I run my car on the track with the AUT cooling plate- 3 events so far, albeit in the cooler months. No problems thus far. I do have a vented hood(Veilside). With the exception of the K&N filter, the stock intake is completely stock.

 

So your intake isn't shielded at all from engine bay heat, but you have the cooling plate?

 

I know nothing of air pressure variants due to "through the radiator" air. But I do know this. The purpose of an AUT rad plate and CAI is to allow cool air from in front of the radiator to enter the air box. If you leave your stock rad plate on, you'll block about 95% of this desirable cool air -- and will have wasted your money of the AUT. If you want to keep the OEM rad plate, you really need to be looking at different kinds of CAIs, as the AUT will be worthless with the OEM rad plate in place.

 

Still would be interesting to see before and after dyno results of the AUT vs a duct vs K&N gutted airbox

 

Uh... how(and why) do you propose that? Not all products show their worth on a dyno.

 

I'm only talking about the HP TQ benefits to show if there are actual gains power wise. Honda did design a pretty good air system and from my CAI experiances and several years of reading posts on the boards, intakes for the s2k barely increase power, stay the same or in many cases do even worse then stock.

Aftermarket is mainly for bling and sound not for power on the s2k. Just my opinion.

 

[QUOTE=SilverKnight,May 13 2007, 08:56 PM] I'm only talking about the HP TQ benefits to show if there are actual gains power wise. Honda did design a pretty good air system and from my CAI experiances and several years of reading posts on the boards, intakes for the s2k barely increase power, stay the same or in many cases do even worse then stock.

Aftermarket is mainly for bling and sound not for power on the s2k. Just my opinion.

 

Some dyno shops do have really large fans which would help with the ram effect.

 

To put a slightly different perspective on this...

Try standing behind the exhaust of a S2000 at 9,000 rpm. The huge volume of air that you feel coming out of the exhaust is being actively SUCKED through the intake. Blowing a little more air into the intake is not going to make much difference.

The stock diverter plate does a good job of grabbing relatively cool air in front of the radiator and directing it at what is essentially a very powerful vacuum cleaner. Sure, a little air migh be grabbed from the engine compartment at idle, but at speed most of the air is coming in at ambient temperatures.

The stock system also forces air through the radiator, which is crucial to making the radiator work efficiently. Air takes the path of least resistance, if you allow it to spill around the radiator you won't get as much cooling effect and your engine will run a little hotter, reducing power and efficiency. The snorkels that go in front of the radiator also block cool air from hitting that portion of the radiator, which also decreases the engine's cooling efficiency. You'll never see the difference with the simplistic 3 bar gauge, but you would be able to measure it with a digital temp gauge in a controlled test.

And, the stock intake does a good job of providing debri-free and water-free air to the stock intake, which is not the case with many of the aftermarket intakes. It isn't worth it for Honda to use a low restriction air filter to gain a little throttle response... at the expense of letting dust into the engine if it isn't properly maintained.

Honda did a good job with the stock intake. Improving on it is not easy. Mugen and Spoon have the right idea with adding a hole in the upper area of the bumper that grabs completely fresh air and dumps it with a fairly straight path into the intake. The Comptech method isn't too bad as well, grabbing it from the wheelwell area.

 

it seems like cutting a right sized hole in the stock rad plate is gettin best of both worlds. the aut plate will "work" and your radiator will get sufficient airflow.

can anyone point out a con to this method?