I just recently got my first car, a 1992 Accord EX(F22A6), and I'm already looking for parts for it. The first part I'm looking to get is a new cold-air intake to replace the stock and soon after a new exhaust.

On to the question. I've seen a lot of different intakes and I was wondering if the big name-brand intakes are worth the extra money. I've heard that the ones you can find on eBay are fine but the filters that come with them suck ***. Is this true? I don't want to waste my money on something if I don't have to.

thanks.

 

if its one of my beater cars sometimes ill just throw a cheap ebay intake on them. they usually dont increase power as much as just sound cool. But for my race car and my nice cars i always get a name brand intake (usually K&N) plus if you ever pop your hood for people to look at your motor it just looks way better then a cheap ebay part

 

A lower cost aluminum tube from ebay looks and performs identical to a higher priced name brand aluminum tube. Now if you live in a communist state that requires CARB. Then you are stuck with paying more money for an aluminum tube with a CARB sticker on it.

What you read is true, it's all in the filter!

Buy an aluminum tube from ebay and stick a good filter on it. Even the filters don't have to be expensive. There are throw away filters that do a good job. The more expensive ones you can usually clean and reuse. Just check the filter material and rating. A clean quality filter = a happy engine.

 

I personally wouldn't even bother with an aftermarket intake as there really isn't big gains to be found unless you're running a much wilder cam than factory. I run a factory 4th gen Prelude airbox and tube, with a paper filter, with the in-bumper resonator removed. Mine is a '97 5-speed LX coupe. It ran a 16.3@83mph with a 2.3-sec 60ft with the stock airbox and filter, and then no change when I switched to the Prelude intake, with or without the filter; previously it had a "short ram" setup on the car and ran a little slower than with the factory setup. I ran about 2-3 runs with each intake setup, same day, within about 2 hours total at a track rental at Milan dragway last September. While there may or may have no been any gains to be had, it's been dyno tested that the factory Prelude intake tube and airbox do not become a restriction(and usually make the best power under the curve) until after 200whp. There's this thread here: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-prelude-4/dyno-results-intake-testing-tuning-graphs-2049478/ and there should be another on preludepower.

There are better modifications that the intake tube and filter that will make a larger impact for the same cost. I noticed the biggest improvement in power with a header, thus far.

 

I agree that there is really no performance or MPG gains. But you have to admit that you can't beat the snorty sound of a CAI on these Accords. Specially when coupled with a good header.

 

It is nice, but you get nearly the same sound from just removing the resonator.