imported_ITK

Guys ... need some help.... what's the difference between V2, Cold Air, and Short Ram? which would you recomend for a 98 Civic EX ?

imported_gatherer

V2 is just AEM's second version of their cold air intake.

short ram is an intake that doesn't pipe air into the engine from outside the engine bay

cold air is a system that pipes air into the engine from outside the engine bay

I'd recommend whatever turns your crank.

there is some reports that a short ram makes more top end power (past 9000 rpm) but when will you be revving that high and what will you when you get there? shift which means the power is lost

the cold airt makes more low and mid end power then the short ram.

imported_ITK

cool cool
thanks for the info.....

is there a specific brand that you would recomend

imported_EH_94_Civic

Also with a ram air since its located close to the engine you get heat soak. Sucking in hot air is useless.

I use OBX piping and a K&N cone filter with my CAI setup

Works great

00 Civic SiR

How about the K&N FIPK 57-3512 kit... Is that any good?

spracingsports

i ordered an AEM cold air and i have an 98 EX, well an Si to you up there

imported_gatherer

yeah the stock piping works well for me

imported_ITK

cool
thanks for the info guys

imported_loudsubz

jay, check out the big heated thread and the actual tests they did

in both tests the Short Ram produce more HP

BIGA10k

heat soak is bull when your car is actually moving. there is a large hole in your front bumper that lets cold air into the engine bay. is there an imaginary line after the cold air intake filter that stops that same cold air from continuing into the engine bay.

PULOVR

And let us not forget that the FACTORY air box, gets its air supply from the same place.......under the hood in the engine compartment.



The only diference is, that the short ram, and CAI, have a far less restrictive pathway for the air to flow though.


I even posted a comparision on all 3, from Sport Compact Car magazine, and the final test would surpise even the die hard CAI owners.



:edit:

I can't seem to find the thread I posted in, that had the info in it.


Anyways, I did find this.

$10 Intake


It has been a while since I posted that, so I don't know if the info is still on the webite link, inside the link I just posted.

PULOVR

$PH!NX, I may not have been able to find my original thread, but I remember the book that I got the info from.


Performace Improvements has it.......and I bet it will be going on sale during Boxing Day.

imported_ITK

thanks man, I'll pick one up.

PULOVR

You have a PM gatherer.

imported_gatherer

what I'd also like to remind you (and everyone else of.... is look at the piping for a stock system ... first it starts in the engine bay then heads down behind the rad and under the subframe out of the engine bay then back up through a hole in the sub frame to the air filter box and finally to a pipe connected to the throttle body..... this is all bent up but does past by a big sorce of heat and a big sorce of cold (lack of heat I dunno how to best say it).

ok now the part where I school everyone so that I can GET SOME SLEEP!

second heat soak and the intake pipes .... first the stock one.... ever touch the piping while engine was running for awhile? still a reasonable temprature right? how about an AEM cold air intake or a metal short ram intake ... you touch one of those and I'll take you to the hospital with 3rd degree burns....

now what does this have to do with cold air and intake charge? first well if you look at the short ram it's grabbing hot engine air and transfering the air through a hot pipe ... really not good.... heat = less O2. period .. as for the movement and the big hole theory well looks whats sitting accross that big hole.... a big rad... and this rad transfers heat to the air moving through it so while moving forward the air outside the bumper gets pushed throught he rad and heated up so the cold outside air is now warm inside the engine bay air.....

if your refering to the big *** hole in the bottom of the engine bay well one look at flow dynamics will tell you air doesn't flow like that...

as for the cold air intake ... well the AEM CAI is made out of metal and gets hot really hot I have the scar to prove it's hot.... anyways the air comes from outside the engine bay it's nice and cold and hasn't been heated up by passing through a rad. this is good... the bad part is the pipe is hot... so as the air moves up the pipe it's heated and this reduces the density of the air and the O2 content. nuff said that system sucks and I have the 600 dollar bill to prove it.

so what would I do... well look at the stock honda design for a second. first the pipe leading to the throttle body it's a bit on the small side but the inside of that pipe is nice and smooth so it'll work. now the stock air box. well that sucks a paper filter in there? screw that it's K and N time baby .... ok thats finished with .. now look at the rest of the piping leading to the opening where air gets sucked in? do you need all that? what if you remove it? well you get a stock air box thats sucking air in from the same place as an AEM CAI and the piping doesn't get hot..... wow.....

now intake length ... or why the stock setup as is doesn't make power....

the more turns air has to make the slower it goes period. the stock system has lots of turns in it and really slows down the air using the mods I just stated this gets rid of most of the bends... (there still are some ...but ohhh well)

second length....

the shorter the intake the higher in the RPM band it will make the most improvement.... for example...

an intake thats makes the biggest gain in power at 4500 rpm will be longer then an intake that makes it's biggest gains in power at 7000 rpm.... given both intakes have the same cross sectional area. so given 2 intakes a short ram and a cold air intake ... and given that the temperature of the intake charge is the same for both and the cross sectional area is the same for both well then the short ram will make peak gains in power higher in the power band... while the cai will make peak gains in the power band lower in the power band. from this point on it's hard to explain.... but you now get my general rant there.....

now crosssectional area .... what size is a good size....

our engines will flow a set CFM number at each of it's RPM levels....no matter how big a pipe you put on .... you can't change the fact that for one engine for any given RPM there will be a static CFM number (cubic feet per minute it's used to define air flow) unless you use force induction this is not changing ..... if you port and polish the head the engine will still for any given RPM have a static CFM number (albiet it has increased though)

what does this all mean ... well you want to keep the air flow fast int he intake tube.... you don't want it to be slow and therefore wreck a good flow through the pipe .. if you want it to flow well you have to keep it moving. are that stops will create a sort of pressure wall and stop even more air and the problem compounds....

that said the speed through a pipe given a constant CFM is inversely relented to the sze of the pipe..

if your CFM is constant.... then:

as cross sectional area increases speed of air flow decreases
as cross sectional area decreases speed of air flow increases

so am I saying to get a pipe smaller then stock? (yes I must be on crack now right?) no I'm not saying that... you have a stock pipe never go smaller then that.... but you also shouldn't go for the 5 inch in diameter pipe either.... since flow will be bad.... increase the size from stock but don't over do it...

ohhh and always get piping that doesn't heat up and this defeats every purpose of trying to get more O2 into the engine ... if the pipe heats up I don't care if it's CAI or short ram it will adversely affect the amount of O2 getting in......

I hope this clears everything up... look at the time of my post before deciding to flame and remember I just got back from LOTR3 and hated the experience since a kid cryed through 1/2 of it.....

there is more that I can I can write on this topic .... but I recommend reading books and learning .... it's better that way ....

BIGA10k

The air I'm talking about come from the hole in the bumper - like most here I assume, I have a dinky little rad that fills half that hole. Air is lazy and will flow in the path of least resistance. Heat will diffuse into the colder air. As in an earlier post, I have been involved in a test measuring the temperatures of the air inside and outside an engine bay and found little difference on a moving vehicle. But we can get Kane2K involved in this thread if we really need a rocket scientist (masters in aerospace engineering - mr. cfd).

imported_gatherer

yess but on standard designs (yes half the hole is filled witht he rad) but the other half should be filled with an airconditioning rad or sheet metal.... if the sheet metal is removed you still have the hot exhuast pipes right there......

I'd love to know the extent of the tests done ...(step taken...cuz I'm curious) and if they'd be easily repeatable with how most of us have our cars with the sheet metal or AC rad in place blocking that hole I'm sure engine bay temperatures would rise significantly....

imported_loudsubz

Just want to argue a few points there.

Regarding the CAI and how its not "In the engine bay"
-Well a few designs from AEM, the CAI does not go through the little hole that leads behind the bumper that most civics have, they go straight down IN THE ENGINE bay just to below the motor, so in theory there like a SHORT RAM because there sucking in engine bay air

The only way to prove your debate is to add a temp sensor to the area where the CAI and SRI sit and measure any temp diff at idle and when driving on the road.

As to what type of material I suggest steel. A couple reads I have gone over, the guys used Steel piping instead of the aluminum AEM uses for their DIY CAI and they said it faired alot better and that it DID NOT heat up as much as the aluminum.

And as far as the rest of the big *** long post... almost all of it has been said before or is common sense so I donnt why you wasted all that server space

spracingsports

hehe...... OH BURN! you got owned by SUBZ

well i ordered the cai (said that already) so should i get a sri instead... im stickin wit aem due to california carb laws and they are the only legal company that i know of..... so cai or sri?

imported_loudsubz

check out the other thread on intakes I posted theres an article where they did test SRI vs CAI

its surprising to see some of the numbers.