AEM Cold Air Intake
and
AEM Short Ram Intake

Just curious..
also whats better?

 

One sux air from inside the engine bay... but typical yields SLIGHTLY more torque.

The other sux COLD air from the lower portion of the car... yields SLIGHTLY lower torque number, but the top end gain in HP is FAR worth it...

Hense... go with the CAI. There's a slight risk of ingesting water... so DON'T submerge ur car in more than five inches of water... you'll be fine!

 

Actually, the cold-air intake will yield more mid-range torque (if you ever look at a dyno-chart of an AEM cai, it has a bump in the 3k-4k rpm range. This is the "tuning" supposedly done by AEM on their cold-air intakes. The reason for the increased mid-range torque is that the longer the piping of the intake, the less air turbulence, and this helps in low-mid torque. Why? Because at lower rpm's, small engines (like the 1.8L teg engines) don't need lots of airflow. What they need is a small (relatively) amount of airflow that's flowing very smoothly. All the turns and bends in the cold-air piping actually help reduce turbulence, at the expense of overall volume of air. Also, cold-air intakes tend to gain hp because of their cold-air design, which draws air from the fender area. This can help a lot, especially if you're idling on a hot day.

People actually tend to pick the short-ram intakes for more high-end torque/hp. Short-rams tend to work best at high rpm's, where a greater QUANTITY of airflow is required, as opposed to merely smooth airflow. Since short-rams tend to have only one bend, they deliver lots air, at the expense of flow-smoothness in the lower/mid rpm's. I do believe there was a guy on this board who swore by the short-ram models. If I remember correctly, he was running low 13's n/a, so I guess he knew what he was talking about. His engine was very different from stock though, so I'm guessing it doesn't really apply to you.

Overall, the cold-air is probably the better application for you. Engine-bay temps tend to get really hot, and you don't want to be drawing air from inside it, unless your car needs lots of high-end (8k+rpm's), in which case the shorter design of the short-rams will suit you better. It doesn't sound like your car is modified to that extent, so...