All in 1 about SRI - CAI (mostly SRI) :)
 

Last summer I bought K&N CAI intake, which could also be SRI. Started reading all of the CAI and SRI threads. Since these 2 topics are covered well enough (2004 to 2012), I ended up reading same thoughts but wasn't enough for me. Slowly, everything came together on my mind. Air pipes, intakes, diameter, length, heat shield, MPG and etc…

This post might bring a new route for the intakes that are here on AZ hopefully it’ll worth it.

Some people did and will tell you, SRI makes you lose performance. Don’t believe them. Just not smart enough to figure out a way or not good at comparing. I will explain.

Some said, it doesn’t give you much HP. Doesn’t worth the money.
Does intake make you gain HP? No, that’s not the point anyway. It makes the car breath much better and makes her use the power that sits under the hood.

At the field outside, you run 5 miles. But inside at the gym, can you? I can’t, I get tires so quick, I need fresh air.

$280 is too much for intake (CAI)
$78 AEM SRI from amazon, is the best if you go with this setup.
And to me CAI doesn’t worth the money. SRI does

-----

I used the stock intake for 5 years. It does get affected by engine bay heat. After driving in hot weather and mostly city, pedal just stops answering. So much lag.

I installed the K&N SRI last summer. In couple days, I did notice the drop on MPG. Enormously.
How does it work? K&N tells you to take off the battery cover, the triangle cover on top of the air pipe, and then that extended air pipe under the triangle cover.
So the air will pass from fender to L shape pipe, then the air will go up and from top of the battery to K&N filter. Wow
By the time air goes from there to filter, it’s not cold anymore…and if you get enough air.

-----

What I did to my K&N. Bought AEM dryflow with 2.75” diameter (AEM-21-202DK AEM DryFlow Air Filter), I took the second pipe for to make it CAI, and cut a piece from it to extend the SRI tube to the body of the car. Far away it could be from the engine, which is also in front of the air pipe after resonator.

Was happy with just extending because K&N SRI already had angle to lower the tube so the filter sits in front of the air pipe.

This was my custom. But last week Steven Bell bought and installed an AEM SRI which is just like my custom. It might be new. Because I tried everything to find a SRI pipe like that. So AEM SRI is the only one I prefer, but customizing doesn’t finish with that.

Base


Type-S


Since it is 2.75” diameter inlet also, I think the package includes my AEM filter. (AEM-21-202DK)

If you replace your filter in the future



Note: Here is what swoosh (Anil) said

if you order that kit made sure you have an extra 67-83 SS band...the kit comes with only 2 bands for the coupler but doesnt have a band for the air filter....you can reuse one of the stock bands if you want....

As you see at the amazon picture.

-----

What I didn’t like about the AEM SRI is, the pipe doesn’t have a place to attach it to somewhere like K&N SRI does. You’ll see it on the pictures.

What I liked about AEM SRI pipe is the quality of it. Since you see it from the surface of the pipe, it’s to keep the heat outside. Like a heat shield. They thought about it.

Okey you got the SRI. Now what.

I always play with the car at my parents’ house. Whenever my dad sees me, he is like “Acura or the engineers thought about it and did it like that right”
I am like forget them I’m engineer too and here is the part where I had facepalm about the Acura Engineers.

The road air takes.

Air gets in from the bumper fender > in to the L shape plastic pipe > front of battery >goes up and hits the triangle cover > goes in to the pipe > goes in to the resonator > and then to filter > then the throttle

I’m just laughing whenever this comes to my mind.

Ohhh and also I never understood some genius TL drivers that stick their license plate right in front of the left fender… to stop the air I guess

What I did to front of battery

I removed the triangle piece + the extended pipe under the triangle.
Bought 90 degrees 3” Spectra air filter pipe from Autozone. Inserted it inside the air pipe and turned it to the headlight direction. (the place where the 1st air pipe is, L shale pipe) // / See the pictures
After this, bottom of the SRI got dusted. Which I believe now there is enough air to pass from resonator to filter.

The last and 3rd step “the heat shield”

I took one cardboard (flat) and saw that it sticks under the last air pipe (after the resonator). Also gives it a round shape.
So I took it out, taped it with hot/cold resistant tape (also thinking slippery surface is better for air to move). Did insert the cardboard + installed the SRI. It covered the filter perfectly. The Bottom is just open for air to go in to the filter. It’s perfect and way better than I expected.

Results

You know the reason why K&N dropped the mpg. I was amazed. Wasn’t waiting that much drop. Hot air burns much easier.

Here is the latest update: Car is at 104K. Just did the timing belt service + sparks + adjusting valves.

Went to NYC for something and came back to Boston today. Was my first long trip after adding the heat shield thing.

A/C on full time, mostly on top of 80mph, never floored it, one passenger. Half tank did 220 miles. Since 6 years, top I saw was 200 miles.

Full tank did 430 miles. A/C was mostly off on the way back but floored it many times.
Oh and it was 85-95F today

Low performance from the engine? Pedal lag? Pedal not answering quickly? None of them came to my mind today
Did city driving in NYC too…

At home, I opened up the hood, my brother was shocked how hot the engine was when he was passing near it. I touched top of the filter. Felt okey.
Before I remember times when the filter was hot as engine covers.
So now it does get air so it stays cold. Well now it has heat shield and far away from engine.

Stock intake is better than SRI

No.
Even with K&N SRI, I felt the engine relaxing. Well, at night let me say… when it’s cold :)
I could prove that, it’s was day and night difference to me. Something that I hated never occurred again. I’ll skip that right now.

Stock intake doesn’t get affected from hot engine bay... in city?

Yes it does as I mentioned at top. It’s a night and day difference. I don’t know how some members can’t feel that.
Did it get worse with my SRI or let me say AEM CAI. No, never did.. never. I was surprised about that.

Some thoughts of mine

I like SRI because of low rpm power and when inlet diameter exactly same as throttle 2.75”
I know not 2.75” for you swoosh !!! :D

CAI – Long tube, bigger diameter
Can’t make my brain say ok to it. Have to open the throttle like crazy to collect all the air from a long and bigger tube.

And here is my question. Ok CAI doesn’t soak any hot air but does throttle get enough air for that long and wide CAI pipe?

Front bumper fender is designed with an angle to make the air go up in to the L shape air pipe then to front of battery.
How will enough air for that big CAI pipe will go up from the bumper fender and then go down to the filter.
AEM CAI might be okay since closer but no way for K&N CAI.

Is there another place for air to go inside the bumper? I am not sure. Never took out my front bumper.

Also SRI is way louder than CAI as most of you know.
Experienced it on my friends K&N CAI on his 08 Type-S.

Filters

On SRI I love the hissing sound when you keep the pedal steady while the RPM is somewhere more than 4K. You just want to floor it like crazy.

Difference between K&N filter and AEM filter,

K&N had so much hissing sound and I was loving it
AEM is deeper tone. Much tougher.
When you compare the quality... night and day difference.
AEM is more tough better quality than K&N…you definitely could notice that. K&N has oil to protect but not many of us like it here…

Some thoughts again

Removing resonator might give better results.
Better way of connecting the 2 air pipes in front of the battery. I saw Spectra's flexiable plastic air filter pipe at Autozone. It could be used to connect the pipes but have to screw it somehow or some other way so it doesn't move...

Pictures

I will use pictures of some members.
Steven Bell
serbj
JDM5lugHatch


-----------------------------------------------------------


Stock - The road the air takes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...razine/CAI.jpg

The left tube "unknown tube" actually is the first L shape pipe that moves the air to front of battery

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3/74dsc01796.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9470/98dsc01797.jpg

http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/...j/DSC01794.jpg

Here is the K&N SRI You also have to remove the battart cover. Looks bad

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...28153%2529.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h...52813%2529.jpg

Tried this but didn't got what I wanted. Couldn't turn the filter so it gets air from the pipe. Place is too small

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z...52843%2529.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...52847%2529.jpg

Here is the AEM
K&N SRI having a place to mount the pipe
If you use K&N filter cleaner for oiled filters. It takes out the red dye
AEM guys said, it won't harm the filter

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7103/7...1b87e633_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7...0f5c0754_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7088/7...b3c60ce1_b.jpg

Latest

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7227/7...74a2894e_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7222/7...4413516d_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7244/7...a3ebea3f_b.jpg

http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/...28190654-1.jpg

AEM 21-202DK

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8148/7...dd2c0a3b_b.jpg

Pictures from Steven Bell. AEM SRI from amazon

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...l/100_5029.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...l/100_5031.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...l/100_5030.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ell/aphoto.jpg

90 Degree Spectra pipe, 3"
Facing to L shape air pipe

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...2018.40.08.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...2018.40.23.jpg

That's a plastic to connect air pipes.
I cut the bottom of it and left the top part. Reason I cut the bottom is so it doesn't stop air going in

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-x...2020.13.23.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...2020.13.45.jpg

The cardboard
I also taped the right side for just in case but you don't have to because sticking it under the air pipe makes it round and holds it tight

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7521197626/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7521195284/

-----------------------------------------------------------


Removing resonator

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2670/32799850.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4029/16867731.jpg

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/4281/48954755.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9883/59646395.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8758/96882432.jpg

http://img119.exs.cx/img119/8017/diycai9ba.jpg


-----------------------------------------------------------


Hopefully this brought up some good ideas to everyone.
Esppecially narrowing down the search about CAI - SRI

amazing thread thank you

Well done, MEKO. Thanks for using my pictures!

do you have any videos of it in action?

Lol at SRI.... This is a luxury sedan just enjoy it for what it is. The best filteration will make the engine last the longest...

So I knew about the K&N intake having mounts to firmly attach the pipe so it doesn't move.

How did you solve this problem with the Amazon AEM intake? Or do you not see any problems leaving the intake just hang from the TB?

Actually thank youu for the pictures Steven. Nice looking bay by the way!!

I'll take some videos but what we actually need is videos from Steven :) ehom hehe

How long will you use the engine forr? 20 years. Not me. So I just want to enjoy it as much as possible.
Can't compare colors and tastes
I couldn't remove the K&N SRI because of the sound even though it dropped my mpg

I don't have the AEM SRI. It just looks like my custom
swoosh (Anil) installed one of them. He might know the answer :)
He'll be here no doubt haha

Why wouldn't you want the engine to last for 20+ years? There's a lot of older Hondas and acuras from the 80's and 90's still cruising around.

Hell I've got a 90' TT 300zx with 155k miles that's still going strong. IMO, I would rather my engine lasted longer than had a cool sucking sound from the intake.

Nice job none the less tho.

Thanks..
I mean I just said that but to me it's the other way around.
Stock intake doesn't even breath much. What filtration are we talking about.
+ does soak warm air from the bay also... will these make the engine last more?

If this was BMW or Audi...most likely we wouldn't even think about changing the stock intake. I wouldn't

There is engineering under the hood. Every mechanic says that.
Japan's are easy but hard to work with, hard to find it.
Germans look complicated but it's not, so easy to find and easy to work with (under the hood)
There have been some more thoughts been putted under the hood.

I even felt my engine relaxed :shrug:
Unfortunately mine is AT...left from dad
At some point, after the car shifts to 4, I always felt that engine is not putting enough power for the gear. Usuallay if there is little ramp and while driving smooth..

Always felt that and hated it. It's like you want to give more power...floor it
saying, why the heck do you shift if can't pull enough power

Never felt that since last year

I don't know if someone else here noticed anything like that but I am serious. I do feel the car under me. I'm serious, that feeling never came again. I belive it pulls enough air to engine to throw the power to wheels.

Wonder why are we replacing 3rd and 4th gear pressure swithces by the time goes on..

I'll try to put a video together for you guys.

I think a good way would be putting a box around the SRI filter so that it never touches the air in the engine bay and all the air it would get is from underneath. Just a thought.

True but on mine, I got the whole bottom covered.
Left side? There is the plastic cover (bottom) of the filter. Can't pull air from there
Top? Hood's heat shield or something that black thing, covers the top.

but... I will place flat rectangle cardboard on top of the filter when winter comes.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7244/7...a3ebea3f_b.jpg

and just going to place it up there and tape it to battery cover and to that fuse box or something

I might even do it now in summer if I find a free time.

I actually should do it in summer? Yeah true but, reason I will definitely cover the top in winter is because of water drops in heavy rain

I took some videos today but they suck, will take better ones later on

engine oil is down to <15%
tank is full
it's 85F
i couldn't use tipronic so as you see it doesn't go all the way to redline, shifts early

but will take better videos

:snicker:

the OEM intake is better than that.
what cool air are you drawing from?

Performance wise, CAI takes this debate. All in all, what wasn't discussed is the A/F on intakes. This is what kills performance on intakes.

^right, A/F is always going to stay constant.

so you have air rushing over the warm engine....getting sucked into the air filter.
the IAT sensor is gonna see this warm air and decrease timing. :snicker:

When tuning with A/F ratio, a CAI can provide an additional 0.3-0.7 psi more boost.

^but this is for an N/A application.

It can or it does provide the boost?
Is it proven around here? I never read about it

I'm not going by the numbers anyway...it could be true
I am putting what I feel about the car right now.
That's why I want someone else to test it to...
waiting one Steven for some comments

Can't compare it much from a video.
I explained lot's of stuff about the change it gave.

If we are just talking about straight 50 to 120 or something. CAI might take it much better... might
Because of high rpm

Did I test it? No..just the comments

I am just going by what I feel... didn't go in numbers or anything
Justin if your intake is stock...try it it's cheap

But I never went back and said my stock was much better...

no, im not trying it. lol

i'd rather do a custom CAI

After those mods come on you have to try some kind of intake other than stock...
Custom CAI? like what?

I have some thoughts about custom CAI but too much work

Custom intake with velocity stacks. I personally like 3.5-4 inch piping and intake filters. Going custom is a lot cheaper.

^thx

I got one velocity stack but didn't work anywhere. Couldn't use it

What I am wondering is this.

Pipe not short as SRI, not long as CAI
Filter sitting little bit more down then AEM SRI. Like right after the resonator
+
Removing the resonator and creating a pipe (air way) to the filter.
And placing a velocity stack to the bottom of it. (front of the fender)

damn..

Edit: but still...happy with mine.
What I like is also, anyone could try it, cheap and easy. But custom CAI is too much work.
Remove bumper, remove resonator..

Did anyone who removed the resonator were able to put it back in?
I read that some people just break it....because it's hard to remove

I'm confused by your logic, but I'm happy for ya. :)

hahaha
All I do is make a better air way to the SRI. AEM already did what it can do to filter by keeping it away from the engine and give it a angle aiming down to the pipe.

I didn't want to come and tell everyone about my SRI. Takes much work.
After seeing AEM from Steven Bell that is exactly just like my SRI, I just started to support it by telling everyone about better air way.

I wouldn't able to sleep if I felt the same lag the stock intake gave me before...

I'm thought about all possibilities. I drove the car in city more than 30 minutes in +80F
I am expecting a lag to be honest thiking it's still under the hood.
But it suprises me. Still goes good.
Unlike my old setups.

Did that heat shield help? Yes
I'll make a video and show the cardboard, how it covers the filter.
I want to hear other membes thought about it. Kind of logic :D

Do I expect lots of good comments from Steven? No, because I'm not sure if he connected the air pipes in the front or created a shield..
That was my setup before. Wasn't happy with what it gave. That's why I moved on to custom the air pipes.

Not sure if AEM copied my intake or not

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...PNG?1307468855

:tongue:

First off, is this your first DBW car? Ever experienced rev hang? SRI is the TL's worst performance because the front has little access for air to travel through. Your best IAT is to get more cooler air down where your stock set up is at, but with better flowing. I will tell you that you will experience heat soat (lag) because of all the heat this car makes. That's my only suggestion.

I personally like the Apexi filter, will be using the 3.5 inch one.

Sir,
Looks like you haven't read the first post but I kind of did talk about those stuff.

I am giving thoughts to my intake since a year. I never came here and asked members if this would work or not.
I know my car, I don't have to and the answers I will get was going to be "SRI reduces performance"
(read all the CAI-SRI threads, I know what AZ thinks about SRI)

I went in found the reason and fixed it. Does it work? Yes positive

did I say anything about my SRI? No
but after AEM did the same thing, then I went on and talked about it.

3.5 Apexi filter... okey can you show me it? I'll try it but it has to be lke my pipe.
Has to come straight and then at the middle it has to have an angle to lower the filter.

See, I passed all of these. I'm not throwing stuff. I tested it experienced it and came out good.
I'm proposing it in this thread. Not just giving ideas or asking if that or this would work.

I belive there is a reason AEM creating the SRI after all those CAIs
but just have to open it's was a little bit by customizing couple stuff as I mentioned

Wait a sec! All I got wa you get 220 miles from Half tank and 400 at full? I must be doing something wrong I only get 220 at full? Is it my stock intake?

That's highway you know that right. I went to NYC and came back with one tank on that day.

On the way going, never turned off the A/C. One passenger
Saw 220 half tank the first time... I go to NY all the time

but in Boston? My school is not even a mile away
I still drive to school and to places around but still city. Full tank, I do 200, sometimes 220

NYC day - did reset it after filling the tank and also reset this trip thing too
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7544152658/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7544155312/
Never saw it this off, I already did 120 miles and it's telling me 350 more

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7544157280/
at distance 172 (getting close to NYC)
MPH dropped and MPG got 30

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7544159502/
at NYC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79836957@N04/7544161972/
after 220, it moved below the level and later it came back up to the middle around 228 but 220 is the last number will it came to half tank needle

I must say your setup is cool, though i modified my stock CAI, gutted the resonator and put a huge cone air filter in from autozone, i get the nice sound, but also increased my mpg by 2, so highway im seeing 29 to 30 at best. I see your even as if you had a CAI, I still like the CAI method better though. If you found a way to block the intake from heat soak then kudo's to you my friend. I read your write up nice summary you gave. Next i just may get a AEM dryflow air filter, hoping they have a huge cone one though.

His logic makes sense. CAI vs. SRI. How much difference in HP are we talking about? It's very minimal. I think the point is SRI is easier to maintain and you can drive around with more confidence in heavy rain when it is very difficult to see what's ahead even if you have your wipers at full speed.

So the SRI filter will draw air through the remaining stock pipe as the above figure shows. My question is what does that little pipe between the battery and the headlight exactly do?

Thanks.. well to me something between CAI and SRI is much better of course. Don't have to deal with heat + pipe is not long as CAI (i don't want high rpm power)
but that's hard to propose to members here. I never told anyone about my CUSTOM intake until AEM actually created it.
Because now it's easy, they don't have to deal with customizing a pipe or anything.
Because when it goes to customizing, you might not be able to get the perfect tone on each one. Can't be sure
+ it's cheap
Buy the SRI and do some small mods to air filter in front of the batter and shield. Ready to go



That's what I was trying to explain to bouncer7. This is not a turbo or something.
And if you read comments, even with CAI everyone is like saying 1-2 HP.
You can't feel that.

That's not the reason I am using SRI anyway. I am positive it does make the engine use it's power way better than stock.
There are reasons why I don't want to go stock again.
I explained it. I hated it since 5 years... now the car never does that thing while changing to 4th gear.

--

Yeah big reason of telling this SRI to members is beause it's cheap and easy
No need to remove the bumper to clean the filter. Don't remove the stock piping (resonator).

Just connect the 2 pipes in front of the battery.
What I mean by that is jungy4,

Do you see the L shape (unknown tube in the pictures) ?
Air goes in to that and then passes to front of the battery.
When you open the battery cover and look at it, you will understand me
It's insane how air has to go in there and find it's way up and hit the triangle cover and then go in to the piping that is connected to resonator.

Did you get it?

What I did? Remove the extended tube there. And connected the (unknown tube) and the tube that goes to resonator.

Filter started to get some air after doing that. I started to saw dusts under the SRI

After driving my Type S for a while with the SRI, I'm pleased with it. I'm leaving mine just the way you see in the pictures above (without the AEM sticker).

I can feel minimal boost with the addition of the SRI. But my J-pipe plus the SRI and the Throttle Body Spacer gives me nice gains.

Nice!!!
Good to hear that Steven

One member also getting it. PMed me some questions.
We'll see

MEKO,

I get it now. But I think what I would do is just completely ditch everything upto the resonator box just like the last picture of the first post of this thread. The SRI filter should be able to draw air thru that straight pipe.

Exactly..
+ if you put a velocity stack at the bottom...that would be the best !!!!

If I remove the bumper to mod the headlights, I might go through that road too

From the pics though, it looks like we may need to come up with a way to mount that pipe because the bottom portion of the stock airbox is what's holding it.

That is true.
I saw some TSX guys using those aluminum pipes at home depot for the washing machines and stuff...

and what I just thought about is....
Reason I don't want to remove those pipes is not to hear more sound
What if we cut the pipe from where turns in to the battery?
From that turning point...and extend it little bit more down + add the velocity stack

Better air + resonator still there to reduce the air sound + no mounting problem

Edit: I am at school and laptop battery is about to die. Studiying for exam