OK.. this totally baffles my mind since AEM and most performance articles I've seen, claim that AEM makes the best performing intakes (including short-rams) out there.

Here is a picture of the 3" chrome pipe and filter that I bought for under $80.00. I was unhappy with it only because it wasn't CARB legal, and it didn't have a nice mounting bracket like the AEM and others. Other than that, it performed well... especially after I took the stock box and resonator out and replaced it with a dryer hose to my front air dam. My high end power increased considerably (in conjunction with the DC header and RS*R exhaust that I already had).

Recently I purchased a nice polished AEM intake to replace it. It came with great instructions, and hardware to mount the intake, as well as the CARB sticker. The pipe is very well constructed and fits the car perfectly. After resetting the battery, I went out to test it. I was astonished to discover that my throttle response was noticeably less, and my high end power above 5000rpm was very weak. Acceleration performance was greatly diminished... it felt like the car was being choked.

I didn't believe this was possible, so I tried using my older filter on the AEM pipe to see if the difference in filter designs was to blame. When I did this, there was little or no change in performance. I reset my battery again and swapped in the old intake pipe again and it was like driving a different car! The high end power was back to normal and the thottle response was much better. The change was like night and day. I continued to test both configurations and even swapped the filters, and each time the same thing happened.

My theory is that the larger intake piping on the generic chrome pipe (3" compared to AEM's 2.5"), as well as the fact that the AEM pipe is bent at a sharper angle than the generic pipe might have a great effect on the air flow characteristics, and thus performance of the intake. This reminded me of an article I read about the J's Racing short ram intake that has the huge tsuchinoko intake chamber. Somehow this increases throttle response, but I don't know the technical details.

Please help me come to terms with this... I have to return or sell my AEM intake now

Here is a picture of my generic chrome pipe:

 

then you should have bought a 3" short ram from aem why not CAI??

 

magazine's sell ad's to car company's. AEM is a car company. Unfortunately, editorial honesty is lacking in the general marketplace.... sorry dude! Super Street's gotta pay the rent too!

Ebay that sucker and cut your losses!!

Note: the only magazine whose integrity i trust completely is Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. Completely independent (but a big enough outfit), thourough and willing to write negative product reviews if products don't perform. Gets waay more technical than the average mag (cept maybe Sport Compact nowadays)...

http://www.grmotorsports.com

 

There's not that much AEM engineer into a short-ram intake that'd make it so much better. Short-rams are one of the only areas in which I'll completely cheap out. Ractive and APC ownz j00!

 

i was just curious, where's your plug wire cover?

 

btw your intake doesn't have CARB sticker so it wont pass the smog. keep the aem and put it when you r gonna smog it.

 

Well...not necessarily. I do know the APEXi intakes are exceptionally well engineered...kinda like the older HKS intakes from years past. Over the past 8-10 years, I've seen some questionable things come out of AEM though....heard some wacked stories too...

 

i heard apex-i's filter is well engineered and it's expensive. it gives gains as far as i know. it's not that bad.