Blacura

COLD AIR INTAKE

or

SHORT RAM INTAKE


I'm talking DYNO numbers on the same car same mods. No talk about hydrolock and bypass valves and shit. Just straight talk about which has more horsepower.

KC CL 1785

I believe that the bumers for each are different, the CAI may give more hp bu7t less torque, the short ram could give less hp but more torque.

haiduc

if you want more HP the CAI is the one.


the short intakes have better throttle response, but make a little less power.

blo2ck

I have both, I keep the short ram for rainy weather. Only cause I don't have the bypass valve. It feels like the cold air pulls harder at low rpms. (around 3.5) The short ram is worthless untill about 5 rpms

blo2ck

just won an aem bypass on ebay for $10.
So if you want to buy my short ram anyone, let me know.
AC Autotechnic short ram (perfect shape) $50 plus shipping
pm me if interested.

niedejb

This says it all.

Wouldnt even mess around with short rams. Went >yr with CAI with no water problems in south GA where it rains 3X a day.

Blacura

but with cam gear i can adjust for more low end with the short ram. does this make sense?

keep it comin

niedejb

No.

The CAI will produce more hp....regardless.

Blacura

why does it produce more? cause it's colder air? one would assume that the longer the pipe, the more chance the air has to warm up.

niedejb

The air is pulled from a cooler source.

The residence time for air under wide open throttle is negligible.

ding069

Here are some dyno charts on the new RSX, cai clearly beats the short ram. In one of these charts, the Injen adds 12.5 hp more than the aem short ram!
http://performance.clubrsx.com/intaketest.html

Blacura

damn, maybe i'll have to trade up my SRI for a CAI

Chinisimo

a short ram just sucks up the hot air in the engine bay. hot air is less dense that cooler and which means less oxygen. less oxygen, fuel does not burn as well. even though the cold air intake is longer but the rate the air is being pulled into the engine, it really won't heat up much if at all...

NOMAD

Go to Barnes and Noble and pick up a book called "building honda horsepower"
It's written by the guy that just set the land speed record for a 4 cyl Civic.
The book is basically ALL DYNO PULLS AND GRAPHS.

I respect a lot of folks up on this board but really it's all been "butt dyno" info for the most part.

Read the book and see what he says about the CAI vs short ram. The CAI loses in the High RPM range due to the tuning effect of the short ram. The dyno pull is done with the hood open though so some of the "hot engine air" effect is lessened. However, this logic tells one that using a "ducted air" system into the engine bay to bring the Cold air to the short ram may equal if not surpass the efficiency of a CAI. Something to think about. (not a direct quote but a paraphrase)

For that reason, my $40 short ram and K&N with custom air duct from the front bumper will stay right where it is thank you very much!

Ultimately, to each his own.


Go read the book, its all X vs. Y stuff from the expert with dyno pulls and graphs.

NOMAD

Also, we don't have the "intelligent vtec" of the K series engine. So the engine's not going to adjust for any changes as far as we are concerned. Comparing to the RSX may not be appropriate.

haiduc

the shorty would win of course with the ducting as it does not have all the pressure loss of a CAI.

best solution would be having a filter straight on the throttle body and ducting leading all the way up to it. however, that is a little impractical.

for the ducting system to be efficient it has to be in the open , otherwise there is not too much air flowing through it.

the ducting system is better, yes. however, the CAI produces gains w/o all the extra effor ot ducting.

Blacura

Cool info NOMAD and 1gen, I'll look into pickin up that book!

hmm ducting system...explain...or PM me

also, NOMAD, i'm not one to pull bogus HP numbers outta my ass (20hp CAI, 30hp headers, bla bla bla) so I'm guessing that wasnt aimed towards me

NOMAD

I wasn't trying to bust on anyone's HP numbers, just saying that the RSX-S engine is very advanced compared to our fixed timing VTEC cams so gains on that engine really may not translate to our engine.

Also, the fact is that it's expensive to dyno your car and 90% or more have never done it, better yet test out CAI vs Shortram etc. We all use the "butt dyno" or "seat of the pants" feel to guage our mods. So basically it's good to go to accurate sources (ie: not advertising claims of HP) and it just happened that on Thursday I read about this very thing.

anyhow,

The ducting I ran is heater hose 3" diameter from the front lower grill (next to fog light) up into the engine bay ending right in front of my Filter. Admittedly it is not as straight a shot as I'd like but if it reduces the intake charge by at least a few degrees then it's doing it's job.

My "butt dyno" told me my top end performance was slightly increased....

Blacura

gotcha, understood. taht makes perfect sense. would dryer vent tubing work?

NOMAD

As long as it's strong and heat resistant.