So I got my K&N installed (along with a slew of other stuff) and was thinking about cutting out the right side of the intake grille for more airflow to the filter. I noticed the bumper plastic is designed to duct air upwards, but it's a pretty small duct opening. I'm thinking about cutting this out:





unless this is a bad idea for any reason...

Need input quick, I have to reinstall the bumper before work tomorrow!

Thanks guys.

 

Accuratin did something similar. I've been thinking about some ducting to force some cool air onto the rotors.

If you do this post pics/DIY. ( :please: )

 

i did something similar on my TL, but i have a 2nd Gen. I've had it done for 2 months now, and its been through 3 major rain storms/floodings with no problems.

 

Follow stillhere's lead and cut a hole in your bumper... (Varis 350Z air duct)

 

When I did my homemade cold air, I purposely left the filter in the engine bay and left the intake behind the bumper out of direct airflow.

You will get absolutely no ram air effect out of a filter sitting in direct airflow. You could mount it to the outside of the front bumper and it won't make the slightest difference. All you need to do is get the intake point out of the engine bay. Behind the bumper is all you will ever need. The only thing you pick up from direct airflow is dirt and water.

 

Only thing I can think of is the filter may get dirtier, and in an extreme case the filter may get wet..... other than that.... this type of mod is common on any vehicle with some sort of aftermarket CAI.

 

You can do it but you will see no gain.

Aftermarket CAIs in the import world cater more to looks and perception rather than actual performance. As long as it looks good and has a manufacturer made "dyno" chart people will buy it.

To get any sort of "boost" or ram air effect, you're going to need an absolutely huge scoop and be traveling 120+mph.

 

Agreed. Hacking up a TL bumper for absolutely 0 gain is foolish imo, but hey, we're all big boys here.

 

well I'm not trying to be foolish man, that's why I asked the question! My natural assumption was that the vent that supplies air into that cavity is pretty small, maybe 2" x 3" or so. I figured that opening that vent up would allow more airflow so the engine could "breathe easier". If I was wrong I stand corrected, I'm sorry.

 

Where your filter sits, you could supply 1,500hp worth of air. If you like the scoop for looks, go for it. I just don't want people to waste their time and money thinking it's going to make a difference when it won't.

 

well I cut the hole in my bumper more for looks than for performance, but hey it does scoop up some air imo, cuz the intake tone changed completely... as far as sucking in more dust... eh... not really true, I pulled a fujita filter after 5k miles and it didnt look that bad...

I'd say get a velocity stack behind the bumper opening routed facing the filter, rather than doing any hacking like my crazy ass...

 

Dude, ram air for the win. Why hack the bumper when you can hack the headlight??

 

The intake tone changed because it has a straight hole to the filter, it doesn't mean it gets more air....

Velocity stack won't do anything but cost money....

It does get more dust and dirt, how can it not with a direct path of air. My other car came with a ram air installed by the previous owner and the K&N was always full of debris. Now I just have a cone filter in the engine bay and no CAI because it's more trouble than it's worth.

 

cone filter is easy to clean though, I only drive the thing 6-10 miles a day during the week (not on weekends) on Urban Tampa roads so not too much junk.

Question- other than additional dirt & debris is there any disadvantage to opening up that spot on the bumper?

 

Not at all. If you have the time to do it and want to experiment, it's not going to hurt other than what we mentioned with dirt and water.

 

only reason I mentioned is b/c I installed all that stuff and the car seems no faster... bit of a pisser there.

 

k so I dremmel'd it out real quick, and truthfully it does feel a bit less labored when accelerating. Happy I did it.

 

Some of the information posted in here is a little incorrect. While you will probably not get much of a "ram air" effect you will see some gains at speed. My previous car was an RSX type-s, and with a similar duct, once it was opened up I saw about 3/10th's to half a second improvement in 1/4mile time. (this is with a CIA)

The only thing that I can think of that would contribute to that, is the direct air flow to the filter, and the engine not having to work as hard to extract air from the engine bay.


BTW first post, been reading around for about two months.

 

So you picked up 30-50hp from cutting a hole for direct air to your cone filter....


There is no ram air effect on a round filter. On one side you have high pressure. On the other you have low pressure.

 

I dont know if you didnt read my post clearly or I just did I poor job of making it clear. On the 05 - 06 RSX, there is a plastic peice in the front bumber that comes out. Right behind that sits the filter. I never said it was ram air. I actually said it wasnt.

As far as your 30 - 50HP, Not sure where that came from, but many rsx's knock off .5 seconds in 1/4 mile time from a CIA. Research is your friend before you raise the bs flag.

 

Welcome!

Are you saying you picked up .5 seconds in the quarter mile with a cold air intake, or by cutting a hole in your bumper in front of it? If the latter is the case then I'm going to raise the flag too.

 

BoostedBrian thats quite a gain..... is the RSX that starved for air?

 

Typically I would dismiss such a gain without a second thought..... however I have seen first hand some 2 - 3 tenth gains from something as small as a different Air Box lid on a LS1 Fbody.

Can any of that gain be attributed to driver mod?

 

What do you think makes a car accelerate more quickly?

HINT: It starts with an "h" and has 10 letters and 30-50 of them would be needed to shave that half second.

This is exactly what I was referring to in the other thread, regarding shared delusions when it comes to these mods.

 

Eh, I had a friend with an early 90's Saab 9-3 who saw gains with a CAI. It had a 2.3L 4 cylinder motor, on our way to AutoZone we were driving and trying to see how far this Saab could go, well it could barely get to 100mph with 3 people in car. So we decided hey let's get one of those AZ "performance filters" and some tubing. So we hacked up the restrictive Ice Box installed this, I think I might actually have pictures of this setup and installed a makeshift CAI.

Actually there was an air cutout on the front bumper from factory which the filter was right behind of.

So we do a few test runs, and you could feel the increase in power when it got up to speed, no it did not offer much power, it actually crippled low end quite a bit, but once you got to 70+mph it actually got a increase over top end.

And a car that couldn't reach 100mph+ suddenly was able to hit 120mph. Quite obviously you all will throw the B.S. flag, but for some reason this CAI worked on that little Saab.

Most of you know I'm the first one to doubt the gains with these aftermarket mods, but inasmuch as opening up the inlet for air to get to the filter is concerned, gains at 70+mph are there. However people fail to realize that CAI that are really long hinder low end performance as the air has to travel a long way.

That's why Short Ram intakes have better throttle response than CAI.

 

naw.... with such a drastic gain I would submit the stock air intake setup was entirely inadequate.

 

I would agree, and I would also add that the older filter probably was filthy, but I really don't remember as this happened back in High School.

I was actually going to edit my post above, but AZine had crashed on me for some reason.

 

LMAO!! This is some amazingly classic ghetto rice!!

 

CAI can't hinder low end, it's impossible. The throttlebody is what regulates airflow. All a CAI can do is let more air in when the butterfly is wide open and that will make more power at any rpm.

It's not the same as an exhaust with too little backpressure (which by the way is very hard to do).

 

the 30-50hp comment was a little harsh...

I wasn't trying to start a flame war either, I honestly felt that it breathed a little easier (take that for what it's worth, nothing) and it's cool because if you look straight at that section behind the grill you can see the K&N logo in white, it's on the drycharger bag that goes over the filter.

Still hating the sh*t out of that whistling noise though. pretty obnoxious.

 

That 30-50hp comment wasn't directed at you. It was at the guy that claimed a .5 second quicker quarter. It takes roughly 50hp to go .5 faster.

The only way I see this possible is if the factory intake sucked air straight off the headers and was made of 1" piping.

I'm glad yours worked out for you.

 

Are you serious about needing 50Hp to shave 1/2 a second... You DO NOT need 30HP for .5 a second.

Your showing your ignorance by making this argument.

A CAI on my RSX netted about 14Hp gain and took off about .5. With a K-pro, about a full second.

This coming from a car that dyno's 170hp stock to the wheels and gets about 190 after those two mods.

So 20hp = a full second in an rsx. Like I said research before you throw up the BS flag. Head over to and let me know what you find.

 

Your terribly mistaken, and I really cant see anyway to direct you toward the truth. You are making blanket statements and applying to be every car you ever owned.

Just to show you your error. No where in here did you mention the weight of the vehicle being a factor.

RSX<TL in weight. So less HP is need to move the RSX then the TL.

 

OKOKOK everyone is right no one is wrong put an end to the anger!!! I likey my mod, so far so good, and I've been driving in some crappy weather here in FL lately, lotsa rain. no probs whatsoever.

OTHER THAN THAT F-ING WHISTLING FROM THE INTAKE

 

Gald its working out for you.

 

{QUOTE=Boosted_Brian]Your terribly mistaken, and I really cant see anyway to direct you toward the truth. You are making blanket statements and applying to be every car you ever owned.

Just to show you your error. No where in here did you mention the weight of the vehicle being a factor.

RSX<TL in weight. So less HP is need to move the RSX then the TL.[/QUOTE]



I would have to agree that the RSX is what something like 800 pounds lighter?

that plays a big part as well...

 

I would have to agree that the RSX is what something like 800 pounds lighter?

that plays a big part as well...[/QUOTE]

Ok, what is the difference in trap speed? That will tell the difference in power and take traction out of the equation. 2700lbs seems on the very light side. Prob more like 3,100 with driver so my estimation is close. Maybe it's 40hp but still not in the range of what a CAI can provide.

 

Ok, what is the difference in trap speed? That will tell the difference in power and take traction out of the equation. 2700lbs seems on the very light side. Prob more like 3,100 with driver so my estimation is close. Maybe it's 40hp but still not in the range of what a CAI can provide.[/QUOTE]



http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/ro...e_s/index.html

according to them

it weighs around 2775

so it is in fact MUCH lighter than the TL

 

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/ro...e_s/index.html

according to them

it weighs around 2775

so it is in fact MUCH lighter than the TL[/QUOTE]

yeah 2775 seems right. My GSR was only 2600. The TL's weight just kills it as far as performance goes.

 

yeah 2775 seems right. My GSR was only 2600. The TL's weight just kills it as far as performance goes.[/QUOTE]

So 2,900+ with driver. The 10hp per .10 sec estimate is still close. You're still not getting those kinds of gains with just a duct to direct air to the filter. Even if it only took 25hp (which it doesn't) to go .5 sec quicker, it's still not believable. Again, where are the trap speeds?