mechatune

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MY AEM CAI SYSTEM VS. A GENERIC CAI THAT U CAN BUY FOR $100 ANYWHERE? BECAUSE I THINK I JUST WASTED MY $350..
ALSO, WILL THE AEM BYPASS VALVE FIT ON THE GENERIC ONES?
ARE THERE ANY DIFFERENCES WITH THE WIDENESS (DIAMETER), SHAPE (BENDS) ETC..? PLEASE HELP ME OUT

Jugglez

The AEM is supposed to be made of better material which alloows for better air flow. It's still just an intake if you ask me, any difference between AEM and generic would be minimal...

imported_SumAzunGuy

personally to me a cai is a cai name brand dont mean nothing to me after i saw this cai at pacific that looked exactly like the aem cai silver i can just stick on a aem sticker and say its aem lol
and it was 100 dollars hehe

SiR-Racer

what about the cone filters? is there a difference between the ones that come with the AEM and the generic ones?

mechatune

thanks sumaznguy.
i'm gonna return my aem cai and opt for the $100 generic at
pussyfuk mall...and instead use the money towards more mods
KNOW, DOES ANYONE KNOW ANY PERFORMANCE/SOUND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE AEM CONE (K&N STYLE) FILTER VS. THE RACTIVE HKS STYLE (MUSHROOM) FILTER?
thanks for ur replies and advice! i'm taking it!

Jugglez

Personal expereince: I ran a K&N filter on my short ram for 2 years, and recently switched to a generic APC filter a couple months ago.. there's no difference I can feel... i'v heard the generic ones get dirty quicker though, but they are cheaper so I guess it all evens out. Go with whichever you can afford.

cosmic zx2

and remember... an intake is an intake....and a filter is a filter.... no matter what you go with your gains are not going to be that big....so lets say with a name brand filter and CAI you get an extra 2 whp....and with the generic one you get .87whp...are you going to notice that lil difference? not really.... with a CAI the gains your car will have are mostly mental, and go away in a few weeks...... so save your $$$ and spend $50 on a short ram intake and filter... and then you'll still have a few hundred $$ to spend on a new deck... or to go towards new rims..... blah, blah., blah

SiR-Racer

gotta disagree with you there. the difference between a CAI (AEM or Generic) and a short ram is more than 2hp! short ram = negative power gains. CAI = positive power gains.

and i still say a CAI gives more than 2whp peak. more like 3-5whp.

cosmic zx2

i'm begining to get the feeling you're the type of kid that loves to get the last word in.....am i right?

nowhere in there did I say a CAI and SRI are the same.... i mentioned that when comparing name brand intakes to generic intake the difference is minimal.....
and then you say
isn't that kinda like saying "it's not $400....it's $399.99" ?
when it comes down to it....in all honesty, are YOU going to notice a difference of 1-3whp? i highly doubt that....unless you are so intuned with cars that you can dyno them JUST by riding in them....i'll stand by the fact that most of the gains are mental

imported_SumAzunGuy

SRI's and CAI's are basically the same just that cai sucking in cold air from the bottom nothing else
intakes make you lose power at low RPM and gain at high RPM
it evens out wtf said it gives you 5 HP hahaah thats funny

SiR-Racer

hey just wonderin, if i'm the one who likes the last word in then why are you responding to that? lol, isnt that kind of being an oxymoron? besides that was my FIRST post regarding the short ram vs. CAI issue....sheesh

all i'm saying is that the difference in power gains between the CAI and a SRI are substantial enough. i say spend $100 on a generic CAI instead of saving $50 and getting a short ram.

btw, who cares if you can notice 1-3whp or not. if a CAI is going to give me an extra 3whp and a short ram is going to give me -1.5whp i think spending an extra $50 is well worth it. the whole point of modding your car is to squeeze every ounce of power out of it is it not??

SiR-Racer

.

EL_Sport

I've heard stories of those HKS style mushroom filters melting, although I don't know anyone who this has happend to, or anyone that has one of those filters for that matter. I can't really see there being much difference performance wise though.

cosmic zx2

actually it was a rhetorical question ... not an oxymoron... but i'll bet you knew that too right?
and sure, it might have been your first post on the issue, but when you post after me and then say "gotta disagree with you there. the difference between a CAI (AEM or Generic) and a short ram is more than 2hp!" and nowhere in this post did I or anyone else bring up a comparison on SRI to CAI, it makes me wonder....what are you disagreeing with?

btw: do you have any dyno runs showing a loss of 1.5whp with an SRI?

SiR-Racer

dyno runs wont show it. hood is up for dyno runs. it's on the road where the only thing the SRI is sucking up is hot air from under the hood.

sorry if my first post was confusing. but i still find it funny that you are accusing me of being a kid who likes the last word in when i had only made ONE post regarding that issue and you were the one responding to it. call it rhetorical question if you like but it's still being an oxymoron.

illmatic_si

ok I'm about the infest this thread with some rice.. hehe.

I know an intake will yield a pretty much unniticeable difference in power, so the only reason for me to gett one intake is to make my car do something 'cool' after 5500 rpm.


so in terms of sound, is an AEM CAI on the same level as a RACTIVE short-ram? which intake is going to give me the largest GROWWWL during vtec?

imported_JookSingKid

I think its more of an hypocritical question, rather than an rhetorical question or a oxymoron"

PULOVR

my brain hurts.....:cry:

Cantonagod

I don't care what kind of question it is. The whole thread has become a pain in the *** to read.