Thanks P-Rock....looking forward to your finds, including any changes in pwr feel and sound.

Kevin

 

Which would be better? The Typhoon or RotaryExtreme's Cold Air Intake?

 

IMHO, the Rotary Extreme is better because it has great heat shielding. Yes, the K&N has a larger filter element, but it's overkill. If an engine flows (for example) at 300 CFM and you only need a filter that can flow 300 CFM. You use a filter that flows 2000 CFM is not going to give you more power. The filter that comes with the RE unit is capable of flowing far more air than the intake can pull... and the proof of that is that it's been used on RX-7s that produce 800-900 WHP.

Another thing: if you look at the K&N setup closely, you will see that the top of the filter blocks the fresh air duct. This mean that it pulls ALL of it's air from the (hot!) engine compartment. Also due to it's large size, if you were add a back heat shield, the filter pretty much occupies the whole compartment and there is really no room for air flow. I'm not even sure there is room to add a back shield.

Just my 2 cents.

 

There are also ways to reroute the air to allow better flow, but it is all in how you use it. I am going to press a heat sheld and bend another pipe to relocate the filter head in to the front grill like rotary extreme did the first time. You can buy some thing good and with a few small steps you can make it great, but becareful you can allso make in the worst thing on earth.........

 

I have done dyno testing between cold air intakes and open intakes that take in engine air. There is almost no HP difference between the two. As long as an intake is less restrictive than the stock intake you are going to pickup more HP either way. The gains from a cold air intake are not going to be noticable while driving on the street.
Testing I have done is on an RX-7 not the 8.

Jason

 

Dyno testing isn't really going to accurately portray the effects of getting cold air at speed, though. Fans don't cut it.

jds

 

Jason:

You forgot that rx7 has the intercooler to cool down the charged air. As long as the intercooler is big enough, cold air intake will not be as important but rx8 doesn't have an intercooler.


Chuck Huang

 

have done dyno testing between cold air intakes and open intakes that take in engine air.

As already mentioned...the dyno doesn't cut it for portraying differences between a traditional short ram and CAI setup.

The best way to accurately get information on the differences would be sensor readings at speed from the PCM/ECU.

The Mazda6i and 6s both currently have intakes available from K&N, Injen, and AEM in both short ram and CAI configurations.

Of the companies providing these intakes, Injen's 6i CAI actually is a combination Short Ram/CAI and can be reverted back and forth between the two.

Members who have swapped to the short rams have noticed a definite decrease in power after a good 5-10 minutes of driving.

When sitting idle, the CAI and Shortram's show similar intake temperatures. The CAI's a bit less (around 95F vs 110 F+) for the short ram, but not significantly so.

However once moving, the CAI temps drop to basically ambient, while the Short Ram maintains its heat level, or rises.

Here's some CAN Bus captured information.

http://gcubed.sytes.net/gcubed/captureinfo.pdf

Note the first set of information is at idle, with the CAI at 98F.

The second set, while the car is moving, has the intake temp at 45F...a massive difference.

With the General rule of thumb being 10F = 1% Extra HP...

You can imagine the effect of 45+ F difference between the two pipes.

Here's a url with more information.

http://www.musclecarclub.com/library/tech/intake.shtml

 

Typically when you dyno you have the hood open and a large fan directing air to the engine. I have put a fan right on the intake. Its going to get more air than forcing air thru a small hole in the bumper. My experience is with the RX-7 so it may vary with the 8, but even it there is a 5 HP difference its not something you are going to feel on the street.

Jason

 

Just installed the K&N on our car -- just letting everyone know. No data on power and do not want to get into the hot air versus cold, etc. etc. discussion at this time.

It is REALLY LOUD - drowns out the exhaust completely! But sounds soooo cool!!

 

Do they offer a Big Asian discount?

 

Zerohour,

Can you give us any details on what they are doing differently with their CAI?

 

I have no info. on what the ram air intake will be. Hopfully some one else will

 

Alright, there has been a lof of talk on hear about this intake, whether or not it really can produced the HP increase that K&N states, well I intalled one on my 8 about 3 weeks ago and I could tell the difference right away. But I was able to pull this off the K&N site so you don't have to take my word for it...