I'm ready to take the next step in increased performance. After reading many of the forums, I was set on purchasing an Icebox. But recently, I'm now interested in just removing the resonator.

Obviously the latter choice is more cost effective ... what am I missing if I don't go the route of an Icebox?

 

Personally I dont believe you are missing much. I mean if you look at the design of the IceBox it is very similar to your stock airbox with an extention that goes behind the bumper to pull in cooler air. When you remove your resonator and add a higher flow airfilter, you are getting the same thing. Your engine pulls air from the hole at the bottom of the filter box that is right above the area behind the bumper.
I would guess the IceBox may be a little bit more efficient...maybe, but I didnt feel like droping $250 to see, when I spent $20 for a K&N and did it myself. I and all who have done this are quite happy. Unless you have $200 + to throw around, I deffinately wouldnt buy the IceBox.

 

Where's this resonator and how easy is it to pull out? Does it make the car louder and do u notice a performance improvement?

 

I'm resonatorless too!!! I did the mod yesterday during our little TL get together and it sounds amazing. I do find there is a bit more pull on the highway, but nothing substantial. I'm gonna now throw in the K&N filter and hope I see more of a difference...

later guyz.

 

Here are the instructions on how to take it out - real easy takes like 30 min.
http://www.abunchofcars.com/diy_page.../resonator.htm

Its right below the stock airbox - behind the bumper. Like adding a "real" CAI, you dont notice much in performance, but you deffinately notice a nice sound improvement - like you woke the engine up.

 

The Airbox resinator removal will make a much larger effect on the non-type S than on the regular TL-P. Yesterday we pulled out the resinator from SC354's type-s A-spec (georgous car), the resinator is maybe 12x12x4 inches. I took mine out a few days earlier and in a TL-p it is 12x12x12 inches. I'll post a pick later after dinner (steaks) and you'll be able to see the size of the 99 TL-P's resinator. We actually took alot of pics of the project and plan to put it on the forum as a DIY. I was getting my hands dirty doing the install/uninstall with derrick and SC354 (ya right!! hahaha) another one of us took pics and he was planning on posting them soon. I'll post the pics of the 99's resinator later, you'll wonder why the air has to run through a maze (the resinator) before going into the engine. when the pics of the DIY come up you'll see the difference in size and know why I said the title above...

 

huh. the type-s and tl-p have divverent size resonators??? i know mine (tl-p) is freakin huge!
congrats jeff on joining the resonatorless club!
yea get that K&N installed!

oh and if your crazy enough and want it a little louder under WOT cut the bottom side of he air box off

 

Thanks Looks like I'm gonna add this to my list of mods. I did something similar to my Mustang and it made a slight difference. How much was the K&N?

 

Yep, I took mine out, saw the size and was puzzled why it was soooo big (non-type s) and when doing this MOD with other members on a type s yesterday at the Acura meet in Toronto, I saw the type s air resinator for the first time, and it IS almost half as thin, as well as the type-s has a "H" shaped plastic hollow tube (2 inch dia, maybe 2.5) to bring the air into and out of the airbox resinator, however the two "tubes/pipes" are connected together allowing half the air to go through the airbox resinator and half to pass through the center of the "H" and bypass the resinator entirely.

Obviously you know, but for the type-s owners, the non type-s has a 3inch intake tube for the air box resinator and a 3 inch out tube, BUT the tubes are completly seperate there is no way for air to get into the engine without going throught the airbox resinator.

AS for the difference in the resinators the non-type-s splits the 3inch tube into 3 small one inch tubes, then routes them around a 12x12x12 box to come together and join at the 3 inch out tube. For the type-s the resinator is only about 12x12x4 and the air is not split up, just deflected in a sharply cornered "U" shape and back out to that "H" tube.

 

I got my K&N off Ebay for like $20. They are around $40 at the stores. Very cheep, easy and worthwhile mod.

 

ya I was a little skeptical to do any of this cause I'm not too experienced with the functionality of the car.

 

yeah i will be taking mine out tomorrow. hopefully i dont do anything dumb and screw the whole intake system up.

 

You worry too much..your not gonna screw anything up.

 

I knew you'll fall for it once you heard it in my car :diablotin

 

thankz brian, ill jus follow those instructions carefully

 

Everyone this is a 1 out of 10 on the difficulty rating. If you can use a screw driver and a socket then you are good to go. The only thing to watch for it to take your time when you take the "tabs" off the bumper. Mine had rubbed a few curbs over the years and were damaged so I broke one. Its no big deal though. Other than that it was really easy! Good luck to all :smokin:

 

i'm not too smart when it comes to car stuff, but is it ok to take the resinator off, and add the Icebox, or would that be worthless?

 

Icebox replaces the intake box and the resonator.

 

ok then.... thanks. is there anyway to keep the rumble the AEM CAI would give you when you hit VTEC if i were to get an Icebox?

 

Ya thats the whole point - you have to take the resonator off to put in the Icebox or any other aftermarket intake. The whole point of this thread is to tell people to just remove the resonator and add a K&N filter and see if they like the added sound and performance w/o having to spend $200+ on an intake. I deffinately will save my $200 and put it toward springs.

 

I havent really heard of anyone that has an Icebox that says they have any increase in sound. I believe its still quiet like stock.

 

Yeah, the Icebox's sound level is between stock and AEM CAI.

 

I plan on purchasing the K&N Filter sometime before friday (Canadian tire is having a sale on the TL filter's, they are 69 bux instead of 90)...

I definitely like the horsepower "gains" and the noise level when you hit VTEC. It has a "meaner" sound to it.

I have a question though...if I were to purchase an AEM CAI, would this totally remove the nice rumble I'm hearing in VTEC??? Can I simply replace the stock airbox, and filter with that of a CAI, and keep that nice free flowing intake pipe that the resonator used to sit on?

I would love to have a lot of noise, and exta power...

let me know guys...

later

 

AEM CAI gives the loudest and the meanest sound of any aftermarket intake systems on our cars.

sc -- I'll sell you my K&N. I replaced it with a CAI, so it's off my car now. Only used it for like 2000 miles.

 

but what's the best for performance? i don't need to have loud sounds. and are the louds sound sweet or are they just loud?

 

Performance, they all are about the same. Sound, I can't say about the Icebox since I've never heard it, but as for the CAI, it sounds absolutely awesome. The first night I installed it, I went through a quarter tank in half an hour because I kept flooring it just to hear it. It's sweet. Trust me.

 

sorry.. newbie to mods here...
i have a TL-S A-Spec btw...
i was wondering do i have to buy a air filter after i remove the resonator or do i just leave it resonatorless...........???????????????

 

No, you can leave in the stock air filter. The resonator is basically there to muffle out sound. I have a K&N filter w/resonator removed..and it sounds pretty sweet when I floor it..but having a CAI would sound a lot better.

 

http://www.cardomain.com/id/residualfreedom

Here is the pics of the '99 airbox resinator. This is the maze the air goes through before the air gets into the box with the air filter. this was put on to make the car sound more conservative. With it off, to answer your question "TLSAnthracite" the best way to describe the sound is it makes the car sound "meaner", doesn't sound "ricey" or cheap. it just changes the sound from a tuned japaneese machine to a caged animal. I won't try and tell you it gives you 20hp but I'm sure you will notice a hell of a difference above 4000rpms. I almost $hit my pants when I heard it for the first time. And it's free, it should be the first MOD anyone does, it gets you familiar wih your car and as "OU Sig" said above it is literally a 1/10 in difficulty (maybe a 2 if you have fog lights, haha, 2 extra clips) if you feel you could change your tire if you had to, you could do this easily. We did it with food in our hands half the time at the barb-q at woodbine Acura a few days ago.

 

ya at no point was there ever a doubt that we couldn't do it. Now that I see what's involved in doing this mod, I would probably feel confident doing it myself next time. Since this was the first time anything was taken apart on the car (without an acura tech present), I was a little skeptical, but all went well...

I took my dad for a spin on Hwy. 7 last night. Guess who pulls up right beside us at one of the lights...my buddy with an M5. So I was like...should we play with him dad??? he's like, do whatever you want.

So of course VSA goes off, gate shifting, power braking, and my launch was fantastic...took him till about 60 km/h, then he whizzed passed me. It was fun while it lasted until 140 km/h. Then I gave up. He was about 2-3 cars in front...

Oh well, that's a 45k dollar car vs. a 140k dollar car...not too shabby if you ask me.

Anywayz, my dad fucking loves the sound of VTEC now...when we got home I was like "welcome to the world of VTEC dad, you have now been transformed into an obsessive TL driver!!!"

he was laughing!!!

anywayz guys...drive safe, don't be stupid, and most of all, don't like ricers pass

 

I wonder if the resonator also served the purpose of protecting the engine from ingesting water and that removing it will add back that risk.
Any thoughts on this?

 

OT

 

Asked my mechanic about any engine damage from taking this out. He said no engine damage would occur from this, but I might not be happy with the sound. I would have to go and try it out. I assume this isn't as benifical to the engine sound in other cars as it is in our TLs and TL tpye Ss. The reason I told him I was going to do this MOD was because I wanted to know if there would be ANY potential problems that might arise from this MOD . When he saw that I purchased a TL he said this is not a car you want to "play" aroound on if you don't know what you are doing, it isn't a 93 sunbird! and if I was going to do any thing myself I should call him to find out bolt locations and directions on the work, he has it all on a mechanics program on the computer, complete schematics of the car and a " HOW TO " with reagrds to order of what components to come out to get to another component. So, no I was told it wouldn't harm the engine, but I have seen other people getting a K&N filer because you can take it out and wash it regularly if you are worried about more dirt and crap getting sucked in.

 

no it was strictly for reducing sound! (and reducing hp due to restriction)