what do u guys think? i daily drive my car 50-60 miles on the highway a day. i know the aem intake will sound better.
im trying to figure out what will be the best for me
heres my options-
stock intake with drop in k&N
or
aem short ram intake with a heatshield

im looking for
better overall driveability,better acceleration and better mpg.
sound is just a added bonus. car is all stock 2000 ex

 

I'd go with the short ram intake or cold. It's not really going to make your car noticeably faster it does sound better tho.

 

Intake will not improve mpg. The best thing you can do for mpg is keep the intake restricted with the throttle plate (i.e. don't routinely floor the gas pedal after every red light).

Really the only "benefit" of those things is noise.

 

i have done both and i would doa short ram but personaly i wouldnt put the heat shield on because that will cause less air flow

 

I'd leave the stock intake on it. No point in wasting that money when you can use it for other more useful things liks puting towards suspension modifications.

 

The intake won't do a whole lot for power or mpg. If you're really set on getting one, get a cheap eBay one and a good filter(AEM, K&N, etc..). Don't bother with a heat shield either, it's still a short ram and you'll still be sucking in warm air, the shield wont make any difference.

If you purely want sound, take the resonator box from your stock intake out. It sits right under the stock filter assembly and held in by like 4-6 bolts. It's easy to remove and does make the sound quite a bit louder. I did it to my daily driver for sh*ts and giggles. Just get a K&N filter for the stock box when you need to replace your current filter since they are supposed to be pretty good and last forever lol.

 

yea im torn i heard u lose tq getting rid of the resonator box

 

What tq? LOL. If you do, it's probably such a small amount and it's not noticeable. Plus, it's a stock car, what's losing 1-2tq going hurt?

 

Ok I'm still not understanding why an AEM or one of those more expensive air intakes are better than an ebay one.
They look the same to me....some say it filters out more dirty but how is that when a filter is a filter. And wouldn't "more filtering" mean more air restriction meaning you have to push the gas down little more than you would(unnoticeable to you) ?

Please..someone explain in detail why an ebay filter isn't as good as a AEM filter?

 

For the most part the differences between a brand name and cheap eBay are minimal.

Companies like AEM, K&N, Injen, etc... all have years of experience designing and manufacturing these intakes. I can imagine they do quite a bit of testing from fitment, material quality, performance(air flow), and also making good filters. Those are the main things that set them apart from the cheaper ones.

The stuff on eBay likely do very minimal and probably have poor standards regarding any sort of fitment tests. This is why some people have issues and have to modify them to make them work. I'm sure they also don't do a whole lot of research to make sure they are using high quality material that they are sure won't fail. I've never heard of any serious issues but I can only imagine there may have been some issues with the cheaper ones breaking, cracking, melting, etc... I can almost be sure that there is no testing done to see whether their intake designs make as much power as possible. As with everything else, their filters are probably poorly designed and who knows if they actually are filtering anything.

As for the filters, they are a pretty important part of the engine. Like mentioned, I'm sure the brand names do extensive testing to ensure you're getting the best filtration while having minimal restriction. I know AEM and K&N guarantee their filters to filtrate 99% of contaminants and are supposed to last the life of the car. The cheap eBay one's probably have no testing and could be very restrictive. How would you know if they are actually filtering anything? Yeah nothing big is going to go through but there are fine particles that can be harmful to the motor that can go through. If you really want to get technical about how their filters work, I'm sure one of those brand names have all the technical garble on their websites that will prove themselves apart from anything cheaper.

What it boils down to for the brand name ones is that you're paying good money for a product that you can be 100% confident in and have no issues with, basically all the research and development they do on their products. The companies on eBay just make sure it fits(kinda), looks decent and mass produce it. If you're looking to build a quality car that maximizes power, get the brand name. If you're just slapping an intake on a street car and don't care about being flashy or maximizing power, get the cheap one from eBay and get a good filter for it..