Twincharger vs. regular CAI?

[Kuro3]

Ok, so I don't know much about cai's and sri's, but I was looking around in the marketplace and saw that there were some simota twin charger cai's for sale. What exactly does it mean if it's a "twin charger"? IS that different from a regular cai?? What's so different between a cai and an sri? Don't they give about the same performance boost?

Thanks, guys.

 

[Protephile]

I won't tell you that the Twin Charger will give you a better gain than a "Regular" CAI, but I will tell you that you cannot find a better quality intake for the price.

Anyone who's bought one from me will tell you this, I'm sure.

 

[Kuro3]

OK, now I've been reading a lot of the different threads and stuff about the cai's and sri's and I get dizzy trying to keep track fo it all.

Hands down, what is the best kind of intake I can get for my Mazda3s?

And definitevely, what are the biggest differences (besides price) between a short ram and a cold air intake? Like, is the water really that much of a worry?

Thanks so much, and sorry to sound like sucha noob, but I just wanna do this right if I am gonna do this at all.

 

[Protephile]

Ha. Seeing as how I'm the only one who's replied, I should be the winner!

OK, now I've been reading a lot of the different threads and stuff about the cai's and sri's and I get dizzy trying to keep track fo it all.

Hands down, what is the best kind of intake I can get for my Mazda3s?

And definitevely, what are the biggest differences (besides price) between a short ram and a cold air intake? Like, is the water really that much of a worry?

Thanks so much, and sorry to sound like sucha noob, but I just wanna do this right if I am gonna do this at all.

 

[awsmp5]

not to be a jerkoff... but its the whole preference thing and confort level...
its been discussed in every car forum in the world.
cai is more prone to hydrolocking while it rarely happens, its a possiblity.
sri is cheaper and that will probably never happen, but your engine gets heat soke being that its under the hood with engine right next to it

somethin like that

 

[JCell]

yes, CAI is cooler air and thus it should make teh most HP

 

[TheBryGuy]

Key word is SHOULD. The problem is that the cold air intake has twice the piping that the ram air does. When your engine bay gets hot....so does all that piping. In reality, as the air passes through the intake, it heats up so it's almost as hot as the air from a ram air intake. Before I get jumped on, I will say it's not AS hot, but the difference is negligable. One of my friends spend $200 on an Injen cold air intake and 3 months later he took the second half of the intake off and turned it into a ram air intake because he said it pulled harder.

 

[Kuro3]

Do both void my warranty? I heard somewhere that the AEMs don't void it. Is this just a myth, you think?

 

[TheBryGuy]

Meh, just keep your stock intake and if you ever have any problems, throw it back on the car(first)

 

[Kuro3]

sounds like a plan to me
(cool)

thanks a bunch for your help

 

[TheBryGuy]

no problem

 

[Kuro3]

So BryGuy, how loud is ur sri? It's not that much louder than stock is it? How about ont he highway?

 

[TheBryGuy]

If you open the hood of the car it's fairly loud. If you're REALLY listening in the car you can make it out over the engine noise. It's not to bad.

 

[Protephile]

Do both void my warranty? I heard somewhere that the AEMs don't void it. Is this just a myth, you think?

The myth you probably heard is that Mazda dealers are going to offer a re-badged AEM intake as their own and if installed by the dealer will not void your warranty. They're also going to sell it for some outrageous 300$-ish amount.

So I still win! Right??

 

[Kuro3]

I must say, Protephile, you are quite the salesman lol

 

[TheBryGuy]

for the money, the best option is to buy a cheap ram intake off ebay and throw a K&N filter on it. I don't know if they offer cheap intakes for the 3 but for the proteges, that's the best bang for the buck.

 

[Kuro3]

Well what if I snagged a simota sri and slapped a k&n filter in there? does that make any sense?

Also, I was under the impression that by putting in an sri or a cai, you effectively replace the stock filter anyways, or do you still have to maybe replace it with the k&n as you said? I don't know much about this stuff, so I could be wrong.

 

[TheBryGuy]

The intake you will be getting will come with the piping from the filter to the throttle body AND it will come with a filter. The majority of intakes come with a crappy paper filter that is horribly restrictive to airflow and is basically a piece of junk. If you grab a simota intake I would still put a K&N filter on it simply because they are good filters and you can buy a recharge kit for under $10. Another option is to take your stock intake and put a K&N drop in filter in it. That won't help as much as a CAI or SRI but it will to a small amount of good. In order to do that you will need to get the part number so you can get the correct filter size. Someone on the forums here should be able to provide that if you decide to go that route.

All in all, best bang for you buck, get a Simota intake and a K&N filter. If there isn't a huge price difference I would go with the CAI as opposed to the SRI.

 

[Protephile]

At the risk of sounding like an overly agressive used-car salesman, who said the Simota filters were crappy? Check out their website, they started out making nothing BUT filters and have done extensive testing...they are just not well-known in the U.S.

 

[TheBryGuy]

To be honest, I don't know anything about those filters. I just know that the K&N filter is a great and you can buy a recharge kit for it. I will be first to admit I'm probably wrong here.