A interesting discussion and Russ a very impressive write-up, btw would you mind sharing your average TS before and after this intake? I mean, if you recorded it?

Also would you guys feel that the airflow could be improved by something like this from Coastal Metals?

 

I put mine on tonight. Here's my experience:

1) Holy crap the airbox was easy to remove. I suppose Honda wanted it to be removed...

2) The instructions with the PRM intake are weak (hand scribbled, photocopied). Actually they're not instructions, it's just a sketch with arrows and writing. Make sure to squish an old shirt into the intake tube and pull it out the other end. The sucker was DIRTY inside.

3) The pic at the top (installed) shows a blue F1 Silicone tube going from just in front of the dipstick to the intake tube. Notice, though, that the pic of the product (not installed) has the hole on the intake tube closer to the bend. The latter was shipped to me. It's a bitch to install like this.

Do yourself a favor. BEFORE installing it, go to the auto parts store and pick up a 1/2" ID rubber heater tube (1' is sufficient). You can go ahead and try to connect the PRM tube the way the directions say to, but it's a bitch and it puts the unit inbetween the engine and the intake at an awful angle. Additionally it puts stress on a coolant line that can't handle the extra tension (guess how I found out there was coolant inside it?).

What I did instead was connect the store bought heater tube like the one in the install pic above. MUCH easier and it's easier to return to stock.

Additionally, there's a gidget that was connected to the airbox. that I had to ziptie onto another hose and there's other hoses that need to now be zip tied away from the spinning belts. Make sure you don't leave any of the hoses just hanging there. They will get sucked into the belts.

Now for the drive. At idle and at normal driving speeds it sounds like stock. But once you get on it it sounds MEAN. . . . almost exactly like the S2000s sound when you remove the top of the airbox, just louder. I mean really fookin' loud--especially when VTec hits, but it doesn't sound farty like the AEM. Definitely has an intimidating growl. (Sounds like a what I'd imagine a big bore S2000 sounds like.)

As for power, I can't say I noticed any extra ponies around redline, but my butt-o-meter says that there's more punch in the midrange. 5K definitely hits harder.

 

If you take your finger and wave it across a candle flame, you won't get the same "heat soak" as when your hand simply hovers over it. This same principal applies to the air that travels thru the aluminum pipe. I wrapped my aluminum pipe with thermo-tec wrapping and ran off a series of accelerometer runs and there was no decrease in performance times whatsoever. My .02, it wasn't worth the asthetic loss for something my accelerometer couldn't detect as being there. I did wrap the filter housing though...that DID make a difference. I think in some cases, wrapping a LONG pipe might be worthwhile, but the PRM pipe is very short and whatever air is moving thru there, isn't staying around long enough to be heated above entry temps. I just didn't see any change when I tried it and I ran off seven runs...all very consistent with the pre-wrap timed averages.

 

@Russ or Nobody

There are some tubes and a sensor that are kept in place on the stock filter box, is there a way to attach these with the PRM intake ??

 

russ
could you email the address of the site you bought the intake from?

oshp515@aol.com

 

bArt2:
The tubes and the sensor that are kept in place on the stock filter box have to be zip tied to other locations so they don't get sucked into the belts. (There's multiple points to tie 'em to and the PRM intake kit comes with a hose to lengthen the sensor - hose).

And Russ--you're right about that pipe. I would've thought that the filter housing would be able to withstand temps better than the alum. pipe, but the aluminum pipe just doesn't seem to get that hot.

Also, the assembly can be made shorter or longer. Have you found any differences with lengthening/shortening it?

 

For those of you with the PRM CAI I just did a modification that you may be interesting in doing. First I took a fan and placed it in front of the fake brake
duct (it is cut out). I don't know exactly how fast the air was moving but I assume around 25-30 mph. I put my hand by the opening in the engine compartment and felt very little air movement. It seems much of the cool air
is not reaching the horn intake. I bought two feet of aluminum ducting used to
vent dryers. I poked two holes in the end and fitted these over the screws that hold the grill brackets in place. I used duct tape to seal off that end and snaked the other end up to the hole in the engine compartment. It is a tight fit so go slowly and I tied off that end with a tie. I painted the inside of the lower portion of the aluminum tubing black and reinstalled the cover and the tubing is not noticable from the outside. You need to remove the front portion of the wheel well to do this project. When I tried the fan again, the air was flowing out freely
out of the hole and right to the cai horn.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JPit
[B]For those of you with the PRM CAI I just did a modification that you may be interesting in doing.

 

I only used the house fan to determine if any air was getting through to the CAI. I didn't permanently attach it. Basically, all this modification is doing is directing the air coming through the front duct right up to the intake.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JPit
[B]I only used the house fan to determine if any air was getting through to the CAI.