I know this is just another CAI thread, but search came up empty on it.

I'm getting a CAI installed in the coming week, and by now have read about the tiny hp gain.

What I'm wondering is how it affects torque. Can you 'feel' the CAI on launch and passing gear?

Since my car is mainly a city driver, torque is more important than hp, since I rarely get the car up over 80km/h.

 

I think all gains from a CAI alone are just mental. I couldn't "feel" anything really when I installed mine.

 

What is the best upgrade for torque on a n/a engine? I figured the extra airflow would help the engine's get up and go.

 

I thought I heard somewhere that a short ram intake is better than a cai as far as torque goes. Something about the cai piping is longer than the sri is causing worse throttle response, but cai is better for top end power.

 

A header and a catless exhaust (crazy loud!!) would do the trick. It'd be a good place to start at least. I mean you wanna have an aftermarket intake no matter what, but an intake by itself does very little when it comes to HP/torque or any other gains.

 

Hmm, makes sence. I guess the cai would be better for highway driving as well, so you keep getting cooler air, instead of the engine bay's air, since it would be quite hot during a long drive.

Oh well, like KF says, it's only really a helper for the bigger performance add-ons. I'd hate to have a loud exhaust though. I don't think I could take my car seriously if I was buzzing around like some civic jackass.

 

The CAI sounds really sweet, I also noticed a solid 1-2mpg increase. There is a slight notice in power when i am in fifth gear on the highway.

 

Hmm, well I guess the milage is better than nothing. I was hoping for a bit more effect than just looks and sound tho, oh well.

 

header, exhaust and underdrive pulley and a front motor mount will no doubt give you the best bang for the buck gain/feel on an N/A protege

 

I wish I had dyno'd mine stock so I could actually put some input to this convo lol.


However, it's not, but here's what I can report: With I/H/I and MP3 ECU I get 111 WHP and 117 WTQ. Nothing to brag about, but that's a good 10%+ increase over stock HP wise (since the ol' DE usually dynos around 95-97 WHP stock). How much of that is attributed to the intake? Don't know, but reports only have the MP3 ECU w/ stock intake adding around 4 HP, so the other 10 or so had to come from somewhere

EDIT: I have a feeling that the Ractive header (equal length long runners...the collector is welded directly to the mid-pipe flange lol) accounts for a good part of that gain
EDIT #2: For the record: Yes, I know that each mod doesn't add a certain amount of HP, it always varies based on the combination, I'm just speaking from my experience.

 

Well, installing it tomorrow, so I guess I'll see for myself then. No doubt will have a bit of placebo effect at first.

May be making a few visits to the PGarage if I'm wanting more power.

So, since I can't afford everything at one, what is the next logical step for an n/a automatic? Underdrive pulley seems to have decent gains, but should headers or exhaust come first?

 

Manual tranny?

 

Har har.

Maybe once this one is dead, seems like a lot of work to replace a working part.

 

Well, all installed. It does sound and growl quite nice. There seems to be a gain in the mid-high rpm range, no real change in the low end.

At least it's shiny, haha.