My CAI vs RAI experiance Options

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

I've had a few different systems or air intakes on my car throughout the years. And I just thought I would give a little write up on my experiance. Everyone seems to think that the CAI is the best. I thought this too. I've had a CAI on my car for quite awhile, and decided to go to RAI just to be doing. When I switched, I noticed a nice gain on the bottem. I'm not sure if I would get the same numbers up top as I would with a CAI, but the RAI showed good response. I didn't think that shortening the pipe would really help this out, but it really does. The pipe length is about 1/2 what it was with the CAI. I'm going to try and cut it and put the filter as close to the throttle body as possable to see how it responds. With all the air moving through the motor at speed, who is to say the RAI style wouldn't pick up some fresher air, or at least not as hot of air as it would if it was ran at a stand still.

This post has been edited by Bigmeanbulldog55: Oct 1, 2006 - 5:10 PM

[hitcachi]

And I just thought I would give a little right up on my experiance.

write

And what kind of short ram did you switch too?

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

And I just thought I would give a little right up on my experiance.

write

And what kind of short ram did you switch too?

It's custom. It's almost always a custom deal with me, I hate buying stuff that actually fits. It was a CAI made from a 90-93 accord CAI that had 2.75inch piping. Now it's just about 1/2 the length. It sets in the same place that an Injen intake sets. I had it there once and a scoop set up from the opening in the left front of the bumper to shoot cold air to it. With the filter boxed in under the hood, that gave me a pretty nice little set up. The pipe was 3inch at that time. That old pipe went to moms CRV. She's got a nice little intake on it now, and loves it. She's an old racer, I can't believe she has that POS CRV though. Way to heavy of a car for that motor. My intake will stay this way until I put my new set up on . It will be better than all others.

[hitcachi]

I also have the accord CAI. So you just took the second piece that goes down into the fender well and did some cutting? I have been thinking about doing the same thing actually.

[LewFX]

yall wouldve saved yourself allot of time and hassle by listening to my cai vs sri vs stock modified...
cai = (-)long throttle response (+) cold air (+) looks cool
sri = (-) hot air unless you make a intake box (+) injen is carb legal (+) short throttle response
stock modified = (+-) looks stock (+) medium repsonse (+) cold air

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

Stock doesn't give you cold air unless you remove the plastic parts in the fender. Stock really sucks on these cars. I still have the fender open, and cold air is blowing on my intake at speeds. I haven't noticed a cut in power at all, it feels stronger in general, but that could be my imagination.

[LewFX]

yes, of course thats why i said modified.

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

yes, of course thats why i said modified.

I didn't catch that, my bad. It's a irritant of mine the amount of people that think the stock air intake sucks in cold air.

[n1ckz0r]

WELL. I also had a CAI for a while, mine was home made... yes i saw a great deal of gain from this, however not what i was looking for. I decided to try remove my bumper and put a few more pipes under the hood to run it in front of the radiator... WAY more work that i had wanted, so my friend was like, "just break your high beam and run it to where that is"... stupid idea right? well then i thought, this may end up looking pretty decent, and with a few pieces of sheet metal i could make a box keeping hot air out... hmmm.. well anyway, it was a HUGE gain and a lot of fun/tension taking a jigsaw and a sledge hammer to my engine bay... fun times...

[Shocker]

WELL. I also had a CAI for a while, mine was home made... yes i saw a great deal of gain from this, however not what i was looking for. I decided to try remove my bumper and put a few more pipes under the hood to run it in front of the radiator... WAY more work that i had wanted, so my friend was like, "just break your high beam and run it to where that is"... stupid idea right? well then i thought, this may end up looking pretty decent, and with a few pieces of sheet metal i could make a box keeping hot air out... hmmm.. well anyway, it was a HUGE gain and a lot of fun/tension taking a jigsaw and a sledge hammer to my engine bay... fun times...

there was a how to..on that on and old celica forum..im not sure which forum it was but it was on a red celica

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

I've seen it there, but I worry about putting there due to water. If it rained hard, that thing would get louded. Not like it would hurt the motor that much though I guess. I like my high beem. I'll stick with my scoop in the fog light spot, that pushes air strait for it.

[Shocker]

I've seen it there, but I worry about putting there due to water. If it rained hard, that thing would get louded. Not like it would hurt the motor that much though I guess. I like my high beem. I'll stick with my scoop in the fog light spot, that pushes air strait for it.

i have the set up that u have

[n1ckz0r]

well we had this INSANE storm today, and i was wondering, if i did drive, would it have hurt my engine, i mean the filter was wet when i touched it, and I know that water had gotten in the engine, but how much water is needed? like if I drive into the lake or what?!

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

well we had this INSANE storm today, and i was wondering, if i did drive, would it have hurt my engine, i mean the filter was wet when i touched it, and I know that water had gotten in the engine, but how much water is needed? like if I drive into the lake or what?!

I'm thinking you pretty much have to have the intake underwater and only be sucking in water. I've sucked a lot of water through my motor thoughout the years, and it's never hurt it. It doesn't hurt to be careful though. The less water, the better. But motors can generally take a lot of it before having problems. Once they do, it's a pretty big deal though.

[Kwanza26]

intakes sound cool... that's about it on these engines. The difference isn't that significant... least not any more significant than weather and air density.

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

intakes sound cool... that's about it on these engines. The difference isn't that significant... least not any more significant than weather and air density.

With supporting mods, they help. Dang Kwanza, you should change your name to Captin Sunshine. You're always so possitive. Seriously though, you should try my car on the track sometime, it's really fun to drive.

This post has been edited by Bigmeanbulldog55: Oct 2, 2006 - 11:23 PM

[Kwanza26]

With supporting mods, they help. Dang Kwanza, you should change your name to Captin Sunshine. You're always so possitive. Seriously though, you should try my car on the track sometime, it's really fun to drive.

hahaha... you're funny.

Anyway... why would your car be more fun than the cars I drive daily? Hmm... I got an MR2 turbo at the shop right now. I'm just bored with cars in general... and people's somewhat feeble attempts with intakes and stuff just doesn't do it for me...

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

With supporting mods, they help. Dang Kwanza, you should change your name to Captin Sunshine. You're always so possitive. Seriously though, you should try my car on the track sometime, it's really fun to drive.

hahaha... you're funny.

Anyway... why would your car be more fun than the cars I drive daily? Hmm... I got an MR2 turbo at the shop right now. I'm just bored with cars in general... and people's somewhat feeble attempts with intakes and stuff just doesn't do it for me...

That's understandable. I know you've driven a lot of stuff, and a lot of fun cars. I hope your love for cars comes back. You've built some cool stuff. You and your brothers. Don't let those Honda guys win.

[Rayme]

One thing I noticed...though I can't say for sure what was the reason...

I had a 5th gen with a short ram, it was somewhat easy to reach the fuel cut in 3rd gear(I would accidently hit it when passing, sometimes).

In my 6th gen, the engine just seems to work so hard to reach the fuel cut(the poor engine has no more power at 6200rpm) in 3rd gear with stock airbox, it would make sense cause air flow really is important in high rpms. I got an intake coming in and going to post my findings...

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

One thing I noticed...though I can't say for sure what was the reason...

I had a 5th gen with a short ram, it was somewhat easy to reach the fuel cut in 3rd gear(I would accidently hit it when passing, sometimes).

In my 6th gen, the engine just seems to work so hard to reach the fuel cut(the poor engine has no more power at 6200rpm) in 3rd gear with stock airbox, it would make sense cause air flow really is important in high rpms. I got an intake coming in and going to post my findings...

This really varies from car to car. I've driven other 6gens, and none seem to have the power mine does. I've never driven a turbo or swapped 6gen though. If you take good care of things, you keep compression and you make things run better. Back when I had my Impulse, it had a few NA mods done to it, but nothing real big. People always said, "this is really fast for these cars, does it have a turbo or something?" I would just say, "No, I just take care of it." Read my performance mods under my profile, and you'll see there isn't much there, but it does say it has a good tune up. That's were you get the difference. Oh, and I don't have that much power at 6200 rpm either, that's just a general 5s thing. I've got some plans to see if I can't at least kind of get around that. A new intake manifold set up, a simple EMS piggy back system, and some major head work. I'm not paying $650 for a set of cams for this thing unless it upped my hp by at least 20.