Quote:
Originally Posted by Foobar
2forme and I don't necessarily agree on the whole intake situation. That said, let me clarify what I said above:
The BRZ/FRS stock intake system is well-engineered. There are few gains to be had by doing anything aftermarket with them. The intakes that noticed the most power gains achieved them not by opening up airflow (the typical exercise undertaken when you add a performance intake) but by manipulating AFR. This function can also be done by an ECU tune.
I'm not here to fanboy one intake over another - Personally, I think stock is the way to go with a drop-in if performance/efficiency is the only thing you're after.
Full diclosure: I own the AirRaid as well as the AFe. I swapped out the AirRaid because I didn't like the aesthetics and the whole loose screws coming undone situation thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I went with the AFe because it looks good, sounds great, and I got a fantastic deal on it at a time when someone was going to buy my AirRaid essentially washing my cost out. Unfortunately, shortly before he was to buy the intake, someone dyno'd the AirRaid on here and determined that it was actually losing power instead of gaining power. He pulled out of the deal and now I still have it.
Oh and to answer your question directly - no, I do not think a tune will negate all of the gains. Let me put it this way - if a stock car with an Injen gets +13 HP, and a stock car with an ECU tune gets +15 HP, a stock car with an Injen + ECU Tune won't see +28 HP, because they ultimately are both doing something with AFR that affects power output. I did not mean to imply that a stock car with Injen and ECU Tune ends up with +0 HP, but it would most likely be somewhere closer to +15 than +28.
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Thanks for the clarification Foobar. When stated in this way I agree with everything you said and I am sorry to hear about you getting stuck with the Air Raid.
Because of the changes and infinite variables that tuners bring to the table with programming engine management to work with modifications, Intake, headers, cat backs and such, I deliberately left that out. From my experience, most people don't go to tuners after installing aftermarket parts on their cars which I agree with 2forme can result in not seeing the maximum potential of any mod and even worse, dangerous AFRs resulting in engine damage.
Aside from manipulating AFR by changing volumetric efficiency and MAF placement, intakes don't do much and the factory intake on the 86 is remarkably well designed as shown by the stark similarities in dyno numbers from just changing the filter element and changing the whole intake. All things being equal, if I were to have added drop-ins to the chart they would have made all aftermarket intakes look like a monumental waste of money.
Anyway, I can see that I have some serious editing to do to my disclaimers and that it is worth mentioning drop-ins now. This was intended to be a work-in-progress so I appreciate any help the more experienced tuners and testers can provide.
(PS. Sorry for the grumpy reply earlier... I really shouldn't post anything before my morning cup of coffee.)
Scott