Should I remove the intake resonator on my Civic?

[SickBeast]

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/engine/83345-removing-intake-resonator.html

In the thread I've linked to above, some people are claiming that by removing the intake resonator, you essentially give the car a cold air intake setup for free.

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are in here. Should I do it?

TIA

 

[ayabe]

If you enjoy that ricey intake sound then do it. You won't be noticing any power gains aside from a temporary placebo from the extra noise.

Lots of fail going on there, scary stuff.

 

[Nyati13]

You might actually decrease the power output. The resonator is there to smooth out the intake airflow, without it the intake air will be more turbulent going into the intake manifold=less air getting to the cylinders=less power.

 

[Kirby]

No.

 

[SickBeast]

Ok guys thanks for your help. I'm gonna leave my Civic STOCK like everyone seems to be telling me to do.

 

[Bignate603]

Ok guys thanks for your help. I'm gonna leave my Civic STOCK like everyone seems to be telling me to do.

Good idea, you're starting to realize that it's a nice little econobox and that's about it.

 

[T2urtle]

aside from the nice noise it makes... NOTHING...

 

[StageLeft]

Do it. Also remove the air filter and don't put another one on. They impede airflow too much and the truth is that you really don't need one in Northern climates anyway; the air is cool enough that it self-cleans.

 

[jonesthewine]

What model is your Civic? Only the Si model has the resonator box...and it sounds great, especially from 5800 up to 8000 RPMs.

 

[BassBomb]

I wouldn't ask ATOT about engine mods, they will just tell you not to

 

[StageLeft]

I wouldn't ask ATOT about engine mods, they will just tell you not to

So should he ask boy-racers who make $9/hour at the call center and live at home? Because they'll always tell him to

 

[ayabe]

So should he ask boy-racers who make $9/hour at the call center and live at home? Because they'll always tell him to

Oh snap. I try not to make judgments on an entire board but after reading about 20 posts into the thread linked by the OP, that was pretty much my assessment as well.

 

[BassBomb]

So should he ask boy-racers who make $9/hour at the call center and live at home? Because they'll always tell him to

No but there has to be some middle way.. does not matter what he wants to do, ATG will say no based on the fact that he has a Civic

Not everyone can spend more money to get a faster car and then do mods to make it more "worth it", worth is too subjective to ask an objective question like should I.

In my personal thoughts, I will do some small engine mods to my car (intake, manifold, header, exhaust) but only long after I've done other stuff because to me it is not worth it compared to other stuff. Sure I'd love to have another 10k when i bought the car to have a G35... and i'd still spend the same amount of money in mods

To the OP do what you feel like doing, if you think it will give you a benefit try it out. In the grand scheme of things you may not get much faster but if you enjoy driving more as a result who should stop you?

 

[exdeath]

ATG has nothing against modding cars. Just don't come here talking about how you're going to double the power of your Civic for $15 and a roll of duct tape.

Don't bother tuning a Civic for performance unless you are ready to dump $2,000+ and doing some engine/head swapping FIRST.

Wanting to remove resonators and install CAIs and LSDs and remove your power steering to save weight and overinflate your tires to increase performance on a stock Civic = lol.

Installing a VTEC head on a non VTEC block and running a Hondata ECU and actually doing something worthwhile that you'll notice? Might be taken more seriously.

 

[BassBomb]

ATG has nothing against modding cars. Just don't come here talking about how you're going to double the power of your Civic for $15 and a roll of duct tape.

Don't bother tuning a Civic for performance unless you are ready to dump $2,000+ and doing some engine/head swapping FIRST.

Wanting to remove resonators and install CAIs and LSDs and remove your power steering to save weight and overinflate your tires to increase performance on a stock Civic = lol.

Installing a VTEC head on a non VTEC block and running a Hondata ECU and actually doing something worthwhile that you'll notice? Might be taken more seriously.

Who said they were doubling their power? There is nothing wrong with having an intake or LSD.. yes its not as great as 2000+ mods or doing an engine swap, but not everyone rolls around in that kind of cash.

I am sure ATG would have told me not to get my Koni's or OEM sway bar upgrades..

 

[darkswordsman17]

Can we get a sticky for SickBeast? Whatever your question is, the answer is going to be no. Stop reading whatever forum you're getting these ideas from.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Who said they were doubling their power? There is nothing wrong with having an intake or LSD.. yes its not as great as 2000+ mods or doing an engine swap, but not everyone rolls around in that kind of cash.

I am sure ATG would have told me not to get my Koni's or OEM sway bar upgrades..

The thing is, we can kinda get an idea of what the person asking these questions is like, and advice tends to follow that. You really think the OP is going to be able to handle installing an LSD? Cold air intakes are getting to be like snake oil, where people think they're going to make some huge difference, when, especially on a car like this, it just isn't.

 

[KIAman]

Who said they were doubling their power? There is nothing wrong with having an intake or LSD.. yes its not as great as 2000+ mods or doing an engine swap, but not everyone rolls around in that kind of cash.

I am sure ATG would have told me not to get my Koni's or OEM sway bar upgrades..

Have you seen the other "should I" thread from the OP? If you have, then you can understand the responses in this thread.

 

[BassBomb]

Have you seen the other "should I" thread from the OP? If you have, then you can understand the responses in this thread.

I understand the OP, I just see these kinds of responses for anyone that has a basic car

 

[CurseTheSky]

I understand the OP, I just see these kinds of responses for anyone that has a basic car

That's because for anyone that has a "basic car," buying "performance" mods is a complete waste of money. In the end, it's their money, they can do what they want with it, but they obviously posted about it here because they're looking for a second opinion; otherwise they would have just gone and done it already. We're just trying to guide them in the right direction.

There's nothing wrong with buying stiffer springs or thicker sway bars to stiffen your car and improve handling (since there's almost always a tangible handling difference with these simply upgrades, which can even be helpful during normal driving conditions), but pissing away $200 on a SRI for literally zero benefit does nothing but get you labeled as a ricer.

To put it in terms of computers, if you saw someone building a P55 system for their parents with absolutely no interest in overclocking, gaming, etc., and they selected expensive "overclocking" memory and an expensive heatsink, would you steer them away from the expensive components and explain that it will have no tangible benefit, or just let them do it anyway because it probably won't hurt anything? I'd personally spend a few minutes and try to save them some money.

 

[v8envy]

I understand the OP, I just see these kinds of responses for anyone that has a basic car

Because from a "worth it" viewpoint most of the ricing mods cost power and street manners in addition to dollars. It's a basic car. By definition, every design decision was made to optimize for reliability, fuel economy and production cost. There are no quick inexpensive fixes to reverse tens of man years of engineering focus.

Many of the ricer mods also have outlandish performance claims, and typical forum goers simply do additive math at the upper range when bench racing. Sure, a less restrictive airbox could add 10 hp *IF* it was the airflow bottleneck. On a stock engine many of these mods could wind up subtracting power. The above computer analogy would be more appropos if that bling ram and heatsink lowered the CPU frequency by a few hundred mhz.

And a LSD on a car without enough torque to lose traction in the first place is simply additional drag and added wear to the tires. It won't make you corner harder, in fact just the opposite.

 

[fbrdphreak]

That's because for anyone that has a "basic car," buying "performance" mods is a complete waste of money. In the end, it's their money, they can do what they want with it, but they obviously posted about it here because they're looking for a second opinion; otherwise they would have just gone and done it already. We're just trying to guide them in the right direction.

There's nothing wrong with buying stiffer springs or thicker sway bars to stiffen your car and improve handling (since there's almost always a tangible handling difference with these simply upgrades, which can even be helpful during normal driving conditions), but pissing away $200 on a SRI for literally zero benefit does nothing but get you labeled as a ricer.

Yep. [/thread]

 

[mwmorph]

Because from a "worth it" viewpoint most of the ricing mods cost power and street manners in addition to dollars. It's a basic car. By definition, every design decision was made to optimize for reliability, fuel economy and production cost. There are no quick inexpensive fixes to reverse tens of man years of engineering focus.

Many of the ricer mods also have outlandish performance claims, and typical forum goers simply do additive math at the upper range when bench racing. Sure, a less restrictive airbox could add 10 hp *IF* it was the airflow bottleneck. On a stock engine many of these mods could wind up subtracting power. The above computer analogy would be more appropos if that bling ram and heatsink lowered the CPU frequency by a few hundred mhz.

And a LSD on a car without enough torque to lose traction in the first place is simply additional drag and added wear to the tires. It won't make you corner harder, in fact just the opposite.

Actually the ram thing is spot on. If you put in overclocking ram to run at stock it's probably going to be high latency, high frequency ram which means slightly less performance with stock settings. 9-9-9-18 @ 1333mhz will always do worse than 7-7-7-15 @ 1333mhz.

The same with the intake resonator. You want turbulence in your intake, but only just a boundary layer on the outside wall to decrease fluid friction.v Your resonator and intake should already be designed ot do that anyways. Removing the resonator does 2 things, it turns the interior airflow from laminar to turbulent flow and it decreases the resonant frequency effect which means that you not only get less airflow, you also decrease the overpressure delivered to the valves at the rpm that the resonator is designed for (which in a R18A1 is probably 3000-4500 rpm).

It does open up the airflow at higher rpms from less restriction, but probably not enough to counteract the last 2 problems which means you'll get a "swirling" intake sound, lower midrange power and most likely the same, or very, very slightly increased power that can also just be attributed to the standard deviation of error between dyno runs.

Resonator removal is almost always a bad idea unless you can model the fluid dynamics yourself and design/fabricate anew one for the targeted rpm range you want more power at (which in all likelihood would be 5000-6500rpm since that's really the only place it would be able to improve anything measurably, though not substantially).

The only other reason for resonator removal is in the case of forced induction or other major engine intake mods (like a new head), at which point you probably wouldn't have a stock intake anymore anyways.