Skunk2 CAI

[czellers]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

I mean, don't get me or anyone else that suggests sticking with the OEM box wrong. The reason is mainly due to the benefits and gains from AM vs OEM+ (Filter+Tube) are marginally the same with OEM being twice as cheap. Does it make it sound nice? Yes. Does it improve the power? Yes, maybe, after custom tune and MAF rescaling, which will probably take a while to squeeze after many data logging. Does it make the engine bay look sexy? Fck yes. At the end of the day do what makes you feel right. CAIs are rather a delicate topic in these forums since they haven't really proved anything significant that would make the community support them 100%.

I actually got the skunk2 CAI new for only $233.00 on 86speed[dot]com so much much less than many others. What i like about from a prospective performance perspective is the completely sealed system... no DIY rubber gasket making to do, no aluminum boxes with crimped/riveted seams, etc.. its all black so there really no style points to award it like the grimmspeed or other AM intake tubes.. again, kinda like you said, im in it to learn and have fun so NBD honestly either way... and hopefully forced induction in a year or two anyway which will essentially 'eliminate' all this anyway... but again fun and really cool to learn, as ive primarily owned mid/late 90s hondas to this point (integras/rsx/accord/civics) ofcourse the exception being the RSX

[FunnyGopher]

I ran it for a very long time. Overall, I liked it. I found it easier to remove than the OEM intake box, and I too liked how sealed it was. My filter was so clean every time I removed it to clean it, and I live in dusty Arizona. I was advised by my tuner (CSG) to keep the restrictor in the pipe so that MAF scaling was similar to stock. I was told the scaling without the restrictor doesn't make any sense, and it performs better with the restrictor. The one problem I had was the bolts that hold the filter in the box kept backing out on me ~5000 miles. I'd open the hood and find I had 2 or 3 bolts missing. I ended up using some Locktite to hold them in. Kind of worked. I have recently swapped back to the OEM box because the Jackson Racing oil cooler wouldn't fit with how big the box was.

[czellers]

Originally Posted by FunnyGopher

I ran it for a very long time. Overall, I liked it. I found it easier to remove than the OEM intake box, and I too liked how sealed it was. My filter was so clean every time I removed it to clean it, and I live in dusty Arizona. I was advised by my tuner (CSG) to keep the restrictor in the pipe so that MAF scaling was similar to stock. I was told the scaling without the restrictor doesn't make any sense, and it performs better with the restrictor. The one problem I had was the bolts that hold the filter in the box kept backing out on me ~5000 miles. I'd open the hood and find I had 2 or 3 bolts missing. I ended up using some Locktite to hold them in. Kind of worked. I have recently swapped back to the OEM box because the Jackson Racing oil cooler wouldn't fit with how big the box was.

See, thats what I like about it vs all the others is the one piece box/'snorkle'. It's funny to hear everyone talk about air tight seals etc with the other but... not that it really matters from a performance perspective but the skunk2 actually is aside from where the filter enters the box (which is also still better than the others). Should keep the filter cleaner for longer and keep the warner air away.

i have the OFTv2 as well and ill be looking into a way to do a custom tune (if beneficial) to remove the inline restrictor but we'll see i want to learn to tune early and really get a feel for the car prior to stepping up to forced induction.. Thanks for the heads up on the bolts too!

[RToyo86]

The canned stg2+ tune wasn't amazing on my 2017 manual with an inlet tube and drop in filter. Required a bit of MAF rescaling and the AFR was mostly good but leaned out at points, and fatter on others. I can only imagine an aftermarket intake would make that much worse.

If you have OFT I would data log some pulls and post them in the tuning section/logging thread.

Fortunately there are many great people on the forums who can dial in a more custom setup. Steve99 being one.
Edit: I have Tomm.brz doing a custom tune for me right now.

[FunnyGopher]

Originally Posted by czellers

... ill be looking into a way to do a custom tune (if beneficial) to remove the inline restrictor...

I recommend not removing the restrictor. As it was described to me, there is no performance gain, if anything a performance loss, from removing the restrictor on an NA car. The turbulence is worse, you don't actually get more air because now the air velocity is less, and the MAF scaling is to just compensate for the lack of air.

[churchx]

MAF scaling is to compensate different MAF sensor readings to not mess up air to fuel ratios and not let engine run with inefficient too rich on one end, or wearing engine with excessive knocking due running too lean on other end, if running with stock ECU tune.
It's not for "compensating". It's about ecu sensing real amount of air passing to know how much fuel needs injecting in. And if some aftermarket intake messes with MAF sensor readings, one should adjust ecu tune to interpret right way now different sensor readings to know how much air there was.

[tomm.brz]

Originally Posted by FunnyGopher

I recommend not removing the restrictor. As it was described to me, there is no performance gain, if anything a performance loss, from removing the restrictor on an NA car. The turbulence is worse, you don't actually get more air because now the air velocity is less, and the MAF scaling is to just compensate for the lack of air.

without the restrictor it actually allows for a little bit more flow into the engine, but the scaling is so shitty it needs a lot of speed density that requires a lot of time to make it run smooth
not worth it