ok before you all get all mad at me for starting a post about K&N problems, please know that i searched and all i got out of it was "K&N has idling issues"

what does this mean. does it idle a little rough... no bog deal. does it try to die. does it die?

I wouldent mind hearing from someone who accually has one because never once did i see someone post that accually has one, it was all "well i HEAR they have problems"

anways, Thanks for all your input, interested in getting one.

P.S. on a side note its a little suprising to see a big company like K&N produce a product the has problems. you would think they would be better then that.

 

K&N Sells paper and rubber. They sell filters by size. If one happens to fit, or otherwise takes little change to fit, they stick a 'RX8' sticker on it, and try to make a buck.

 

There are a lot of threads with technical information on why the K&N doesn't work very well ... but here's my personal observation.

I had the K&N typhoon intake a while back, and I experienced the rough idling which people are complaining about among other things. Normally, my rx8 idles between 750-850 when completely warmed up, but with the K&N, it would go through fluctuations spiking up to 1100 and dipping down to about 400 rpm. This fluctuation happened sporadically, although it actually seemed worse the hotter the engine got. Whenever it would drop down to the low point, the car would shudder horribly and sound/feel like the engine was going to cut.

With the stock intake, if one shifts into neutral while crusing at higher speeds, you'll notice that the rpms drop down to its lowest point and stays there; another issue - which I'm sure is connected with the erratic idling issue - is that when I would shift into neutral while going any faster than 20 - 30 mph, the rpm meter would literally bounce up and down between 0 - 2000 rpm.

The final problem is that my rx8 actually felt slower at lower rpms with the K&N as compared to stock. I don't have any technical data to back up this claim, but I generally believe what my butt dyno is telling me. A hypothesis I have - on top of the technical negatives which exist with the K&N's design - is that the unbearably loud noise the intake generated at full throttle was actually discouraging me from driving enthusiastically. I like my cars sounding deep and throaty (no pun intended ), but the defeaning noise the intake made was just over the top.

All in all, the K&N is completely unworth it - at least for me - although I'd like to point out there are people on this forum who have no issues with their K&N. To be on the safe side though, I'd suggest waiting for the Racing Beat Intake, or get the Rotary Extreme intake if you can't wait. Personally, I think getting a good exhaust is the better (and safer) mod if you're looking for a more aggresive sound. Power-wise, the general consensus on this forum seems to be that neither aftermarket intakes nor exhausts will give you much hp gains.

 

it's hard to beat the stock intake. I thought the VFAD was stupid, and removed it from my car. More air is better, right? Well Mazda intentionally lowered air at lower rpms, and without vfad, you lose some low end torque. The car felt much better with it on.

With the K&N, you will lose power, and may have idling issues. It just depends if you want to make more noise by sacrificing a few hp.

 

I think people need to specify which K&N they had, drop-in or Typhoon. Big difference between changing the intake vs. putting a new filter in the stock box. I have had the drop-in for six months and have none of the issues stated above. The idle is steady at around 850 and doesn't fluctuate after the car is warmed up.

 

the drop in isn't going to cause any issues, unless it's over oiled and that gets on the sensors. I prefer the green filter drop in though. Issues are caused by the typhoon k&n filter.

 

thanks for your comments, this is the first time i have seen an accual user talk about the problems. this helps alot.

I to love the deep throty sound of a intake compared to an exaust, but if i MIGHT have this many problems, i might just say screw it.

I am also looking into the SR intake, but they are just so expensive. i like the price tag on the K&N. but it does not seem worth the trouble. i also wish the SR was a wee bit louder, from what i hear they are quiet. dont get me wrong i dont need ear peircing loud intake, but somehting with a meaner sound would be nice.

can anyone offer the "best intake" considering price, noise, HP, and looks. basically best overall intake, not just the one with the most H.P and the higest cost.

so far i know of

K&N - $200 - many people have problems
SR - $470-$500 - not very loud, but no problems.
AEM - under $350 - still in production, about to be released.
Racing Beat - Price unknown - still in production
Rotary Extreme - $260 - no comments
HKS - unknown price - no comments - i just know it exist.

thanks again for all help.

 

There is no intake on the market that is going to do anything other than lighten your wallet. the same goes on exhaust.

If you get a turbo, the aftermarket exhaust may help you, but unless I'm mistaken, your turbo kit would also likely come with it's own intake... so I don't see much point in the aftermarket intakes.

 

i'd just go w/ a drop in filter

 

mabe this will help.

I HATE STOCK.

eveyone has a stock intake on there RX-8. i am looking into getting something that not only looks good when you pop the hood, but also sounds decent, and did not cost a million bocks. some H.P. gains would be nice to, but i dont expect much out of a little intake system.

(I dont exactly expect my street RX-8 to keep up with my second gen drag car)

does this help?

 

for the price, it would be a good consideration....... but thats to boring for my taste

 

speeddemon you obviouslyhavent searched enough b/c many people also havethe rotary extreme intake and thereare plenty of comments about that intake along w/this one.

I had the K&N Typhoon Intakeon my car and it seriously killed my performance. I donthave a manual Rx8 so thisthing really diminished the horsepower of my car since my automatic Rx8 cannot go intothe 7500 - 9000 RPM range (whichis the key area where the intake is supposedto start making gains). The K&N intake was so poorly designed that it sucks in the hot air around the engine bay sinceits completely unrestricted and ignores the Rx8s cold air passage. On thecontrary thestock intake feeds exclusively from the cold air passage. The waythis intake was put togtether I dont see how itcould have helped any Rx8 at all.

The only thing the K&N is good for is waking up the neighborhood and setting off car alarms.

 

THERE ARE A COUPLE OF PEOPLE AROUND WHO HAVE MODIFIED THE STOCK INTAKE BOX. the one im thinking of cut the top of the box open and put in a cone filter. then they replaced the top of the airbox with a piece of clear lexan or something like that. it looked really nice,was different enought to not look stock but had none of the problems associated with the Typhoon.

 

your right, i never said i searched for rotary extreme intakes, i said i searched for K&N, and all i got was a bunch of people saying "i have HEARD" of problems..... this is the first post ware people have said "I have HAD problems" and stated what those problems are.

i have a friend that just gont the SR intake and is very happy with it, and i would love to go with that one, looks good, no problems, but she said its quiete. as seen above i said i wouldent mind going with somehting that made at least a little bit of noise. and i dont like the $500 price tag, thats a lot of money for some tubing, and a filter.

and thanks to everyone for you comments about the K&N, this has defanitly helped, i no longer will consider the K&N. now i just need to find the one that suits my needs.

 

speeddemon32, the point I was trying to make is that the stock air intake is about as good as it gets. It's already a cold air intake, but more than that, it's a VFAD - Variable fresh air duct. It actually can regulate air, more or less, depending on what the car needs. Most any air intake replacement is going to be dumb, just letting in air. If you want to see what a lot more air is like, open up your hood, take off your front bumper, and remove the VFAD so that it's open all the time, and gets air in directly. Your car intake will be a little louder, but the car will suffer from it.

I thought VFAD was dumb, why not always give it more air? So I removed it and saw first hand the performance loss. Perhaps you need to do the same in order to figure out what many of us have already seen

 

You passed that statement off like it was a fact - I was just correctingyou - not asking whether you had performed a search on rotary extreme intake or not.

 

thank you for that. i compleatly understand your point. i do not disagree one bit. i do know that many new cars come with some accuall technolagy built in to the intakes. like an EVO VIII stock air box is good untill something like 400 H.P.

but as stated before i am interested in an intake for the "blig" and the noise. (not ear peircing, but throty would be nice) i am not SO worried about gaining or losing 2 H.P. (dont get me wrong i dont want to lose all my power) i have a 2nd gen RX-7 drag car, if i want to go fast i will hop in that. but to me, stock is boring.

With that said, i dont want any problems either. just want something that looks good, sounds good, isn't a million bucks., and doesnt have any problems.

for some reason this is harder then it looks. you would think someone would be able to meet these requirements. like if SR lowered there prices it would be great!

 

i understand, sorry didnt mean to come off like an ***. was just stating that i only searched for K&N at first

 

ohhh yeah, one more comment, i do like the rotary extreme price!!! but the i dont care much about the filter being inside the engine bay. not that its a bad bad thing considering it is sealed off, but i do like how the SR goes ouside the engine bay better.

I think i have pretty muched narowed it down to the $260 Rotary extreme, or the $500 SR intake.

i dont know, we will see. :D

 

I have had the K&N since Sept of last year ('04). I have the heat shield and the larger filter which is also made of Carbon Fiber (the shell not the element).

I have had NO PROBLEMS at all with this thing. My car has no idle problems and actually is a little faster at the track with the intake on. I have lost no low end power and at high revvs it seems to really get some extra juice.

I need to mention here that I also have a Borla cat back system. I don't understand why there are so many people that take this system off. It is awesome. At highway speeds it is almost not noticeable until you downshift next to an innocent bystander driving with their windows down and it scares the crap out of them because it's so freaking loud. At high revvs (over 5,500 rpm) it started to really snarl at you. On the low side you can definitely hear a change in pitch at 3,750 rpm when the intake ports open up and again at 5,200 rpm.

Again I have had 0 problems to date. I drove from Kansas City to the West Leg of the Super Street tour in Jackson Mississippi over to NOPI Nationals in Atlanta in the summer heat with no issues in drivability what so ever.

BTW my car is in Super Street this month on pg 119. It's a little pic but hey now I can tell everyone "I was in Super Street"

 

Couldn't have said it better. I did this for show points. Not to break speed records.

 

The only thing I can recommend is getting an aftermarket exhaust. It will give you a better note, it will be visable to everyone, not just those who can see under the hood, and it will save you a few pounds weight.

I paid $550 for my Borla: http://tyrannical.org/rx8/borla_6k.wmv

 

thanks showoff..... now you jusr ruined my idea of "no K&N" :D

Jason, i will be considering an exhaust later, but here in cali the law states that no ehaust can be replaced to modify noise. i know a lot of people say "well a cat back is legal" when in fact it is not unless it has a C.A.R.B. number. so for now i would like to stay away from cop magnets. (although my car is yellow) and i did say for now.

but thatnks for the sound bit. sounds great!

 

if you want more noise but dont want to spend a lot of money AND you want the intake to look better than stock but keep the stock functionality - i suggest trying this out. it will be louder but not ear drum breakingly loud and looks good too-

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-aftermarket-performance-modifications-23/custom-built-stock-intake-pics-42631/

 

that sure does look good for a DIY. keeps the "clean" look under the hood. not exactly what i want, but very nice indeed!