OK, on ebay I see these CAI's for like 30$ and then trying to get a AEM or INJEN intake goes up to about 200$. Can someone really break down the difference between no name brands and AEM/INJEN and if the difference is really worth that much money difference? Thanks

 

Most of it is build quality and fitment. No matter what you may hear, there IS a difference between AEM/Injen, or ebay. I am a huge supporter of Injen, I have run the on two of my cars and the fit is perfect, and the quality is great. No vibramount breakage issues whatsoever (problem with ebay and some AEM intakes) I would highly reccommend Injen all the way.

 

i personally have used the ebay intakes on my cl and now my tl, and it works just fine.. ive had my ebay one for about a year now and for 30$ to the door, you cant beat it.. in the end they are just metal tubes.. except yours costed 200$ and mine was 30$. even if the quality isnt as good and the metal somehow evaporates into thin air after 3 years, and the 200$ one lasts 10 im still comming up cheaper buying 3. as for power, yes the injen and aem are proven to provide 5 hp..... awesome.... im sure my ebay one warrents atleast 3 if not 5, since they are tubes..but some people like having name brand stuff, but hey, i can always stick an injen sticker on mine and no one will tell the difference. dont get me wrong i aint dogging anyone with name brand ones.. they must be ballers.

 

To each his own

 

It's mostly with the quality and fitment of the tube. Also, they send cheap filters, that can be fixed easily though with a replacement. I have used no name ebay intakes with quality filters on my Integra's in the past, but when it came time to put an intake on my RSX-S I went with comptech. The fitment was perfect. Now with my TL I decided to go with Injen, and it's the same thing. Fitment is great, and I have no issues.

The ebay intakes needed a lot of fooling around with (zip-ties, cheap rubber that went on the TB) Just spend the money and do it right the first time. AEM, Injen, Comptech all the way.

 

I bought one of those e-bay CAI's a couple of years ago for my '01 CL-S. The howl was so bad, even at idle, that I took it off within a week. I put a K&N on my '05 6MT, and it was nearly silent, except when the vtec kicked in, and then...WOW!
I didn't measure it, but there was apparently a substantial difference in wall thickness of the tube. With that type of quality, I wouldn't trust the filter media either. No sense in destroying a several thousand dollar engine with a cheap air filter.

 

thanks guys for your thoughts!....

 

I'm gonna have to agree with wilp99 here. In the end, it is just a metal tube. As long as you get a quality filter, they shouldn't be a problem.

 

-Other than metal thickness, fitment, and finish.

 

Take advice get a real intake Injen AEM etc i had a ebay intake and it was shitty the tap snap it rarttleed switch to a AEM gain a noticable performance difference car was faster intake ws 3X cooler and the noise was a more agressive deep tone REMEMBER: u get wat u pay for u go cheap u get cheap results

 

 

^
does that mean lol

 

I'm ing at the bold text. You are talking gibberish.

 

no im not the tab that u throw the bolt on to mount the intake to the car snap off the intake so as a result the intake was lose and rattled CHEAP PARTS=CHEAP RESULTS

 

lmao...this is funny...it depends on ur preference...if u wana spend money and get all the horsepower u can get out of sumthn go wit a name brand...but if u wana save some dough and still have close to the same performance go with the "ebay" brand...the tubing is typically the same...thinner tubing may b better cause it doesnt carry as much heat and is lighter...i personally just went to a racing shop, bought some aluminum piping and made my own...i threw an AEM dryflow filter on it and walah! i basically have an aem intake...i can change it over form short ram & cold air whenver i like...so it just depends on ur preference & budget...if i had money to blow i would def go with the most expensive though lol

 

Try again. Thin tubing leads to broken mounts, and holes in the pipe if it rubs on anything. Bottom line is, you get what you pay for.

 

wow way to leave my face on the ground...i did put a discliamer in there tho...hence the MAY lol...i welded my own mounts tho

 

X2+
Thin tubing also allows for more engine heat to transfer into the intake flow, thus less hp. More noise, too...like I said b4.

 

lol, wasn't trying to be an asshole, Im just stating there IS a fair difference in quality on more than one level.

 

i knoe...if u wana see some assholes go to the maxima.org forum...they r brutal over there

 

An intake is just a pipe that sucks in air. That's all. You will get the same performance with any brand. The quality of the pipe might not be as good though.

 

Right, which is what I was trying to convey earlier with fitment, finish, and metal thickness.

However, there is a performance difference between 1-piece and 2-piece cold air intakes.

 

which one is better?

 

1-piece is better. 2-piece creates an interruption in air flow because if where the coupler connects them. My Injen Race Division is a 1-piece cold air.

 

My Injen SP1431 is a 2 piece and it replaced the Race Division intake.

 

Its a 2-piece because of the convienece of converting it to a short ram for winter - not for power gains. Its common knowledge that an interuption in airflow reduces horsepower, thus making a 1-piece intake more efficient.

And you mean to tell me you have an Injen and stated earlier that its "just a pipe. That is all" LOL dude stfu, your arguments are completely irrelavant.

 

Well, yes and no.
A one piece IS more efficient, but it is more than offset by not being able to use fresh air from outside the engine compartment. A short ram will produce less hp every time, at least as far as Acuras are concerned.

 

I'm talking about a 1-piece cold air vs 2-piece cold air. They dont draw the air from the engine compartment.

 

When I bought the Injen, I didn't know anything about the intakes. After inspecting it, I found that the Injen intake is just a pipe with a filter on it. Anyone can make that pipe. That pipe doesn't do shit, it just directs air into the engine jackass.

 

Why don't you read the entire thread before opening you mouth and looking like an idiot?

Previously discussed, was the fact that a no-name intake, or "pipe" as you like to refer to it as, usually does not fit as well, is made of lower grade/thinner metal which causes annoying noises and can break vibramounts and wear holes due to rubbing (from bad fitment), and a lesser quality finish.

Please take your wrong information to another thread, its fucking this one up.

Thanks!

 

I'm sorry for being an asshole about it, I didn't want to. But I just couldn't seem to get the point across.

 

to some it's a tube. to others quality matters. really nothing you can do man. all you can mod is your own car, you throw your 2 cents out there and some will take it and some wont.
no point in both sides arguin when neither one's gonna give in
and im with you on the name brand, it a shitload of extra cash for a little extra peace of mind, but im ok with that

 

FYI brand names pipes aint only thicker it bigger to wen i meaured it against my previously ebay as i switch the ebay one out to the AEM i noticed the ebay had a smaller diamiater tubbing and was thin thus restricting less air to come in so it not only just thickness and quaulity

 

Any idea how much an intake might increase HP? I want one, but not if it's going to give very minimal performance gains. I see no reason I should spend $200-300 for an intake when I could save the money and buy some good headers for a little more.

 

Unknown brand (eBay)is illegal in most of the states. And other aren't.
This is what I heard but I'm not sure it is true. But I heard that unknown brand works better than Aem and other brand. I'm not sure about that.
My friend is using unknown brand but um... iono it's working or not.
I think you should get AEM and other brand ones because our cars are expensive in a way. Expensive ones need expensive stuff. lol
Well I heard unkown brand pipe and AEM/K&N filter works the same.

 

i got the ebay one and it fits perfect the metal quality is different but works the same i could buy the name brands but for what its worth the price is good everybody has its own opinion what ever works for each individual

 

Thought you said earlier that the 1 piece/2piece allowed for short ram use in wintertime. Maybe I'm wrong with your particular brand, but my K&N came as 2 piece also. 2 piece was for installing the filter down into the wheel well and into the path of fresh air, 1 piece was if you wanted a short ram. The short ram put the filter into the engine bay, and thusly produced virtually no hp gain. But, it eliminated the need to worry about hydrolocking. More looks and sound than anything else.

 

Hi,

I am new to this forum and I have an 04 TL Base, but would like to change the intake system. Not sure what to go with. Any suggestions? Also what will this do to the car? is it easier to self maintain? do I need anything else to go with it? is it just PNP?? As you all can tell by all these ?'s that I am new and would love to make this ride even sweeter.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

Right, what I'm talking abou tho is COLD air. (filter in wheel well) 1 piece COLD air and 2 piece COLD air. I have a cold air (filter in wheel well) that is 1 piece. The 1 piece has larger gains than the 2-piece because there is no interuption in airflow.

 

if your intake is humming at idle really loud its because its not on straight. when i got my tranny changed at acura they put my stock intake on but it wasent straight and it hummed like a mofo.. so i straightened the inlet pipe out (put it flush with the tb) and the humm was gone.

as far as fitment, my ebay one fits perfect, doesent rub on anything, and the hangers are holding on even on these fucked up british roads.. been on my car for just over a year and no problems. i do agree that the one piece will give more power, however, the gain is so miniscule, maybee .25 hp. its not worth the extra 150$ to me. again im not bashing anyone who spends more and expects more, its just the fact remains, that the gains arent worth the money. i mean 200$+ for 5 hp. you are not going to feel it much if at all. now if i had 200$ to spend, and i bought an ebay intake and under drive pulleys, im sure id be pulling much more power for my buck than someone with a name brand intake. if it wasent so expensive here to get a dyno (bout 100 pounds = 200$) id get it dyno'd with stock intake and ebay, just to see what they actually put forth.