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With a cooling plate you can divert even more cool air directly to the FIPK and help with heat soak in the summer. Just be sure to cut a small area out of your stock plastic radiator cover housing so air is channeled through it. Otherwise the cooling plate is basically all for looks.
And this filter wrap will help keep it cleaner longer, prolonging required maintenance. It also makes it look better IMO.
I was under the impression that the FIPK airbox sealed at the top against the hood and kept the engine heat out of it. Regardless I don't recall any hesitation in the summer but will pay more attention later this year.
You have to ask if the reduced filtering capacity, allowing more dirt past, and whatever resulting increased wear comes with it, is worth the looks and sound and possible slight increase in power.
I was under the impression that the FIPK airbox sealed at the top against the hood and kept the engine heat out of it. Regardless I don't recall any hesitation in the summer but will pay more attention later this year.
-- Chuck
It mostly does and I can see the marks under my hood where the airbox touches it. But there is a gap on the side near the headlamp. It's just when there's no air flowing through the engine bay/intake, the piping and airbox will heat up which in turn will heat up the air going in. I have a bluetooth flashpro and monitor my intake temps while driving all the time. They'll fluctuate up and down between driving and stopping. I've reduced the speed/amount the temps increase by heatwrapping my FIPK airbox and intake arm. Anyone who believes the stock airbox doesn't heatsoak is delusional, it just doesn't heat up as fast. There's a thread where someone tested the stock airbox vs the FIPK's temps thoroughly.
You have to ask if the reduced filtering capacity, allowing more dirt past, and whatever resulting increased wear comes with it, is worth the looks and sound and possible slight increase in power.
Personally, my answer to this question is no. The stock air box is trouble free. I have never experienced any problems with it. As far as the sound goes - while I do like the induction noise, I prefer to keep a low profile driving around on the streets. I'm not trying to draw attention to myself.
It mostly does and I can see the marks under my hood where the airbox touches it. But there is a gap on the side near the headlamp. It's just when there's no air flowing through the engine bay/intake, the piping and airbox will heat up which in turn will heat up the air going in. I have a bluetooth flashpro and monitor my intake temps while driving all the time. They'll fluctuate up and down between driving and stopping. I've reduced the speed/amount the temps increase by heatwrapping my FIPK airbox and intake arm. Anyone who believes the stock airbox doesn't heatsoak is delusional, it just doesn't heat up as fast. There's a thread where someone tested the stock airbox vs the FIPK's temps thoroughly.
Originally Posted by Chuck S
I was under the impression that the FIPK airbox sealed at the top against the hood and kept the engine heat out of it. Regardless I don't recall any hesitation in the summer but will pay more attention later this year.
-- Chuck
There are several gaps. There's large gap where the intake tube feeds through the heat shield. It does nothing really. Mine didn't seal up against the hood either...
At speed it's not an issue but if you live in the city where you may be doing stop and go, sitting at a light etc you will experience some heat soak and bogging down. It's not terrible but it's there...
I personally have never been a fan of kn filters as there have been many tests showing how poorly they filter.
for those who do not like kn but have the FIPK intake, a better option for this intake is to replace the kn filter with an AEM dry flow part number # 21-2057DK it is a direct replacement to fit over the rubber vstack the filter bolts on to. much better filtration compared to the dirt sucker kn filter and still has huge amounts of flow, cleaning is a cinch an no oiling.
I did a rolling pull with my friend before. Stock vs Stock+FIPK, we were neck and neck until vtec kicked in, at that point FIPK car started pulling. I like it and believe that it works. I also datalogged the two systems, the K&N does heat up quickly, but, as Darcy mentions, it also cools down faster as well.
There are several well documented videos that show "performance" air filters can produce more power. K&N is careful to not make specific claims but the myriad dyno tests all seem to show a small increase over stock. The tests run below are all on the same car and do show a performance gain. The only variable is the air filter and the K&N produced the most power and acceleration.
My engine oil analysis shows 6ppm silicon (universal average is 9ppm) over about 10,000 miles (two oil and filter changes) with the FIPK on the car all those miles. Not sure if the air filter has any effect on this as we know the Honda oil filter is very good.
At $326 MSRP and a generous guess of a 6 bhp gain that's $54/pony. The induction sounds faster, though, so is worth it to me.
You have to ask if the reduced filtering capacity, allowing more dirt past, and whatever resulting increased wear comes with it, is worth the looks and sound and possible slight increase in power.
Do you have a link that I can read showing the k&n filters worse than stock? I am not attempting to discredit your comment just like to see the test. I am personally pro K&N myself but I have not done any testing to prove benefits outweigh the risk. Any part that is not OEM that goes on a car changes the way it was designed. But as a mechanical engineer myself who specializes in product development I see on a daily basis the balance of performance vs. cost. Honda engineers balanced this to make the car profitable giving us tinkering folk room for improvement as long as we are willing to spend some coin.
