First off I would like to thank Mike at IPS Racing for the intake, as well as Downey for allowing me to crash at his house as well as helping me install the Mugen Intake, and Lawrence at DynoSpot Racing for allowing us to do this test and giving me a discounted rate for the testing.

Install time with Downey's assistance was ~1.25 hours, we removed the passenger's side wheel, some of the nuts/bolts to peel back the fender liner and had to remove the transmission torque mount to get the intake in.

Total time spent, 2 hours...last baseline was at 10:39 am, pulled the car off the dyno, went to the parking lot and installed the intake, took the car out for a test drive, then back on the dyno, first new baseline runs was at 12:39pm.

Driving impressions:
WOW, feels pretty good, hope it's not just psychological, car pulls much better, and the throttle response has improved. I gave Downey a ride and he noted that there indeed was a very noticable change in how the car drove and pulled up top.

Back to the dyno to see if we can quantitate the differences that are felt...

<FONT COLOR="red">Comptech</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="blue">Mugen</FONT>



Full size, cut and paste:
http://www.imagestation.com/pi...g.jpg

Hmm....it looks like they're almost the same, almost no change to the A/F ration either...odd, it really did feel better. After speaking with the tuner and a few other people, we're thinking that it's one of the items that you don't see much of a change on a dyno, however when driven there is indeed a change. Without going out and doing straight line acceleration testing before and after the installation I can't give any solid proof that this intake is indeed better than the Icebox, however it's staying, all of us were of the opinion that there is indeed a solid gain while driving the car.

Now here's some more information to add into the evaluation, Honda-Tech member Boonielander did a basline dyno a couple of weeks ago on a bone stock Type-R, 1997 itr with ~80,000 miles if I remember correctly. He happened to stop by while I was in the middle of browsing Honda-Tech and about to leave...he was there for another baseline after recently installing the Mugen intake on his car too...hmmm While the runs weren't done on the same day they do provide a decent(in my mind) dyno comparison.

<FONT COLOR="red">Mugen</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="blue">Stock</FONT>



Full size, cut and paste:
http://www.imagestation.com/pi...g.jpg

Decent gain in my opinion, I'm sure that Eddie's enjoying it.

Dyno test of a Test Pipe VS. High flow cat

Now for the last dyno part test of the day, I've been running around with a test pipe for the last year, with the test pipe I've had to smell burnt oil, fuel fumes, and had to deal with the thought that I've been running around contributing to an increase in the pollution...not to mention running the risk of a $3,000 Federal fine, let's see if running a test pipe makes much of a difference on the dyno...

<FONT COLOR="red">Mugen</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="green">Icebox</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="blue">Mugen with cat</FONT>



Full size, cut and paste:
http://www.imagestation.com/pi...g.jpg

So...it looks like a little tuning with the Hondata and the loss wouldn't be a whole lot, hmm...guess that I'll keep the cat installed This was the Renault cat from HyTech, it's also designed as an OEM cat and its supposed to last 100,000+ miles before failing.

Thoughts, opinions...

Austin


Modified by Austin at 12:58 PM 12/14/2003

 

Austin..nice test...i love ur car...wanna trade

 

Forgot something...

Parts Installed:
HyTech header
HyTech exhaust
HyTech test pipe
HyTech high flow Renault cat
Mugen headgasket
Hondata intake manifold gasket, street setup
Hondata S200
toda cam gears +5, +5
Prelude '97+ 290cc/min injectors
Mugen thermoswitch
Mugen Intake

 

thanks for taking time for this test, i always though mugen was too much money when comptech can be had for 1/3rd the price.. btw.. what filter were you using with compech and stock box? if stock, then it could yeld better results with comptehc filter.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec.dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks for taking time for this test, i always though mugen was too much money when comptech can be had for 1/3rd the price.. btw.. what filter were you using with compech and stock box? if stock, then it could yeld better results with comptehc filter.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Full Comptech setup including intake arm and filter. After installing the intake after driving around with the Icebox for the last 2.5 years, I'll gladly get the Mugen intake, driving impressions are way different than the plots suggest, and I'm not the only one that noted the difference.

Austin

 

The mugen intake must be one of those mods that's quantifiable only on the street. Since you have Hondata, would have it been possible to "street baseline" both intake setups? Just like you, I converted from from a Comptech icebox to the Mugen airbox but at the same time, I switched from Kosei K1's(w/Azenis) to MF10s(w/Kumho 712s). I did feel a difference but I'm not sure to which mod to attribute it to.

I'd love to take bonnielander's dynos as the real results of installing a Mugen airbox but I think your methodology was a little more accurate, although disheartening, considering the cost of the intake and the gains, or lack thereof, you got. As we all know, mods have different effects on each engine so with that said, I think I'll be hitting the dyno soon to see if I see any gains from my intake.

Thanks for taking the time to share your results.


Modified by CPR at 1:24 AM 12/14/2003

 

Thanks for the effort!

Which intake arm/tubing did you use for the Mugen intake?

 

thanks for the info. i guess the extra $$$ for the mugen intake fools the butt dyno.

 

Great review!

 

Ahhh...you lazy ***. You shoulda rolled to Chris's I wanted to get a ride in your car.

 

Awsome review Austin, especially the cat vs test pipe. Also, nice numbers w/those bolt-on's.

 

Thanks for the review
How much does a Hytech Renault cat go for?

 

Hm... very interesting results. Thanks for sharing such a thorough review

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jdmspoonitr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ahhh...you lazy ***. You shoulda rolled to Chris's I wanted to get a ride in your car. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I got home at 5am, then had to stay awake while the caffeine buzz went away, asleep at 6:30am, followed by phone calls at 10am, 10:30am, 11am, 11:30am, 12pm...damn people calling me while I was trying to sleep . Went to help father at his work, got home right after you guys left I'm sleeping all day tomorrow.

 

nice job Austin

 

-the r0cker, who is broke also.....

 

-Victor

 

Nice #'s

 

big-up, big-up

 

Awesome....Now send me my intake already!!!

Seriously- Thanks austin for doing all these tests and allowing us to learn with you, not to mention saving us $

 

The dyno can only tell you that the 2 intakes perform almost the same with STILL air around the car.

Dynos don't do justice for CAI. Trust your butt-dyno.

 

well done

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Saga &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The dyno can only tell you that the 2 intakes perform almost the same with STILL air around the car.

Dynos don't do justice for CAI. Trust your butt-dyno. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Dynospot has fans that blow air while on the dyno to simulate real world accelration.

Austin-How does the intake sound? The sound (resonating fiberglass) coming from the intake could make it "feel" faster.

How clean were the filters?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR#132 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dynospot has fans that blow air while on the dyno to simulate real world accelration. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Unless they can vary the airflow over the whole car from the low mph start point to the high mpg end point there won't be any real simulation. Most fans are for engine cooling, don't rely on them for anything else. Austin can simply datalog intake vacuum on the dyno versus the street. I suspect he'll see a difference.

As I've said before, CAIs can't be tested on a chassis dyno. Time accel runs or butt dyno should work here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SMSP &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Unless they can vary the airflow over the whole car from the low mph start point to the high mpg end point there won't be any real simulation. Most fans are for engine cooling, don't rely on them for anything else. Austin can simply datalog intake vacuum on the dyno versus the street. I suspect he'll see a difference.

As I've said before, CAIs can't be tested on a chassis dyno. Time accel runs or butt dyno should work here.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The other items to consider are the high/low pressure zones that are present when the car is moving. What I have learned is that the dyno runs of an intake don't tell the whole story, but I already knew that and was hoping that I could present some sort of solid numbers to substantiate a gain or loss, oh well.