I have a 97 Civic EX and I'm looking at intakes.........what would be the best intake I could buy????? Many, many people say go with cold air but a few people have told me to avoid the cold air because I live in New Orleans and the weather and the rain down here may hurt the cold air. Is a RAM air or short RAM any good???? I'm looking for a good increase in power and I want to make the right choice here. Also, would this be any good? [URL][http://www.spiralmax.com//URL] Could I use this with my stock intake or would it be better to put this with the new intake or just don't get that at all???? Please help.......IM me at Bigboy7267

 

go with a AEM or Injen cold air intake. Short ram intake suck in too much hot air from the engine bay.

 

just get a checp intake off ebay, the gains are minimal, and mostly all you are getting is the sound. some may argue with me on it, but the few horsepower gained by spending $200 on a aem intake, could be spent elsewhere.

 

short rams add very little power. i have one myself. the little power gain you get is from the filter they used, compared with a stock paper/foam one. i'm looking to get an extension tube to turn mine into a cold air intake. if i could go back in time, i would've gotten a complete cold air unit in the first place. i would recommend AEM and Injen, and i've heard iceman and comptech are also good.
note that you won't notice a huge power gain if you only add an intake, mostly just a lot of noise. once you combine it with an exhaust system you'll feel the difference. oh yeah, i doubt those spiral thingies do anything. even if they do, they're not worth $70

 

OMG!!! Use the fuc*ing search feature, will you? Do you really think you're the first person that has asked this question? Now that I've vented...

If you average out all the answers you are going to get, the majority are going to tell you to get an AEM CAI; the official demi-god of Honda zealots. A couple of ppl, like me, are going to tell you to get an Iceman; the better choice. But, in reality, the best setup for you is going to be a stock air box with a K&N air filter panel. You won't have to worry about ingesting water, and when you want to race, all you have to do is remove the [stock] lid. That will give you the same amount of power increase as anything out there.

If you're simply looking for social reinforcement, keep reading...

 

get a cold air intake. in order for your car to hydrolock, your filter has to be submerged in water. no joke. as long as you dont drive in huge pot holes with water and things like that then you will be fine. i myself have a cold air intake and i drive through rain and snow. no problem.

 

hey why isthe iceman better?????

 

Lots of reasons, but the biggest one is because Knight Engineering uses a tapered design on the Iceman that actually increases the air velocity as it approaches the throttle body.

When you think about it, intakes and exhausts serve the same purpose; to increase the air velocity going into and out of the engine, respectively. IMHO, nothing works better than an Iceman on the intake side.

You, on the other hand, have a special problem to consider - water. For your needs an OEM air box is going to work the best. You just need to get rid of the OEM pleated paper air filter and go with a K&N panel filter. If you'll pardon the pun, Honda engineers don't live in a vacuum. They actually did a pretty good job of designing the OEM air box.