. The intake opening is HUGE. One more thing, you might need to move your hood latch for the hood to catch and close properly otherwise you might damage the intake. Mine was adjusted since running the Mugen and J's intake so again that was a non-issue. The intake install took a total 1hr, I didn't have to remove the front bumper since I'm not running any splash guard or an upper radiator cover which allowed me to snake the snorkel portion between the radiator support and bumper.
Cliff Notes: Follow install manual and don't rush it. Install takes just as long as the J's intake.
Quality: The Password JDM rates on par with the Mugen intake on quality when it comes to carbon with the Mugen having a larger weave pattern and thicker gauge carbon. There are some parts of the Password JDM intake that are thin but very strong, almost similar to the axle carbon front and rear diffusers I had, showing proper engineering resulting in a strong part with the least amount of carbon required: a really light intake. The J's intake used thicker carbon than the Mugen/Password JDM and side by side is dwarfed by the larger chambers of the Password JDM. The engine bay is engulfed in carbon for those who have a fetish with the stuff running the Password JDM intake. Lastly, the aluminum tube intakes were just that, very affordable and they worked but were very loud and throttle response seemed to be sluggish with them but I'll leave that for the drive impressions section. Almost forgot to mention the comptech and spoon snorkel intakes were most stock-like in appearance and performance.
Cliff Notes: Password JDM intake quality is like the Mugen intake (top tier quality).
Street Driving impressions: Quick disclaimer-With any intake, idle is affected slightly, as is throttle response (transient response), and seat of the pants feel. My seat of the pants feel is gauged by how quickly the car rev's through the gears and how quickly you reach a certain speed within a given distance (acceleration). Dyno charts can only be used to compare one mod to another coupled with tuning on the same car on the same dyno on similar conditions. Sure, you can compare one dyno chart to another but I think you'll be wasting you'll time as before and after dyno charts are the best for comparison purpose.
I hope I'll get a chance to dyno this intake as the seat of the pants street driving impressions give me a good feeling about this intake. It works. The exhaust note after install is a little deeper. The intake note isn't as loud as the aluminum tubed intakes (K&N CAI and AEM CAI) but the engine clearly rev's quicker and has a deeper intake and exhaust note. Seat of the pants feel indicates a strong midrange pull and no lag up top. The intake is louder than the J's, Mugen, comptech and spoon but not as loud as the AEM and K&N aluminum CAI. The carbon definitely has a role in silencing the intake note. What I noticed with the J's and Memory Fab intake was a choking effect at high rpm's. The engine simply wants to rev with the Password JDM intake.
Cliff Notes: Engine rev's are quick with the Password JDM with a good pull through the mid range + top end.
Gas Mileage: I'll post an update as I rack more miles on the intake and followup with a long term update.
Track experience: I'll post an updated review after the Sept 14th SDBMWCCA auto-x. Auto-x events are like truncated road course events where you don't spend nearly as much time in full throttle so little differences will show in your auto-x times, especially on a longer course found in the West lot at Qualcomm stadium (1.3+ mile auto-x course).
I'll post pictures as soon as I upload them from my cell phone. 2mp pictures suck but that's all I got.
================================================== ==
Update 09/11/08
Pictures: poor picture quality is due to the source, my cell phone!!!
Complete Kit:
Large intake opening
Memory Fab chamber vs Password JDM chamber
Tight squeeze above the radiator support
Large volume snorkel
Nice blurry image
Bumper opening
Picture whoring:
Memory Fab seat:
Chicken strips
More carbon bling:
Also, I forgot to mention if you don't have hood struts, you'll need them since the stock hood prop will need to be removed due to clearance issues with the intake snorkel.
09-07-2008, 09:09 AM
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Originally Posted by civicson234,Sep 6 2008, 10:36 PM
Great write up! 
09-07-2008, 05:24 PM
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I installed mine yesterday. Installation took me all day but I don't do this kind of stuff everyday so someone who works on their car all of the time or works on cars for a living will have no trouble. Getting all of the bolts to line up was rough.
The intake is loud but it sounds good. The car does seem to accelerate faster.
It was hot here in Alabama today and I did some around town driving. Cooling was not an issue.
The intake is loud but it sounds good. The car does seem to accelerate faster.
It was hot here in Alabama today and I did some around town driving. Cooling was not an issue.
