intake rumors

[Mp5-Power]

Hey guys... i am lowering my p5 and i got my shortshifter and i want my next mod to be an intake, and ive been reading around and people are saying that the CAI SRI are all the same, gives same power, (few horses) and that the SRI the brand doesnt matter and Ebay one would work just as well is an AEM i just wanna see if everyone agrees. my mazda dealership is having a speicl a p5 intake for $130 canadiaon thats less then a 100 USD would this do the trick? or should i save for CAI, i dont realy care about looks and i just want some more and better power and throttle responce

THanks guys

 

[Installshield 2]

The throttle response comes from the filter used usually, so as long as the intake supplier uses a good filter element throttle response should increase as long as the piping diameter isn't stupid huge (watch out for that, I have seen on Ebay guys trying to sell 6"!!! diameter intakes for proteges, this will yeild nothing)...

To answer some of the controversial rumors about intakes:

You rarely see decent gains on a dyno from intakes, especially CIAs in which you get the same gain compared to SRI's for a higher price...Being that the car is fixed on a dyno, the benefit of "cold air" being inducted into the engine is not seen as much as in real road use...the general rule of thumb for most CIA's is that you could see another 2-3whp during actual road use (I posted this a while ago, some dyno's use big ass fans to simulate traveling down a road...Most people that had their Injen equipped protege's dyno'd did not do it on a dyno such as this, so the 2-4whp gains you see in these threads may be a little conservative)...

A well thought out application specific custom intake will yeild the best gains by far...if you can acquire progressive diameter non metal materials to create your own you could do this for cheaper...there is a lot of tech articles online that go deep into progressive tubing diameters that will increase air speed and breathing far better than what AEM and others have to offer...Most of that goes beyond the scope of what I am getting into, just pointing out that with some research you build your own and destroy the gains the big companies claim...

Which is the best pre-made piece for a Protege? Who knows...They all seem to offer the people that bought them what they were looking for...just be realistic about it...You will not see 50whp with any of these...If you are familiar with your engine's behavior now, an intake could make a very decnt improvement...

 

[REMillers]

Well shoot Install you beat me to it, was busy reading your post about the GT2 Well said btw.

Personal input:

I have the Ebay (Sabre SRI) of which I am pretty happy with it. Did it improve over the stock intake:Yes throttle response only, think I did loose a few hp's but nothing noticeable. The Ebay ones are not designed for any one car therefore the diameter and construction is no fine tuned.
The CAI Injen seems little bit more tuned to the Proteges and would overall give more HP.
But the difference in the two for a stock motor is not noticeable.

 

[Installshield 2]

Well shoot Install you beat me to it, was busy reading your post about the GT2 Well said btw.

Personal input:

I have the Ebay (Sabre SRI) of which I am pretty happy with it. Did it improve over the stock intake:Yes throttle response only, think I did loose a few hp's but nothing noticeable. The Ebay ones are not designed for any one car therefore the diameter and construction is no fine tuned.
The CAI Injen seems little bit more tuned to the Proteges and would overall give more HP.
But the difference in the two for a stock motor is not noticeable.

You are exactly right...An intake non application specific, will yeild little but throttle response (again mostly do to the better filter)...But don't think that AEM's and Injen's offerings are mega app specific...they mostly do the research to simply get it to fit and look good but utilize the same piping for every intake they make more or less...Most import intakes from AEM are of the same diameter, and I don't think a Honda B-series has the same air requirements of an FS...similar enough to give both engines a little gain, but if more R&D was spent for each application the gains could be more than doubled...

and you also took this further, no single mod will give incredible gains as far as NA...a bunch of bolt-ons working together will free up a lot of power...Match an Injen CIA or AEM SRI with an intake cam and things get better than with just one or the other...the more mods you do, the more the Intake helps...

 

[p5sundevil]

i think the best bets for intakes are injen rd cai, spool cai, and corksport is making one now that is projected to be in the 150 range for price cai style.

 

[jjac28]

an intake with a good catback exhaust will give you reasonable gains.

 

[SonicRacer]

AEM does a lot of research in the product. Therefore you pay for their time invested in it. That and their name you pay for.

If you made a replica of AEM for a fraction of the price perform just as good? More than likely.

 

[Matthew]

Ok, here are the low-downs on intakes (please read, good info):

First, you have two types, CAI (cold air induction) and SRI (short ram intake). For the most part, you have two name brands that make intakes: Injen, and AEM. Injen makes the CAI and AEM makes the SRI. Also, you can purchase a no-name, Bomz, or other off brand intake from eBay with simliar results to the SRI.

Rumors: Dispite what a lot of people say, the two types of intakes do not yeild a significant power difference. I have owned both types and noticed NO, NONE, NADA, ZIP, ZILCH increase between the SRI and the CAI. The basic difference is 1) Looks (the Injen you can get in different powdercoated colors), and 2) Personal Preference. The eBay intake will yield almost IDENTICAL results to the AEM SRI power wise. In my opinion, the eBay ones look like junk, but they serve their purpose...I had an eBay intake before my Injen...it's a good intake for a tight budget.

Another rumor is that you will have to worry about the CAI taking in water and destroying your engine...while this is theorectically possible, it will not happen unless you submerge your intake in water (ie - drive through a 2ft deep puddle)...the CAI is hidden in your wheel well behind the plastic shield which is screwed in...if you are especially nervous, you can always get the AEM bypass valve, although I personally think it's a waste of money.

Prices: You are going to spend significantly more money for the Inejn or AEM intake over the eBay intake. And you are going to spend more money for the Injen over the AEM. A lot of owners feel it's worth the money to be able to get your intake in Black, Red, Blue, Silver, etc, and therefore spend their money on the Injen. Frankly, if you don't care about name brands, or care what people think when you open your hood (if you even open your hood), I would not waste my money on the Injen or AEM...but that's just my opinion, and many hours have been wasted arguing this point. Many owners have found the best prices for the Injen at www.adventon.com...

 

[SonicRacer]

Rumors: Dispite what a lot of people say, the two types of intakes do not yeild a significant power difference. I have owned both types and noticed NO, NONE, NADA, ZIP, ZILCH increase between the SRI and the CAI. The basic difference is 1) Looks (the Injen you can get in different powdercoated colors), and 2) Personal Preference. The eBay intake will yield almost IDENTICAL results to the AEM SRI power wise. In my opinion, the eBay ones look like junk, but they serve their purpose...I had an eBay intake before my Injen...it's a good intake for a tight budget.

It depends on the car dude.... AEM uses an SRI or CAI depending on what they can make the most power with per the given application.

 

[Matthew]

well since the thread starter has a mp5, i was referring to the market for the proteges which includes no AEM CAI or v2s

 

[pr5owner]

actaully you really get nothing noticeable from an intake.. maybe if you had intake/cams/header/exhaust you would get a noticeable "kick" but just an intake.. no.. you will onyl get a cool sound when you shut off your car also it looks sweet

 

[1Canuck2]

pr5owner,

you say: nothing "noticeable" other than sound. I disagree.

I have the AEM SRI and "noticed" more throttle response as well as the sound. Not saying it went up any major horses or anything, but there is definetly a noticeable difference.

It is also a difference I would say is worth the investment, given that there isn't much you can do to your car for cheaper than an intake that will give you any results (my groundwire kit smoothed the idle and shifts and reuced the idle rpm) but did nothing for performance (not that I was expecting it to).

What else can you spend (waste) your money on that will give you a gain of any kind without spending over $500 (exhaust) or $3000 (turbo).

 

[Installshield 2]

refering to a stock FS, Matthew is correct...Even if you gain as much as 3-4whp in certain conditions, that alone is not enough for the human body to recognize as an increase in acceleration power...

With the use of the J-spec intake cam however, the combination of increased breathing will help both single mods make significant gains, enough to be recognized by drivers "use" to their car's output...It takes a combination of bolt-ons before noticable differences are made...in most cases, header aside, one bolt-on is deemed useless because nothing is felt, but working together with other mods the power gains add up...

 

[enigM@]

Someone told me that the STOCK intake is better than SRI's.. as they tend to suck in hot air in longer drives.. true or not?

 

[Installshield 2]

Someone told me that the STOCK intake is better than SRI's.. as they tend to suck in hot air in longer drives.. true or not?

hard to determine...Most likely the intake charge could be hotter at low speeds (heat soak from the filter and METAL pipe being right next to the head), but the SRI's filter system breathes a lot better than the stock systems...

So: SRI allows more air to enter the engine by being much less restrictive, but may allow slightly hotter air in at low speeds...the trade off is only enough for a gain of 1-2whp or so, so the less restrictive SRI comes out slightly ahead...but if you would build a non metal tube SRI, heat soak would be much less of a problem and you would see more gains...