• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Cold-air intake--worth it?

J

Jzero

Lifer
Abridged version:
Someone posted a car for sale where I work that sounded rather "ricey" (Custom body kits, custom lights, custom gauges, custom spoiler, custom "dual exhaust") but it didn't mention any other real performance mods, so another guy started grilling him on whether there were any real mods in it.

So I realized this guy might know a little something about better-performing cars and I asked him if there were any good mods a beginner could try on a 2002 Civic without needing crazy tools, voiding the warranty or totally fuxing stuff up.

He didn't even hesitate to tell me a good starting point is an AEM cold-air induction. It's supposedly easy to install with basic tools and provides about 5 hp in power output in the mid to high range (above 4000 RPM). He said for some reason on Civics the AEM CAI is better than other brands.

It's a little bit pricey at around $200, and I'm concerned about it sucking up water (although you'd have to drive through a hell of a puddle to do so).
I'm also concerned about it being noisy (many reviews I read say you can hear the sucking, and the engine is much louder when you open the throttle up). A lot of reviewers acted like the "sound" is a good thing, but something tells me a lot of them are "ricers" who think a nice "fart" equates to performance. I don't want a noisy car, I'm just interested in learning a bit more about working on cars and looking for somewhere to start.
My other concern is that most of the power benefits of the intake will be lost going through the factory exhaust.

So anyway...does anyone have any inputs? Should I just screw it and not worry about performance enhancements? Would that extra HP even be noticeable? Any experiences installing one?
 
Dunno

I came across that thread earlier today on cold-air-intakes. I have no idea if it's accurate but just happened to remember it and you may get something out of it.
 
no worth your $200
trust me

you won't notice a damn thing... 5hp is the absolute MOST you'll ever get in any situation. Real world it's much smaller.
 
Cold air is more dense then hot air and more dense air means for higher compression. Higher compression means for more power. But how much more power? Not much.

Cold air is a good thing. Take turbo for example. You would want an intercooler to cool the air being introduced tio the intake from the turbo. But is $200 worth it for cooling a naturally aspirated rice burner.

NO WAY.

Maybe I'm just used to Volkswagens where you just drop your intake tube going to your air box down closer to the road to pick up cooler air then what gets sucked through the front of the car where the radiator is, but that's a German car... not Japanese. 😉

As for worrying about water.... some race cars actually use water injection to reduce combustion chamber volume and increase compression. I wouldn't worry about water, although spending $200 on such an item sounds like you're asking for a soaking. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Ladies Man
no worth your $200
trust me

you won't notice a damn thing... 5hp is the absolute MOST you'll ever get in any situation. Real world it's much smaller.
Click to expand...
9whp dynoed on my 2000 eclipse gt (3.0L V6). improved mileage by 1mpg. top end is much better now.
 
Yeah it can help...but you really need to do the exhaust too.


As for worrying about water.... some race cars actually use water injection to reduce combustion chamber volume and increase compression. I wouldn't worry about water, although spending $200 on such an item sounds like you're asking for a soaking.
Click to expand...

A race car engine is far far different from a regular engine, water in his engine could be very very bad.
 
look at this for info on the water problem... the thing really works

Text

as to whether it's worth it to put it into a stock civic no. you're going to have to do more than a cai if you want power... including as free-flow exhaust as possible, maybe the infamous "engine swap" that everyone and there mammas seem to do their civics (swapping out the engine for a prelude engine)... and for the cai to make a bigger difference you'd have to look at stuff like a turbo setup, a better ecu and stuffers... but then again, that is A LOT... and that's what it takes to get a fast/high performance civic
 
All it will do to a 2002 Civic is add that annoying "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" noise when you accelerate and maybe a slight slight addition to power. If that's worth $200 to you then get it. Otherwise don't.
 
the bypass valve is WORTHLESS

DO NOT GET IT AT ALL COSTS

it opens up when it's not supposed to, so you both get a. hot air and b. dirt

WORTHLESS POS

now, onto the CAI itself...

waht kinda car do you have? if it's a civic, you're gonna hate it

you're gonna lose what little torque you have in exchange for minimal HP gains up top (unless it's an Si)

other cars, if you're willing to lose a little bottom end, for a lot of top end, it's worth it ^_^

so if you race alot, get it, if you do alot of city driving, don't
 
Originally posted by: slikmunks
look at this for info on the water problem... the thing really works

Text

as to whether it's worth it to put it into a stock civic no. you're going to have to do more than a cai if you want power... including as free-flow exhaust as possible, maybe the infamous "engine swap" that everyone and there mammas seem to do their civics (swapping out the engine for a prelude engine)... and for the cai to make a bigger difference you'd have to look at stuff like a turbo setup, a better ecu and stuffers... but then again, that is A LOT... and that's what it takes to get a fast/high performance civic
Click to expand...

Well, it's a 2002 so I'm not going to try anything whacky like swapping the engine out for another 3 years 🙂
Turbo, ECU, exhaust, etc is stuff I could do in the future. I'm pretty much a noob at anything more complex than brakes and oil changes, so I was just looking for a good project to cut my teeth on that doesn't require any elaborate equipment or disassembly.
I'm not looking for a true high-performance car by ANY means...just a learning experience.

All it will do to a 2002 Civic is add that annoying "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" noise when you accelerate
Click to expand...
Ugh...how loud? I've never seen/heard one in action to my knowledge.

the bypass valve is WORTHLESS
Click to expand...
I've heard this from other places as well.....I wasn't planning on blowing the extra $50 or so on it....

if it's a civic, you're gonna hate it

you're gonna lose what little torque you have in exchange for minimal HP gains up top
Click to expand...
Really? How does it affect the torque? How are torque and hp related, anyway?
According to AEM, the intake is designed specifically for the application, so "theoretically" it will provide ideal airflow, but not so much that it causes the mix to be too lean.

Bruno, thanks for that link, too...that was an interesting read.
ANyone know if the 2k2 Civic has a MAP or a MAF?
 
seriously if you had an Si it'd be worht it (99/00) and they sound great with the intake


but a stock civic, not worht it 😉

i'm not sure how exactly the loss of torque thing works out, but check the dyno sheets of stock civic's with cai's and you'll see =)
 
Originally posted by: NeuroSynapsis
the bypass valve is WORTHLESS

DO NOT GET IT AT ALL COSTS

it opens up when it's not supposed to, so you both get a. hot air and b. dirt

WORTHLESS POS

now, onto the CAI itself...

waht kinda car do you have? if it's a civic, you're gonna hate it

you're gonna lose what little torque you have in exchange for minimal HP gains up top (unless it's an Si)

other cars, if you're willing to lose a little bottom end, for a lot of top end, it's worth it ^_^

so if you race alot, get it, if you do alot of city driving, don't
Click to expand...


REALLY....? i've only heard good things about it... are you talking about the aem one? or one in general? the aem one is supposed to be pretty good
 
I've seen CAI dynos for corollas and they hurt low end, but help high end. Personally, I don't think it's worth 200 bux, cause the area under the curve is basically unchanged anyways, you're making a tradeoff.

Save the 200 towards a nitrous kit to get something a little more substantial. I've seen 35/55/75 kits start under 700 dollars. I've heard of people running 55 shots on mostly stock 4 bangers for a while and it seems ok.

altimas.net has a good nitrous forum.
 
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
You've never heard an import with an intake before?
Click to expand...

Well.....I must have heard it but didn't really pay attention to it at all. Anytime I see the giant spoiler and the blue windshield washer lights and tailpipe that looks like the gate of hell, I just kind of try to forget that the car is even there....
 
I wouldn't mess with it. One of my friends put one on his Civic a few years ago. I don't think he really got any horespower boost out of it. If there was, it was pretty much negligible. It just made it louder, but not really a "healthy growl" like an engine that was supposed to sound loud.
 
Originally posted by: OuterSquare
I've seen CAI dynos for corollas and they hurt low end, but help high end. Personally, I don't think it's worth 200 bux, cause the area under the curve is basically unchanged anyways, you're making a tradeoff.

Save the 200 towards a nitrous kit to get something a little more substantial. I've seen 35/55/75 kits start under 700 dollars. I've heard of people running 55 shots on 4 bangers for a while and it seems ok.

altimas.net has a good nitrous forum.
Click to expand...

if you're putting nitrous in your car you have to do other stuff too, you cant just pop a nitrous system in a stock car... at the least you'll need an exhaust system and possibly need to reconfigure ur ecu
 
Originally posted by: slikmunks

if you're putting nitrous in your car you have to do other stuff too, you cant just pop a nitrous system in a stock car... at the least you'll need an exhaust system and possibly need to reconfigure ur ecu
Click to expand...

This one guy I know had an NX kit put into his corolla and I don't think he did anything to his ECU. He does have an exhaust though. I really don't know the rest of the details, like I said, altimas.net has a good nitrous forum.

 
Save the 200 towards a nitrous kit to get something a little more substantial. I've seen 35/55/75 kits start under 700 dollars. I've heard of people running 55 shots on mostly stock 4 bangers for a while and it seems ok.
Click to expand...
I think nitrous would definitely void my warranty and shorten the life of the engine. I'm not building a race car. That's one reason the CAI caught my eye...the graph on their website only shows HP and not torque, but up to 4000 RPM the curve is the same as the stock curve, while above that, it gets better. Seems like it would give a little extra push for passing and merging since I usually spin it up to 5-6000 RPM when I'm merging anyway, but it wouldn't have much effect on everyday driving, either positive or negative.

But who knows how their marketing hype is made, so I figured I'd come here and see if anyone has some real-world experience.

I'm looking for links to some dyno sheets. Let me know if anyone spots any 🙂


Edit:
And if the CAI sucks, can anyone suggest a good project a newbie can cut his teeth on? Preferably one that doesn't void the warranty or make it fail inspection 🙂
 
Cold-air intakes does help a little, but mostly in the upper end of the rpm band. You do lose a little in the low-end though. If anyone's telling you adding a cold-air intake to your stock civic will net you 10hp, they are bullsh!tting you... its more like 2 or 3. But if you combo that with a cat-back system and a high-flow cat. converter, MAYBE you'll get around 10-15hp gains.

I would save my $200 and spend that on taking girls out. You'll get more pleasure from that than a cold air intake.
 
Nobody told me I'd get 10hp....Hellz, AEM's own literature says the highest gain is 5.3HP at 4750RPM. They say that's corrected HP...is that the same as wheel HP?
 
worth it?
Click to expand...

the point of a CAI kit is to give you a cool-looking shiny pipe under the hood. Don't let anyone tell you you're gonig to make more horsepower from one unless they've put thier car on a dyno before and after, and aren't the manufacturer of the kit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top