i want an intake......i have two choices shell out 200+or- for the comptech ice box and filter.....or spend like 5-15 bux on the DIY intake. what do ya'll think. which will i be happier with?? i have heard of the PCV melting in the DIY intake. dunno if it is tru or not. but fact is the ingine bay is really hot and PVC wasn't made to sit in the engine bay. but it is cheaper.

 

What? PVC melts? I don't know, where's BSQ? Hopefully he'll shed some light into this.

 

not sure if this would make a difference, but how about drilling a lot of holes around the top and bottom plastic covers for the filter.

 

i have a DIY. i just took the stock piping from the throttle body to the box and the stock box. stuck that piping into the stock box and ran it under the car. then i stuck my short ram intake with a small K&N filter in the box and closed it up. I'm actually running with the top open right now and its still running fine. it works great for me and i havent burned my tubing.

i am not sure on the dimensions of the comptech air box, it doesnt seem much bigger than stock. if you have the money, shell out for a mugen. if you notice, mugen's intake has the "box" covering the filter and there it slowly tapers down... making the whole unit become the airbox. this is good because the bigger the box, the better.

if you have any desire to show the car, obviously a DIY isnt good enough.

 

If PVC melts, then why wouldn't the stock airbox melt as well? I've heard of many people using PVC, but never anything about it melting. The air flowing through it should keep it cool too.

BTW, here's what I just did with PVC today: http://www.team-integra.net/forum/di...PagePosition=1

 

http://www.geocities.com/bretq/DIY_Icebox_CAI.html

 

The PVC will not melt. It's well away from any extremely hot parts. I've had mine in there for quite some time with zero melting. Like someone else said, the stock box is plastic, the radiator overflow bottle is plastic, there's plenty of other plastic stuff that gets even hotter. Have some fun and make your own intake

 

wow, Brett's DIY intake is cheap...
maybe i should get one..

 

do the DIY but dont use PVC use mandrel bent piping, u can get it from JCWhitney im not sure of what car you have but if its a g3 teg like mine its real easy. It only takes two pieces of pipe, a 180deg. bend and a 90 deg. bend, and the hardest part is cutting the pipe. Along with the pipe u need pipe connectors and like a can of heat resistant paint, color of your choice. Oh yea and a filter duh. I did it its a full cold air withe the same design as an AEM and im nothing but happy with it, except for when i drove into a puddle that i thought was shallower than it was and got water in my engine but thats a different story. I dont wanna bore everyone with the explanation of how to do it and i cant think of the website where i got the instructions. So if u want to know specifics email me at specialk@neighbornet.net

oh yea total cost was under 100 dollars




[Modified by Specialk, 8:18 AM 8/4/2002]

 

An intake is an intake. I personally am running a comptech icebox with the stock rubber tube. Before that I was running a short ram DC sports. I didn't really notice a difference between the two. I say just get what you can afford, and spend more on something that really matters. I think comptech is a ripoff though, since they expect you to buy their short ram, and use it in conjunction with the icebox cold air attatchment. That comes out to $350 or so....for an intake...what a crock. For that price I'd say just get a used nos kit....I know it will make a hell of a lot more difference than any intake.

 

All in all I am pretty sceptical of thoose who say intakes make a big diff in hondas. They are very expenisve, they can lose low end (cheap ones), they reduce throttle response (bad on the street), make car louder, etc etc. Its not that I am super anti-intake, but for the amount of money that people spend on them they would be on eof the last mods for my honda.
-joe (stock box, k&n, no resonator)

 

an intake is not just an intake... just cuz power gains are minimal, does not mean any intake will do. the BEST set up is a shorty intake with a LARGE airbox and a tube extending to somewhere that gets cold air. MUGEN has a great compact, yet effective design. someone made 7whp with it on an ITR. As for K&N drop in filters, that set-up tends to work best WITH the resonator chambers on and you can expect a 1-2 whp gain. The AEM CAI design makes 12 whp, but only from 5000-6000 rpm... other than that it reduces throttle response and only gives a small gain throughout the rest of the powerband. I'm not a believer in the CAI design. Look at race cars and you will see the filter in a box design... like that of mugen and spoon.

 

hmm, I didn't know k&n worked best w/resonator chambers, I removed it because it is a civic and removing the resonator is the best way to get at outside air. Would you recomend me replacing the resonator?
I agree that intakes, esp box ones like comptech and mugen, help, just for me the cost is awfully high for the gain, esp when marginal gains can be made at a lower cost. But belive me if I had unlimeted funs I would be sportin an icebox.

 

No, don't replace the resonator, especially since you have a Civic. The resonator is just a bunch of useless tubing that basically channels the airflow through them in order to reduce noise. At the same time, the air is not as direct as it would be without the resonator. The other thing is that the resonator actually sucks air from the engine compartment. Not good. Without the resonator, your air will be coming through the hole in the bottom of the stock box where the resonator used to be. You'll get much cooler air this way.

 

Irrelevant Trivia Knowledge:

When PVC was first produced it was HIGHLY flammable. I don't think that is the case now. (hopefully)

No fear though, like it says, irrelevant.

 

PVC = Poly-Vinyl Chloride.... if it gets hot enough yes it can release toxic gases.

Other plastic stuff used in the engine bay is not PVC, it's most likely ABS plastic. Lowe's sells ABS drain tubing... I don't believe it is toxic if it melts, but using it as an intake pipe might still melt or distort the plastic up around the throttle body, so I still would not use it for that purpose.

 

pvc wont melt.. it'll just give you nice toxic fumes! pvc is good for making potato guns tho

 

So does this mean if it gets hot enough, toxic will be sucked into the engine?

 

Below is a dyno graph that showed a LOss with a homeade intake. Stock was 159.9. ECU was reset and we let it cool off as well as had a fan running. Plus the others had the same circumstances so you see the difference.

 

The graph above will appear to have little varience but it is mostly due to the scale the dynojet viewer program has the chart on.

 

The BSQ intake does NOT replace the stock intake arm or box, just the resonator and all associated tubing. This is why most of us aren't concerned with it melting.

 

The graph above with the homemade intake was purchased from BSQ.

Also the dyno is of a Type-R which has a much better stock airbox setup. I suspect you might see a little gain but compared to the 9-10 most GSR's get with an Iceman or AEM or Icebox I would suggest someon dyno test one compared to stock.

 

PVC will not melt in the engine bay heat. I had to put a torch up to PVC and it just deformed. BTW don't breath in the fumes.

 

Uh... doesn't all plastic release toxic fumes when it is heated enough?

PVC is thick stuff, it doesn't really conduct much heat, and there's air flowing through it to cool it down. So, unless you have it in contact with the header or something, I doubt it's going to get very hot.

There's a lot of underhood heat after I put my DC 4-2-1 header on, but my PVC dealy stays nice and cool (as well as significantly cools down the intake and other stuff). I just went on two 120 mile drives yesterday and no problems. My PVC stuff goes right around the radiator too; much closer than your DIY CAI's.

 

I would like to see a dyno comparing the homemade icebox to Comptech's Icebox intake. IMHO even a 1-2hp gain is fine with me for a total of $45 incl. the K&N filter which I will never have to replace again, which also looks totally stock just looking at the engine bay.