CAI?.....Short Ram?.......Stock Box?

[ClarkGriswold]

Hey, I just picked up a 2002 EP3. I love it, but I need to start doing some modifications to her. I plan on doing a intake, among other things, but I have read some discussion about CAI. Some believe that they are fantastic, others feel as though a short ram is just as good? What do the experts on ephatch.com think? Let me know. Thanks.

[LiLxKeNnY]

CAI!!! ... the point of an intake is to draw cold air ... basically ... the cooler the engine is ... the better it runs ... drawing colder again to begin with will help ... short ram is located in the engine bay ... it is basically warm air ... it is not as effective as a CAI which is drawing air from the fender ....


physix 101

hot air rises and cold air sinks ... CAI draws air near the floor

warm air gets hot ... as to cold air gets warm ... better that the engine is at a lower temp

[02SilverSiHB]

yeah, if I was na, I'd stay with a cai, but now I'm FI, so I'm using a sri

[civic hatch boi]

save ur money and dont buy an intake, unless u have hondata or header/exhaust to go with it.

[LiLxKeNnY]

that is tru tooo ... if you plan to go FI in a couple of months ... dont waste money .... but if ure goin na ... then youll need it ... and if youre goin to swap ... jus get CAI ... header n exhuast wont fit on ur swap ... i dink ... not sure about the last one there

[Eternity]

I would leave the stock airbox and just throw in a high flow filter. I think that's better than an intake in performance wise for our car.

[beechstreet]

doing a search will bring up tons of answers to any questions you have about intakes/headers/exhausts. Also check out the rate&review section...

[fsugatorbait]

yeah, if I was na, I'd stay with a cai, but now I'm FI, so I'm using a sri


Mike, why did you switch with the SC? Especially with the blower creating soo much heat, wouldnt you want the coolest air possible.

[fsugatorbait]

that is tru tooo ... if you plan to go FI in a couple of months ... dont waste money .... but if ure goin na ... then youll need it ... and if youre goin to swap ... jus get CAI ... header n exhuast wont fit on ur swap ... i dink ... not sure about the last one there


If you have a header and exhaust on your A3 it will bolt up to either the A2 or A.

[fsugatorbait]

I would leave the stock airbox and just throw in a high flow filter. I think that's better than an intake in performance wise for our car.


Are you serious? Please dont add your opinioin on topics you have no clue about.

Bottom line, if you arent going to turbo the car and want the best gains get a CAI.

[k20hatch]

Id go with the CAI to man!

[raiyo]

CAI if your area dont rain a whole lot and have huge puddles. SRI if u want alittle performance over stock airbox.

1. CAI
2. SRI
3. Gutted Stock Airbox

moved to engine

[DarkSiRacer]

Cai...

[jdmsi03]

I would leave the stock airbox and just throw in a high flow filter. I think that's better than an intake in performance wise for our car.

dude a new filter won't do anything at all. short ram will give u more low end and u won't lose tq. cai gives u high end. definatly go for cai.... sounds a lot better to.

[bphom]

i would go cai too but be careful driving in the rain!

[civictype_r04]

yea the short ram is more like a warm air intake.

[Evil J]

After having all three...

Stock airbox.

The CAI is best if it's performance over everything else... but as someone who nearly aspirated their engine... it ain't worth the 2-3 extra HP.

Most of it is butt dyno and the louder sound.

[Karma]

After having all three...

Stock airbox.

The CAI is best if it's performance over everything else... but as someone who nearly aspirated their engine... it ain't worth the 2-3 extra HP.

Most of it is butt dyno and the louder sound.

i'm with you on that one.

i went aem v2 -> injen cai -> aem cai -> ice box.

cai & sri is better if you like to be heavy on the gas.

only reason i'm still with the ice box is because i dont have the money (or patience) to go back to stock, so the ice box is close enough.

:ranger:

[Evil J]

I just realized I was spending a ton of money ($200-300 is a lot) for very little pay off other than my car being noisy and risking engine damage...

If you've never pushed a car in a downpour while trying to figure out how to get it home/what the hell you're going to do with the brand-new K20A3-shaped paperweight in the front of your car after sucking up water...

You'd probably think I was being over-reactive.

Having done that and been fortunate enough to only suck up enough water to get in the TB and stall out the engine...

Unless you live in Death Valley, skip it all.

[supercivician]

love my v2

[dobbs02si]

I enjoyed the noise of my sri..untill the snail showed up lol.

[civsirmt]

staying n/a or a supercharger cai ingen sp1576 :mbiggrin:

[AUTiger]

I think some people are to afraid of hydro-lock. Pushing your car through a downpour is ridiculous. My filter(injen sp1576) sits down in my driver side fender/bumper and I don't even have a bumper light after I hit a damn coyote. I used to worry and run outside and tape it up everytime it was about to rain. Eventually I drove through the rain and it's no biggie. If you see a puddle push in the clutch and coast through it.

[Evil J]

I think some people are to afraid of hydro-lock. Pushing your car through a downpour is ridiculous. My filter(injen sp1576) sits down in my driver side fender/bumper and I don't even have a bumper light after I hit a damn coyote. I used to worry and run outside and tape it up everytime it was about to rain. Eventually I drove through the rain and it's no biggie. If you see a puddle push in the clutch and coast through it.

I did the exact same thing when an unexpected puddle ran up on me. It's what kept me from fully hydrolocking, but even partially submerged and at idle was enough to suck water into the throttlebody on an AEM cold air.

I'm not exaggerating, not making it a horror story, but I got off lucky, and honestly, I'll tell anyone about what I stupidly went through if it'll save them a full engine replacement.

My opinion, you weigh the risks of your options, and ask if realisitically, 3-5 extra wheel horsepower (if that) is worth your engine.

EDIT: For the record, I used to think the exact same way about hydrolock that you do. I thought "Hey, I live in Texas" and that everyone who had talked to me about the risk always had "a friend" who had it happen to them.

Well... here's from the horse's mouth. Very nearly happened to me. My opinion is that it's not worth it.

[blackhatchsi]

Injen CAI. I pretty much take the same routes everywhere I drive to, though. So I pretty much know all the puddles and places where water tends to stand. I say CAI.

[Nicenlow2]

I went....

SRI
CAI
then Stock air box....looks cleaner than the other two IMO but prob go back CAI later this spring lol