Well I finally took the plunge and put CAI on my car; I went with an AEM V2. My concern has been the filtering ability of the filters that come with CAIs. Well I decided to go with an S&B PowerStack filter w/ airflow top and a K&N DryCharger wrap. The S&B is a high quality piece that has gotten good reviews; it's also a little bigger than the AEM filter:


The install went smoothly, no issues. I didn't remove the bumper; I pulled the resonator out from under the fender after unclipping the splash shield and fender liner. When you don't remove the bumper, you have to contort your arm to reach the 10mm bolt holding the front of the resonator. I put as much of the original trim pieces back, including the engine cover, to keep a "stock" appearance:


I took the car for a spin after the install and it does seem to have more pickup. When you get on it, it is louder and when I shut the car off, I did hear the rush of air from the intake that you hear with CAIs.

Verdict: AEM V2 -

 

I installed the V2 on my cousins 97 CL 3.0 a while back, i agree that it helps the car rev up quicker and better acceleration, and you gotta love that V2 CAI sound

 

looks great... good mod!

i see you have the cusco strut bar... how is that?

 

Thanks!

The CUSCO is a nice looking piece that I got because you don't have to remove the stock strut bar. To be honest it's more for looks, I don't notice any handling difference.

 

cool. yeah, i figured our super front-heavy/fwd cars wouldn't benefit from a top strut bar although i gotta admit it looks real nice!

 

I just installed my SRI friday...

AEM rocks

 

Where did you get the CAI, how much did it cost and how long did the install take? By the way, very nice work!

 

I got it from King Motorsports. Their price was competitive (probably not the lowest) but I bought all my Mugen stuff and some other items from them and they've always given me perfect customer service. When I bought it, I compared their price with ACP.com and it was within $1 or $2 of their price, $270-something I think.

I think it took me a little over an hour but I took my time and I'm really anal about not scratching things up, lining up the clamps neatly, etc. This was my first time so I had basically no idea what I was doing; I just took my time at each step.

 

hey good job man, any humming or hissing at idle?

 

damn... looks real good.... they don't have the v2s for 2000 non-type-s do they? BTW, can you please post a pic of your car? Thanks.

 

Does it just help HP or does gas mileage improve at all?

 

yes they do have one....thats exactly what he has if im reading his signature correctly

 

hey guyz....so the AEM V2 is better or just the AEM cai???

 

I think the V2s are newer and better.

 

I have the V2 also, and there is both a hum and the normal hissing sound that you get with all aftermarket intakes - I love the new sounds

 

The intake does make a barely audible hum at idle but I figure that's normal since there's no resonator to kill the noise. You definitely hear the rush of air when you switch off the engine. When I'm running down the road I don't hear anything because the tire and wind noise is what you hear, when you stomp on it that's when the intake noise takes over.

I'm going to see if there's any mileage improvement. According to AEM's website, the V2 gives pretty good hp gains; they show a dyno graph from a 98-02 Accord V6 so a TL should show similar gains. AEM lists the V2 for '00-'03 TL-P, not TL-S, I guess because the TB is bigger. The V2 is supposed to be their latest design which gives the greatest power gain so that's why I popped for the V2.

 

how do you like your h&r oe sport springs.i have h&r sport springs w oe shocks on my -02 tl-s i think mine are a little stiff the body flexes maybe beacause oe shocks.also a big bar fan going to indy in 2 weeks 4 the fourth time

 

dang that AEM looks wicked .is it a pain in the azz to take of the filter to clean it?

 

intake helps overall performance

gets me a lot more low end torque

 

if anyone else want's to get the AEM V2 i can get it for 240 shipped$ i was thinking about trying to get a group buy going and see what kind of a price i could get then if anyone is interested send me a PM or something

 

There are no Type S in 2000. His car is a 2000. But got that 3.2 Vtec painted I believe.

 

so did u buy a different air filter? Because I see 2 filters in that pic. Do you still have the old filter? I'll buy it if its a K&N. PM me.
btw, the V2 looks sick, makes me wanna get rid of the AEM CAI and get the V2 lol.