ok.. first off, please dont tell me to search cause i did that and went though all 21 posts that came up but im still confused here. im now reading that all of these aftermarket intakes make your car slower off the line. does anyone have a hard proof? like quarter mile times of the same car using a stock intake, a cai, and then a pop charger? some kind of test or study rather than people just sayin "i think i felt more top end". i have a 95 auto and i want the thing to be quick, not fast. theres a difference. i mean, geared more towards a light to light race rather than somethin where we would both be doin 100mph. i dont care about the noise. im just kickin myself in the *** now cause have a $1,200 exhaust and a pr cai, and i had trouble CATCHING UP TO and passing my friends 96 stock auto (and we both have 18" rims). put it this way, if he JUST had a y-pipe, theres no way i would have caught up to him. it seems everyone is saying that the stock intake gives you the most torgue, but how is this possible if were removing all the restricitons? please lets not make this a long drawn out argument, i just want facts and an explanition why i spent $230 to make my car slower.

 

OK.. this is even more confusing.. cause now this is contradicting what i read when i did the search before.. people were sayin the the pop charger and stillen intake were faster at low range compared to the cai.. this is copied off the maximadriver site..

As for the better of the two systems, there is still some debate. Some dyno tests have concluded that the Stillen Intake is better at the High Range RPMs while the Place Racing CAI is better in the Lower Range RPMs. The debate will continue, until someone produces an intake that is the best of both worlds.


still confused.. and im wondering that if the the stock intake is faster off the line and at lower end torque why isnt it mentioned in any of these sites? also, i cant find a write up comparing any of these intakes compared to the stock one, only to each other.

 

the reason the CAI is better at lower RPMs...is when your car is idling at a stop light...it's sucking in cooler air than the other intakes located in the engine bay. However, at higher RPMS when you are actually driving...the difference is really negligable...and possibly the other CAIs are better...

what kind of exhaust do you have? you paid $1200? and you're having trouble catching up with your friend? can you please explain?

 

stillen y-pipe : $395.00
stillen b-pipe : $259.88
stillen ss muffler : $384.04
random tech. cat : $200.00
that total alone comes to $1,238.92.. and thats not including the header wrap, new bolts, hangers, and cat bracket i bought when i put it all in...

me and my friend have had our cars for a while now, we constantly play around when we are both driving together so its a real good way for me to guage what mods do to my car. when we first started off, he had just 17" chrome rims, i had 16" sliver rims, everything else was stock. we would race, he would pull off the line a lil faster than me, and gradually and evenly pull away from me and keep pulling away. then i did the enitre exhaust in my car, i killed him. i got a set of heavy *** 18 x 8.5" rims, he , and along with a bmw ****ing ambarassed me one nite, it was utterly pathetic. i did the intake and plugs, we never really got a chance to race. now he just got 18's too so we raced again, he took me off the line in first gear, most of second i was evenly behind on him, about a car lenght between my front bumber and his rear bumber (he didnt gain on me after 1st gear), 3rd gear i finally got to creep up and pass him, but not by much... like i said, if his car would of had ONLY a y-pipe, he would have won compared to me having a stillen y-pipe,b-pipe,cat,muffler,and pr cai intake. its almost like the intake and exhaust are fighting one another to only produce a small gain at high rpms.. i dont understand, i should have been able to take him off the line, and still pull away from him.. i understand that the big rims are slowing my car down, but if we both have 18's the race should have the same outcome between us if we were both running stock rims. ( more of less, the diffence in weight cant be too much between or 18's).
but anyway.. back to my original question. does anyone have a comparion test using all three intakes in a 1/4 race and have the differnce in times at the footage marks along the way?? this is really blowing my mind rite now..

 

Word of advice: Stop buying from Stealin . Seriously though, if you want the logo go for it, oterwise you can do just as well with a WSP Y-Pipe, WSP B-Pipe, Greddy C/B, and the cat has never been proven to give you more than a 1 HP gain, or something equivalent to a Maxima.org sticker . If you wanted speed you should have gotten a 50 or 65 shot, proffessionally installed with A/F guage for most likely the same ammount you paid for the stuff above. Hell, save on rims and exhaust and go for a used V1!

Also, big, heavy (especially chrome) rims slow you down like crazy. Very few people serious about racing their max's go larger than 17, at most 18, and those are with light rims. Don't forget rotational velocity, too. A 30LB (which is on the heavy side) 17 inch rim is easier to turn than 1 30LB 18 inch (if they exist).

You also haven't mentioned (or maybe I missed it) whether you are auto and whether your friend is stick. Generally speaking 5spd's are almost .5-1.0 secs faster in the quarter. If you are stick just work on it.

 

thank you for the response, yes we are both auto, i think i did mention it, and i apprecaite your time taken to read and respond to my post. but my question really is about the intakes. i cant find any real comparison between the two aftermarket types with a stock one other than some kid thinking his car runs 13's now cause it makes more noise. know what i mean?

 

also.. im not trying to go all out for speed, if that was the case i wouldnt even be driving a maxima. i still want the car to look good, but id like to be able to beat a stock max after i spent $1,500 in mods. and yes the juice is still being considered, but rite now i just want to have some test results is they exist. seems the majority of people are saying that thier intakes made their cars suffer low end torque.

 

i ran a dyno on my car with the stock intake and i ran a 190HP stock. With my PR CAI installed, i gained 7HP...i dunno if that helps you any...

 

im gonna go out on a limb and say this was at top end rite? the thought thats bouncing around in my head is, whats the benefit if im gaining 7 hp at top end, but loosing low end torque? that 7hp is just gonna be needed to play "catch up" at top end to make up for what i already lost off the line and the low rpms though the gears.

 

Try reseting your ecu. They are addaptive and change to suit conditions such as more air etc. Im not sure if it will help but wha do you have to lose. It will take a few hundred km to show any benifits

 

I dynoed my car and LOST 3 HP with a HAI (albeit was 90 degrees when I did it), and GAINED 3 HP by taking the air filter off completely. The track numbers back those up too. As for CAI, I haven't tried it yet, but the losss of low end is miniscule as opposed to the HAI.

 

You couldn't of said it any better!!!

 

Interesting. Very interesting. Maybe it is the difference in weifght between the rims, even tho they are both 18s because yours may weifgh alot more than you think??

Also, maybe his car is in better shape, tuneup wise. Spark plugs, feul filter? Are both yours and his in the exact same shape/condition. I think the feul filter is a maintencance item is too often neglected. When I 1st bought my car, I couldn't get it to go over 125 mph. Thought something was very wrong. Chnage the feul filter, and bamm! Try changing both your and his at the same time.

DW

 

LONG LIVE THE RED SPREE....AND MALIBU!!......

 

haha.. but at least i put my own cars together myself and, oh yea.. remember somethin.. i still beat you hehe

 

anyway... i just did the plugs, and put in a 300zx fuel filter mabye a month ago, so thats not an issue.. and everyone please get off the thing about the rims, im still lookin for a proven answer to the qustion of which intake has the best low end torgue? stock? cai? hai?

 

I don't think there is a definitive answer to this question. The reason is that a certain amount of backpressure is good for producing torque...but too little and too much is bad. A lot of people say the cone filter (HAI) causes you to lose a certain amount of low end torque since there is less resistance than a CAI (less resistance increases airflow rate which increases the effect of backpressure at low RPMs causing a loss of low end torque).

That should answer the question right? Well, this is assuming you have a stock exhaust. If you have Y-pipe, B-pipe, muffler, etc, you have dramatically decreased the amount of backpressure seen by the engine. This means that you need more combustion air to get to the theoretical "ideal" ratio of combustion air to backpressure. So in your case, having a HAI might actually increase low end torque.

I think there are too many variables to be able to come up with an accurate answer to this question.

Also, I'm not sure how fast your race got up to (I know you mentioned 3rd gear, so probably atleast 85 mph right?), but you were able to make up approximately 3 car lengths on your friend in that time. That's not too shabby, considering your car really probably only has 20hp more than him (which probably only realistically works out to 12 hp at the wheel).

As always, I may be talking out of my ace

 

well kc .........since u mentioned it......i did...and do do alot of the work myself.....except 4 the things that will cause me headaches......u should no about that .......and u no i dont care about goin fast in this car......id rather look good goin slow then go fast..if i wanted 2 go fast id get another muscle car....and for the 2 grand extra u spent it should have had u killin me in a race but instead it just turned out makin more noise then speed ....i await ur respone.......

 

work?? who r you kidding?? lol.. you havent worked a day in your life! and payin to have ur cars painted anit considered work.

 

hey if all i have 2 do 2 look good and 2 get my cars 2 b faster then urs is paint them ....then more power 2 me!!!!...u no i dont have cash 2 waste like u player.....

 

I dont know either of you but still think that is

SuDZ

 

ok.. enough of this bickering.. does anyone out here have answers for me?? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

 

Try taking off your mods and see how that race goes, theres your "hard" evidence ... this lack of low end is beginging to be blown out of proportion, people think that its low end thats going to win them races, your CAI is not only pulling in air with less restriction but its cold ambient air from your fender, "perfect" for low end power, but with all its turns the high end is not as great as lets say JWT filter. but off the line JWT is going to suck whatever air it can get and that may be hot underhood air, hot air, once your moving though your going to be getting air blown into the engine bay, and with basically no restriction the air just flows right in, it dosent have to go through teh turns of a CAI. Mods dont add HP they free up HP and certain mods free up certain power bands, To point fingers at any particular aspect of your car is guess work , there are hundreds of factors that could have contributed to these race results, give me proof it was your intake and then we can begin to examine it closer. On another note you might as well blame your "free flowing" exhaust as well, with its reduced back pressure you must have lost even more of this low end torque right.

 

If you want your auto to be fast from light to light, keep it stock or boost it ...........

 

i was enjoyin the bickering........

 

KC the other part of the issue is the air velocity and backpressure that is produced by the stock box that gives the VQ more torque in the low end.

 

no.. its not the exhaust.. that much is obvious

 

You do realize that you could have dynoed the car before you did any modding to get a baseline. Earlier you posted that he did pull on you when both of you were stock. Maybe his car is more powerful than yours is, also he might be a better driver. Even though you drive an automagic I say that even at the track you'd still run 1-3 tenths slower than a better driver with the same car. I'm betting his better launches helped him stay in front. You should try doing rollons vs standing start launches. This way the only difference in the cars is who has more power (given the same weight). Also the effectiveness of the CAI vs SI/POP is still going on. However I can say that in my case my CAI dropped 3 tenths and add 1.5mph to my 1/4 ET/trap. Not to mention dynoed a 11hp/13tq peak gain with an average gain of 14hp/9tq from 4000-5500rpm in my 87 maxima . Your results might be slightly different .

 

do i realize i could have? yes? did i ever plan on doin stuff like this to my car? no. but i have a question for you. if you cai made ur car slower in the 1/4 mile, and you go to get dyno's and everything, did u leave it on?

 

Who said it made it slower? he said it dropped 3 tenths which means a faster time......

 

my mistake.. i misunderstood cause i read too fast.. call off the dogs

 

slow down there buddy

 

Just as it was getting good too.

SuDZ

 

anyone got test resluts?? anyone anyone??

 

I realize you're looking for comparisons between the stock intake vs. other intakes - I don't know of any graphs or charts that show the stock air box. Maybe you could try back issues of Motor Trend or something? I'll check and see if I have any. However, for aftermarket intakes most people report a faster 0 - 60 or 1/4 mile times or both with either intake vs. stock. One other thing to consider, that I haven't heard mention of, is: do you have a stereo system or any other objects that may make your car heavier including the driver? Also, do your cars have similar mileage and are you two running comparable gas? Everyone has said this - there are too many variables involved. Does his car shift better/quicker? SO many questions to consider Don't give up.

 

lol.. yea you could say i got lil stereo back there, but im stunned how nobody has some kinda graph comparing the two. also what someone mentioned earlier, what about the fact that i have an aftermarket exhaust effecting backpressure? i guess no one has hard evidence, but its suprising that people spend all this time and effort developing mods for this car, and i cant even find test results for when its added to a stock car, and various cars with differnt mods.. how do we know if were actually improving the performance if everyone is running different set-ups?

P.S. - wanna know what i think is funny? the fact that every time i try to send this post, or read/reply to any other posts, the server busy window plagues my monitor advertising " 600,000 hits per month!" looking for some more buyers. great way to pick up business, adveritse on a page tellin you that nobody can even move around on this site these days. fix this damn thing already.

 

Why is it surprising? It is exactly what you did

I'm looking to dyno my car soon now that I've settled on the mods I've been waiting for. I think pasrt of the reason people don't dyno is
1) the butt dyno usually tells you that the mod worked When I added the CAI, definitely noticed, the Y, definitely noticed. The only mod that has got me wondering was the RT cat. I guess its doing something.

2) Cost. $75 for a chart that's gonna be pretty much the same as everyone elses with the same mods. Dynoing a stck car does'nt really make sense, cause you're only confirming what the manufacturer's already told you, but i guess the graph shows more detail in the power curve, but for $75??

DW

 

ok. so in that case.. i have custom intakes for sale guys. they feed off the warm air coming out of the fumes from the exhaust pipe in the back of my car, get pipped in over my roof and through my hood.. i dont know if its gonna make your car faster, but you can spend 400 on it so you can tell people you got it.. if you dont like that on i have a cold air intake too. it clips onto your ac vent in the car so just pump you ac and there's your cold air gettin rushed into your intake. this might make your car faster or slower too. 450.. get yours now! lmao

 

This is yet another example as to why you shouldn't be on this site at all. You have zero respect for any authority, yet feel the need to air out "your issues" to everyone everywhere. You claim you are unfairly badmouthed yet you do the exact same thing in your posts. Most people call that being a hypocrite and having zero character.

Everyone is not interested in what you think about OT matters, the world does not revolve around you, and it's time to grow up and take care of yourself before worrying about others.

If you don't like it here LEAVE


Is it that difficult for you to do that?

 

no bill. the real truth is.. i have zero respect for YOU