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This is just a speculation or a review. I understand that the CAI IS a CAI, not an SRI but since the filter could be placed at the upper portion of the engine bay like an SRI, I thought I might as well see how it would perform, hoping to get something good out of it but nothing surprising.

I have a 2-piece AEM Cold Air Intake on my car. The first 1/2 that connects to the throttle body which pretty much looks like a short ram intake without the second piping that leads down into the bumper. I cleaned the air filter (as it was almost time to do it anyway) and strapped in on the first half of the pipe. I just wanted to see what difference the performance would be.

I took a loooooong drive up 101 north miles and miles passed Santa Rosa and was out from 9pm-11:45pm. I literally went so far that I didn't even know where I was. At any rate, the pros to this new change were:

1) Throttle response. For some reason, the gas pedal feels very responsive and this made freeway passing in 5th gear more comforting instead of intimidating. Because of this, I couldn't tell whether there were any changes in power and if I took a guess, I would say no.

2) The car is a LOT quieter... almost as quiet as stock. In low RPMs, it's so quiet all I picked up was wind & road noise. In high RPMs, I can't even tell when the VTEC kicks in as I actually could before, even with a lil throttle manipulation. Right here, it's is slightly louder than stock. I found this as a pro and a con. It's a pro because the intake doesn't attract so much attention even in a downshift. To say the least, driving long distances is a lot more pleasant. I'm also quite sure that the car even idles quieter.

The cons happened to be:

1) Power loss. Before, accelerating (by flooring it) in 1st gear to 2nd gear offered me some mid-high range power. Noticably a lot of it went out the door. There was no change in the low-end so overall performance-wise, the car was slower. If this is equivalent to a real SRI, it surely only eats up torque throughout the entire powerband! All in all, the stock intake outperforms the AEM CAI as a whole or a 1/2.

2) With the engine being quieter, pushing the engine to it's redline is surprisingly unpleasant. From 6,000 RPMs to 7,000 RPMs in 3rd gear, you can feel the engine vibrations right under your foot, so the engine doesn't rev so smoothly. It kind of gave off the hint that revving this high could be bad on the engine. Before, this was never an issue and I can't say for sure it felt like that when the intake was stock because it's probably been a year now that I have the CAI on. Yet the CAI with both pipes on feels a LOT smoother. On top of that, the engine overall sounds horrible when I DO want to drive hard. I'm not mentally content if the engine isn't loud when I floor it as I thought the car began to sound nice after 4,300 RPMs. It just didn't feel like it wanted to go faster.

Overall, the CAI was better when the air filter was near the bumper with both pipes attached. Performance-wise, stock ownz the powerband, but the AEM CAI can win over your senses. I hope this doesn't lead people to believe that louder = faster. Because if that was the case, the stock intake wouldn't be as good as the CAI usually gets credit for. The CAI can't possibly perform at it's best without a new intake manifold as the stock manifold accomidates the stock intake more than anything.

 
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Good Post

 
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its all in your head, you need to dyno to see actual results my friend.... a CAI is not going to increase throttle response enough that you could tell

 
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i'm confused??? what just happened

 
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Thank you. At least someone knows how to read.

And as for the throttle response thing, if anything, the CAI decreased throttle response on the freeway until I took 1/2 of it off which in any case PROBABLY acted as if it was stock.

EDIT: There's a difference between throttle response & power. Power is felt by how well the car moves. The throttle is just something you feel under your foot. As you should know a dyno measures power... not throttle response.