So I received my car back from injen technologies today after a long 4 1/2 days with out my baby, I decided to give my review ahead of time. I do not have the dyno sheets yet but ill post them when I do. Adrian@injen verified that the civic si cai and ilx cai are indeed different. They are very similar and fit, but the ILX's maf is 1/9 and the Si's is 1/18 I believe is what he told me. Anyways he said it was bad to run the si's cai because the ILX runs very lean already. The civic si intake will fit, but no promising it will perform the way the ilx kit will. He ran my car on the dyno about 50 times for the stock box, cai, and short ram; he said that acura did an excellent job on our motors because it always ran consistent numbers with the stock box and that's what he wanted to achieve with the injen tech intakes.... Which he did. Not a fan of the polish color but I love that I am the very first ILX owner with the injen series cai. As for performance wise, I LOVE DRIVING MY CAR EVEN MORE. With a 12hp gain, the noises of the my motor sucking in clean cold air deepens the tone of the exhaust. Also vtec cracks WHOLE LOT LOUDER. It's simply a nice tasteful mod to add, if rate it 4.9/5 just because the color doesn't catch my eye. Over all great intake and you guys NEEED it.

 

Cool, when do they hit the market and can I get one in black? Good write up! Thanks for the info

 

Your welcome! Haha I know I'm forgetting something important.. But I'll add it in once it comes to mind. I have no idea when the cai and short ram ilx kits hit the market but ill email him tomorrow to get a date verified. I also asked if they will be making an exhaust system or downpipe since I hate the stocks with a passion.

 

Also since he mentioned how lean the car runs is he recommending some type of tuning or will the car still be running in the safe zone so to speak? Will adding an exhaust cause a tuning requirement or can the pull off both without detonation or dangers of running too lean.

 

I don't recall him saying anything about motor blowing up with any further modifications but he did in fact say the car ran lean. I myself plan on buying hondata or kpro and getting a tune anyways since I saw the numbers on the si. I believe the car would be fine adding an exhaust or downpipe. Acura purposely made our cars run lean for a reason, possibly because they wanted it to run more efficient since we're using hybrid oil in our motors also(0-20w full synthetic). But who knows, sorry if my info doesn't help much; I'm kinda wondering the same thing now.

 

These cars shouldn't run lean. Ever. With technology in cars ECUs today they regulate the air mixture coming in and compensate with fuel management. Any comments that you need a tune to change this is salesman flack.

Example. We all know air density changes drastically with altitude. Do you think car manufacturers have to make special ECU tunes for different height elevations? No. Our cars are made to adapt to changes in air density so you car will only run lean or rich if there is an issue going on somewhere in the engine. Welcome to the 21st century.

 

And you are perfectly fine upgrading your downpipe and exhaust. All that would do is increase the diameter of the tubing and hopefully they worked out any kinks the OE system had. It will only allow air to leave the engine quicker. It can't make it blow up.

 

Well John, I'm going with adrian@injen on this one since he did run my car on the dyno and figured it out through proven numbers with around 50 runs. Honda has their reasons for making a car run rich or lean; for example the Honda preludes came running rich from factory. Also nobody said anything about "needing a tune" I said I wanted one by choice. And also the computers and fuel management is what kept the car running consistent numbers over and over.

Theoretically the ecu is programmed to adjust but that's a duh in every car. But Honda programmed are ecu's to run a little lean for a reason. Why you ask? I have no clue. This isn't some bs I'm making up, but it's exactly what he told me which is our cars run a little lean. I believe you misread my information.

 

The reason I bring up lean and possible downsides to modding without tuning. Take my 2012 WRX it ran very lean if you buy one and put intake and exhaust the car will detonate and long term you will have issues with premature wear. The blocks on them were known to be weak and have been problematic. While computers are getting better and smarter at keeping knock and detonation from happening mostly they are adjusting timing to prevent engine damage. My 2004 S2000 ran somewhat rich I ran I/H/E without issues and the car was still not running very lean except just before vtec crossover. I have whatched hundreds of cars on dynos while helping out at different shops and have seen stock cars come on running dangerously lean and very rich.

I have not dyno'd any new SI's or ILX's and that's why I asked the question. I would just be weary of throwing any mod at any obd2 car with the thought it can handle the mods because the ecu will figure it out and keep things under control... Specially when the ecu could very well see the mods as a problem with airflow or some type of mechanical issue and retard timing to play it safe and make the car make less horsepower even with a mod that should make horsepower (I've seen this occur on dyno's too). Not trying to sell people on engine management or tuning or anything like that, but its never a bad idea to at least monitor the effects mods are having on the car

John

 

The ECU was designed to compensate for changes in humidity, temperature and bad gas.. Not modifications. Running lean is not good anyway you spin it

Where does that filter go?

 

Do some research guys. Salesmen are supposed to up-sell you parts. It is their job. Like when you get new tires and the tech gives you a long drawn out explanation why your camber is wearing your tires. Then I say "Ive been running that camber since I put those wheels on. If you don't see any exesive wear now there wont be any in the future of my toe was dialed in correctly." I have done this TWICE and they dont have SHIT to say back. One guy said "Yeah, and doesnt the camber help with turning to?" (he clearly was just repeating what his manager said.) Second time he said he'd do some research and get back to me. He never did and my integra was perfectly fine once the toe was correct.

Technicians know what they are talking about a good half the time. Like MOST trades out there, employees dont know EVERYTHING. Some places they know nothing, hence why some shops are more reputable than others. Hence why one mechanic can look at a Prius failing and say "it's the driveby wire" but a technician could have no possible idea." They dont know everything.

THAT being said. I found this and it should help.
Bottom line, the ECU figures out the correct amount of fuel it needs to run to run stock. If the factory set them to run lean then it will do its best to get back to that lean state. If honda intended these cars to run lean then we should keep them where they are.
Simple bolt ons wont change the air/fuel ration enough to NEED a tune and in reality a tune is going to permanently change your fuel/air ration regardless of what is going on in your bay. So if you change it to run balanced between lean and rich you could be doing it dis justice. Some set ups are better lean, some rich.

And I my two posts were a bit scattered. First one was more directed to another user, second was mainly to the OP.


In the end a tune isn't going to be BAD in my opinion if done by a professional. They may tune it to be more race friendly, but that was the point of the tune no? I'd rather run a set up with a near stock fuel/air ration and the stock ecu is best at that. Until you mod enough and the ECU can't compensate anymore.

 

Whoa. We need to start quoting each other. LOL I see now someone else is named John so you probably werent even talking to me. hahah Oops. Oh well. Still an informative read.

 

And OP please dont think Im speaking AGAINST your mod or your idea to get a tune.
Tuning it will still bring the car where YOU want it to be. We all have different ideas where we want these cars to go.
Also I believe no doubt Injen made a great intake and I bet the gains are substantial. I just dont believe the MAF sensor matters much and he was making a big deal out of nothing. Like when the tire guys say my camber was eating my tires by time showed me they were wrong.

 

I don't think it's a salesman thing really. Injen isn't tied to Hondata in anyway, and Hondata is the only tuning solution available for the ILX 2.4L at this time.

But, yeah your point about it not being harmful to run without a tune is true. But, the tune is still going to make your modifications work better.

 

Yea, I don't get the point about the maf sensor. I have the AEM intake and the sensor fits in perfectly (and without leak). Also, This design looks a lot like the Si design. They probably redirected where the car draws air from and not much else. Happy modding everyone!

 

fyi, there's no point in debating the issue on tuning, running rich/lean, or ecu correction; fact remains that the civic forum recognized that mods need a tune in order for the car to realize its full potentional and to run optimally. Tuned vehicles have been also getting better mpgs. Of course, this is all contingent on finding the right tuner...luckily, I know one I can trust.

 

That is a very sweeping argument... and wrong.
Not all mods need a tune. Period. Some need them. Some can benefit from them. And others simply dont benefit from a tune, period.

 

I said need to a tune to realize the maximum potential. Of course, it's sweeping and doesn't apply to all mods, but for things like intake, tb, intake manifold, cam, header/dp, and exhaust...there's an opportunity to tune for it and get more hp than running untuned.

 

I'm going to rebuttal some of this in the interest of creating an intellectual dialogue. That said, I really appreciate you helping the community and everything you say is pretty much on point, but I'm going to provide my perspective from what I've learned by speaking with tuners on this platform and the 8th gen platform.

You'll note that I bolded the first part. That's because that point is 100% accurate and true. However, the part about simple bolt ons not changing a/f ratio is wildly untrue. In fact, I have trents datalogs to prove it. All he did was add an intake and a downpipe (WITH A CAT) and the af ratios are all over the place. Now, sure, his ecu would eventually learn to correct it, but how long would that take, and even then, it'd try to correct it to factory ecu trims, which aren't necessarily oriented for power. So can you safely run bolt-ons with a stock ecu, def. But will that net the most power, not really when the motor isn't optimized for power.

 

The tune isn't required but it's extremely beneficial.. Coming from someone that had the intake with and without...

 

love it awesome please let us know ASAP on price

 

I'll echo the fact that basic bolt on's will not change air/fuel ratios.
thus; being safe to run without a tune.
a tune will optimize those parts, tho.

 

I read this thread and was surprised to see the post about the car running lean. I plugged in my ELM327 attached to torque and watched the A/F ratio in open loop.. (above 80kpa). Engine was in the 11.5/1 range, running very rich.

Did he say lean but meant rich?

 

^ I doubt that was the case. I would hope someone involved with designing intakes knows the difference between rich and lean?!?!

Are you saying you 2.4 ILX with an SI Injen intake is running rich? That I believe is what the gentleman from Injen advised the OP? Correct me if I'm mistaken?

 

Welcome to AZ SlipAngle! Carry on...

 

Oh yeah! Welcome to AZ

 

Did you run torque with an intake? Regardless, the car, like you suggest, does run rich from the factory. This was discussed in length on the civic forums. I think it was typo on the ops part.

 

Ya, sorry..my ILX is stock. The lean comment just struck me as odd because of what I saw from the OBD readings.

 

Looks like you'll have to disassemble or scratch your hands to hell to change the air filter.

Also I thought the ILX intake was a CAI?

 

Yea, I think you can just remove the fender liner and access it that way. I know that's how it was on my AEM intake on the ILX.

I will say, as an aside, the AEM intake leverages a more simple design that doesn't send the air through a roller coaster of tubing. I'd venture to guess it provides better throttle response and MAF readings...which were inherent problems with this intake for the Civic Si.

 

I wonder when they are gonna sell it! I havent founf it on any sites yet?

 

I just sent an email to find out. I'll let you know what I hear!