in the low end the ability and need for the engine to suck in air is less....thus adding more air when you need less creates some slight vairiances...once you're opening it up and the engine is trying to suck in as much as it can get the aftermarket intake is better. Thats why intakes show PEAK gains not generall increases across the board.

 

intakes are the oddest thing...alot of the factory intake uses resonance tuning to create more low end torque...by effectively changing the length of the resonance chamber you "move" your torque curve higher or lower depending on how you change it (look at the old velocity stacks on carbed race V8's)
The bigest gain you'll see is in two parts:
throttle response, the car will respond MUCH quicker to your inputs, and top end feel the car will pull better on the top end...
Now the weird thing is, with my intake mod and the heat shield I just finished (old cardboard is gone now have aluminum), I got a much bigger wallop of torque in the mid range and really didnt loose any top end, my 3rd gear pulls "feel" great....it was even commented on by 2 passengers "car pulls harder, what'd you do?"

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question517.htm

this may help since it is part of your intake runner length....same basics apply

 

I thought the resonance chambers in OEM intakes were there to eliminate the intake boom, associated with CAI/SRIs...?

 

YES AND NO....the snorkus that runs along the top of our radiators is there to quell the sound as is the large thingy that's infront of the airbox...but it all adds length to the system..with a SRI or CAI you are changing the effective length of the intake tract....as well as the diameter, routing, etc.....im hoping to have an intake early next month...I will post a full review of it vs. my mods...

 

Let me chime in here....since my intake and automatic transmission car is what created all of this fuss. With a manual transmission you can hold down and clutch, such as when you're making a turn, and at the same time, give it some gas....facilitating the CAI's low torque issue at lower RPM's. This you can't do with an automatic. Could be that my car needs to be tuned some anyway....seems to idle low. Anyway, I think the CAI I have with a manual tranny will be ideal. I just don't have the time nor the energy any more to make this work with my car.
My opinion: Automatic tranny...stay OEM intake....Manual tranny....upgrade to CAI.

 

The loss in low speed torque that many find after switching to an SRI or a CAI is due to the removal of the Helmholtz resonator when employing either of these two systems. The resonator is the chamber that hangs down below the entrance to the air box. Its function is to enhance and maintain low speed torque. SRI's and CAI's may give somewhat better high RPM performance but almost always worsen performance off the line.

The snorkel that lies over the radiator has two main functions. The first is to act as a silencer and the second and more important one is to move the air inlet to a cooler location outside the underhood area. Remember that air inlet temperature has a significant effect on HP output since HP varies directly as the square root of the change in ABSOLUTE air inlet temperature.

Before you remove the OEM air intake system, consider the kind of driving you mostly do and how a change to an SRI or CAI system will affect it.

 

my snorkus than ran over my radiator was damn near sealed off from the factory.....as soon as I got rid of IT my throttle response got better, the rest of my mods made it killer, from what my *** dyno tells me, im at least back to stock TQ if not above it running what I have now and my top end feel better, wrse case scenario ots the same as stock but mid range is great now.....and face it, most of us drive there anyways....even autocrossing

 

Thanks Marcus!
Macey came over to my house today and we put the thing in and then took it for a test drive. Sure sounds and handles better/differently than it did when it was in my automatic Protege. Hope it works out for the life of your car...Ya got a great deal!

Just a thought....can they not make a flap in the lower section of these CAI's...you know the part right before the filter attaches....It could simply be controlled by gravity. When you are not pulling many rpm's, the flap stays down and gives you torque...when you're in demand for more air, naturally the flap would lift up giving you everything the CAI has to offer. Seems that this type of setup would be a solution for us with auto transmissions and who noticed loss of the low end torque with a CAI. Any thoughts on this?

 

Hey David thanks for all the help. It seems to ride so much quicker it doesn't quite seem like the same car.

Marcus

 

Good deal...glad it's working out for you! I really think it's the manual tranny! Have fun and live long