Hello,
Is a CAI a worthwile mod? I am not interested in cutting the body of the car so the AEM is out of the question. Are the comptech or the Spoon snorkle worth the money or are the gains pretty much nothing. How about just a K&N drop in filter?


Thanks,

Jerry

 

You don't really cut into the car with the AEM. I have the 4IG (AEM clone). You just slice out a bit of the black plastic, not really part of the car. I feel it helps the car breath better. I get less bogging in the Florida summer heat with the CAI. It makes a nice sound also, looks pretty cool. I'm not sure it's been proven, at least to me, that you really get any gain. It feels like I got more torque, but that my just be in my head because I hear the CAI. You need to worry about hydrolock if you get specific CAIs also.

 

A CAI is meant to bring in "cold" air. A drop in filter like the K&N won't improve the hot air situation any.
The snorkle type will require you to either remove the slanted air guide (not recommended as it disrupts the reason why it's there) or to cut the guide.
The Comptech is probably your best bet for not having to cut anything on the car but is the more expensive of the options.
You must differentiate between a cold air intake and a performance intake. The AEM type has been proven on the dyno to get some measurable gains, thus it is both a CAI and a performance intake. The Comptech is a CAI intake but I don't have any info on whether or not it is a performance intake too.
The snorkel type makes your stock intake a cold air intake but will not give you any gains. What it does it to help your engine keep what power it has rather than losing it to heat.
The main advantage of a drop in is its re-usability.

 

Yeah AEM is probably the best all around intake for your car. It's pretty cheap, and the material AEM uses is non metallic so it will stay cooler longer than injen, and would also stay cooler than the comtech or spoon set up. It also sounds really awesome once you hit v-tec. The install is very basic, as long as your willing to just dig in their and take off some nuts and bolts. The cutting is about 6 square inches off you splash guard. So no body work is needed. Overall a very safe upgrade that won't do any damage to your car.

 

You forgot to mention BIG disadvantages of AEM or similar systems..

You CANT park your car in PURING rain due to hydrolock problems.

That was BIG BIG minus for me and that's why I went with Comptech

 

that's true, but I live in so cal. and it doesn't rain much that's why I went with AEM

 

but it's not just if you park in the rain, you have to drive through a huge puddle, and even if you do your car won't suck up rain all the way up the piping unless you're flooring it through the puddle, and if you get the aem bypass valve then you have nothing to worry about

 

COMPTECH

 

AEM bypass loses 2-3hp.

 

Please allow me to make a comment. I read many posts on this board on this subject, about the pros and cons of all the methods to bring more and cooler air to the s2k air filter and intake. I had already determined that there was a problem with this car in this area, as in our very hot Oklahoma summers, there was a definite "bog down" in low end torque.

After considering all the pros and cons, I then looked at how other cars were designed in this area. I looked at everything from my Ford truck, to a Cadillac, to a Mercedes, to a 350Z, and vehicles too numerous to mention. I found that ALL OF THESE had direct ducting from the air filter box to some point in the grill in front of the car. Some were above the radiator (350Z) and some were below it (Cadillac and Ford) and some were beside it (Mercedes). But none were trying to induct air from a relatively sealed-in engine compartment from a point right above the radiator, like the s2k. I reasoned that we were dealing with a design defect in the s2k, which merely needed to be corrected by providing ducting from the stock air box to the front grill in front of the radiator.

To do this merely required insulating the radiator top in front of the stock intake (via Xviper's radmat), shimming out the plastic divider between grill top and radiator brace about 2", and constructing a "snorkel" from the stock intake horn to the opening created by the shimming. The snorkel was made to be flexible due to the problems with measuring hood clearance, using a sheet metal strip frame covered with double foil covered insulating material (Home Depot) and secured with black insulating tape.

As extra measures, I followed Xviper's recommendation of wrapping the stock tube from filter to TB with this insulation material, and removing the baffle in the stock air box. I also ran a 3" pipe from the passenger side of the airbox to the fender well hole in that side of the engine bay so cooler air could be drawn from that area. I installed a light plastic "flapper valve" on the airbox side of that pipe to close it off when the snorkel to the front grill produced a "ram air."

The whole process took about 2 hours and $35. I tried it out and "butt dyno" said it worked. Then I took the car to my dealer for a look by the service manager, who said there was no warranty violation, and who actually said the device looked well thought out! And, it produced about an additional 1.5 mpg in fuel economy.

I make no guarantee that modifications like this will please you, but they pleased me. If you are using your car for racing, and it rarely sees sub-6 K RPM revs, this may be all wrong. But if you, like me, use your car for ordinary driving, they may bear consideration.

Thanks,
Richard