I’ve heard a million different theories from different people, so I figured I’d just throw it out there and gather some input.
What do you feel is the best choice of intake for a turbocharged 4 cyl engine (SR and/or KA-T)?
-On one side you have the no-name cheap intakes, and those who like them say that they give just as good power gains as a name brand intake.
-Then you have the people with the name brand intakes, quoting how they’re gaining like 20+hp at the wheels (which seems fake to me)
-And then there’s a third group, which says that the stock airbox flows pretty well, and you’re better off just cutting a hole in it and using some PVC piping to route cold air from the bumper area.
I was personally looking into brand name intakes myself, and I chanced upon something that I found pretty unusual. It’s made my ARC and it doesn’t really look like any of the other intakes I’ve seen. http://optionimports.com/import-store/aidbps13.html
What are some of your thoughs?
(Feel free to be a jerk as long as you post SOME technical info that merits the discussion, if you’re just gonna insult people, don’t waste everyone’s time)
when it comes to cone filters…a filter is a filter…find one that flows the most air and you’re set…it doesn’t have to be brand name - thats what i think anyway.
A few of my buddies with S2000’s like them!!! They are quite hard to come by due to the price!!!
Most ppl want cheap so due to this mentality you will not see a lot of these!!
I’ve run both a custom intake as well as an injen one. honest opinion. not much difference other than price. Supposedly the Injen ones dont conduct as much heat as the cheapo ones due to the material but the difference is minimal wheras the difference in price is significant. At least more than double over the custom one. I say go with a generic ebay one and slap on a nice KN filter and youre set. If you had 350usd to blow buy an exhaust instead. By the looks of it there are much better things that you could be spending on to get your car up to par so get your priorities straight.
Well, most people seem to think just bolting on an intake will make power.
There are two things that will make the difference.
Air temperature and availability.
The reason most intakes don’t “feel” any better is because they aren’t really.
Your stock airbox is restrictive yes. But your stock snorkel actually gets fresh cold air from the nose.
If you swap all that out for a fancy “CAI”, usually you trade the restriction for no more cold air. You have a nice big cone that can draw all the air your motor could ever need, but it’s being fed hot air right from the motor.
So it might breathe better at high RPM when it’s really huffing, but that’s about it.
Well that depends on where the cone is located. Some of these aftermarket “cold” air intakes have the piping run to an area in the wheel well where the cone sits low to the ground as to get cooler air.
Whee! Great discussion guys. Yea, I was asking for a turbo, but I didn’t realize that much of a difference existed.
From looking up info on that arc box, I got an idea…
Would it be good if you had one of those, and a vented hood, and then there was a vent right where the intake box is, and you had rubber sealing forcing the air to go straight into the intake box as opposed to scattering through the bay, kinda like how the top mount intercooler on the rx-7 FC is. I know this would be good on an N/A because of the whole ram air effect, but how good would it be on a turbo? From my limited understanding, the intake on a turbo engine goes into the compressor on the turbine as opposed to going straight into the engine.
The reason why I’m doubting myself on this one, is because well… I dont’ see anyone doing it… And it can’t be that hard to think of, so there must be some obvious flaw with this idea.
PS. I’m not researching to buy now, I just found the arc intake box somewhere, so I got really interested in it, and wanted to know how something like that would work.
Well, the air would be a good temperature, but the turbo will suck what it needs; if air is being pushed into the intake the amount would be negligable compared to the sucking force. Dont forget the turbo spins with respect to the exhaust side of it. If somehow you had a turbo that would suck more air than what was available to it, creating a void at the intake … which would be a really large turbo, spinning really fast, then otherwise there would be no advantage, … well other than the air temperature.
oh totally depends on orientation. Just most intakes I’ve seen sold for the KA put the cone pretty much a little bit in front of and on top of the exhaust manifold.
There are ones that go down into the fenderwell, which IMO will get you the most noticeable improvement. But make sure you get a shielded filter to keep the filter from getting waterlogged … dat’s bad.
The whole principle is to get air into the engine that isn’t at underhood temperatures. The colder the air is, the more dense it is. The denser the air is, the more fuel you can add.
More air and more fuel = more power.
Even turbo cars can benefit from cold air. The colder the air coming in is, the colder it will be anywhere else in the stream.
more important for turbo cars is the availability of air.
When that turbo starts sucking, you want all the air it could ever need ready and waiting.
Shielding a cone filter in the engine bay is another option. Shielded filters with a fresh air source are the way to go IMO.
Box the filter in with some aluminum, and duct cold air to the box.
That sounds like a great idea and pretty cheap too. And if you wanted you could cover the aluminum with duct wrap on the engine side to get an even better thermal barrier. Hmmm… Gonna do that to the KA as soon as I can Oh… one more thing… the KA right now, has tubing running the intake to the other end of the engine bay for some dumb reason. What I’d like to know is, where is the MAF located? Because if it’s before the tubing, I could just rip out the tubing and have the filter bolt a lot closer with some CT rubber hose. If I combine that with the aluminum heat shield and cold air duct, I’d have a cold air and a short ram all in one, right?
Well, I’d appreciate a reality shock if I’m just being an idiot, but what I wrote seems pretty reasonable to me.
Sweet! It’s being done as soon as finals are over.
Why do you think it wouldn’t make much of a difference? I thought that if the length that the air has to travel is decreased, your car will become more responsive?
Well… my car is hella weird right now lol… I’m hoping I can get someone to come over and drive it a bit and maybe make some sense of it. My throttle response is very weird, and the engine just seems plain weak. My best guess is timing. Even with synthetic oil in it, there’s not even a trace of a leak, and my exhaust is a perfect white, no soot buildup in it or dark plumes coming out. I know there’s a hole somewhere in the intake or exhaust, but I’m not sure if that could account for it.
Solarian - Your MAF is near the end of your intake tract…it bolts right up to your stock intake box & is silver. That is why to use a cone in our car a MAF adaptor would be needed. You can rip the whole intake off if you want, but you need the MAF somewhere in the setup, whatever you decide to do!
Guys - The AIV (black) box’s hose that connects to the stock airbox - if you leave that hanging, will that affect an emissions test at all, assuming car/cat is warmed up?
always use a K&N cone. anything else is just empty space. a pipe is a pipe. even AEM use K&N filters on their intakes, and they have dyno proven results that show they are better than any other intakes.
Well, the guy that owned the car before me, already put in a K&N cone and even gave me a nice little filter cleaning kit. I just don’t like where he put it, I mean, you’re getting rid of the stock airbox, you might as well get rid of the long-ass tubing leading to it, and mount your cone somewhere near, right?
So I’m looking for a silver thingy then? Sounds good to me.
Oh… one more thing… the KA right now, has tubing running the intake to the other end of the engine bay for some dumb reason. What I’d like to know is, where is the MAF located? Because if it’s before the tubing, I could just rip out the tubing and have the filter bolt a lot closer with some CT rubber hose. If I combine that with the aluminum heat shield and cold air duct, I’d have a cold air and a short ram all in one, right?