In this episode of Mighty Car Mods
We've got the Honda S2000 on the dyno, and we're going to battle it out. A cold air intake system versus the factory air box
Welcome to another episode of Mighty Car Mods proudly supported by Just Car Insurance.
Now, cold air intakes Marty, the world is crazy for 'em, aren't they
Yep, they love starting chatter and discussion
(and arguments, Marty)
and arguments, that's true.
Oh, it's a really simple mod, so you can understand lots of people do it - all cars need intakes
And so you know freeing them up making it flow better get more air into the engine so you can put more fuel and make a bigger bang
makes your car go quicker.
Now, we have done a video on cold air intakes with turbocharged engines before, that was with an R34 Skyline
But today all of you guys have been saying "do a cold air intake
myth-busting episode on a naturally aspirated car" and because I'm on the hunt for more power
We've brought the S2000 down to Haltech and we're going to battle it out today, so we've got a quite expensive
Aftermarket cold air intake which came on the car, and then we've got our hands on a factory air box
So we're gonna do a couple of runs three power runs on each using the last run because that's gonna be kind of the most
Significant and accurate number, and we're just gonna see which one makes the most power
And that's the one that we're gonna leave on the car.
A factory air box is often a compromise between
packaging, noise suppression and performance.
The idea of a cold air intake is that you relocate your air filter away from the engine bay heat
And potentially make it flow better, too
It's a commonly held belief that this will make the car develop more power. Colder air is denser
So if you add more fuel you get a bigger bang, which means more power. Well, that's the science anyway
But will it work on our Honda in the real world?
It's time to find out
So we're here with Tuning Fork of course who's our resident expert of all things that go choo choo and bang bang and whistle whistle
I have no idea what that means, but of course he's helping us with our myth-busting today. Now, Tuning Fork,
It's a stock s2000
How much power are we gonna make today like are we gonna make this 35 horsepower that I've heard on the Internet?
Look, I don't think so because they do make a lot of power for an aspirated motor
But the intake system is... it looks pretty good anyway
By putting a pod filter on it or removing all the factory intake system,
I don't think we're going to make any more power
If anything we might lose a little bit of bottom end.
Is it true that, I've heard some anecdotal
Evidence that RX8s with aftermarket intakes are losing power due to the removal of the like highly engineered intake, is that correct?
That's right
So on the RX8, because it's a two-stroke engine [Wankel Rotary], the intake
System is critical with the way that it works with the way the air enters, the air speed,
So they've actually got a really really skinny intake system through a huge resonator
mm-hm
And what that does is it speeds the air up to get into the two-stroke - if you take all that off and put a pod filter on?
You've just removed all the engineering so you'll actually end up losing like low down power
Yeah
on this car because it's such a high-tech engine
I think that probably will do the same thing, it might lose a little bit of down low
Might pick up something up high but the intake system is so big anyway that I highly doubt it.
Okay, can we just cover one thing off and that is that
one of the kind of, when these arguments happening all over the interballs
and and everyone's like "cold air intake versus this" you know one of the main things that people are always saying is
"you put a pod filter on you don't get more power. The reason you didn't get more power"
They say "is that ECU hasn't learned that there's a pod filter on there" the ECU
Hasn't been tuned that there's more air on there. I mean what?
Can we kind of put that to rest yet?
We can it's not really the case because you've got a manifold pressure sensor and an airflow meter sensor in or and
in some cars
As soon as you go to a pod style air flow meter, the ECU knows how much is going in so it uses closed-loop
Strategies on the intake sensors and on the exhaust sensors to adjust the tune so, on the dyno,
We'll give it three runs
So that'll put all of that to bed. The third run is the run where the engines heated up. It's done whatever learning
It's going to do all the trims are in place
That's what it's going to make.
The Honda came with the cold air intake on it when we bought it
So we're doing our first run with it already installed then we're gonna swap back to the factory setup
Because this is such a hotly debated topic we put up a poll on the mighty mods forum and 35% of people
Said a cold air intake will make power. 8% of people said it'd lose power and the overwhelming majority of people,
57% in fact, said it won't do anything
I've heard some pretty wild claims from resellers of cold air intakes that
Promised 10 to 20 percent gains and, while I think it's highly unlikely that we're going to make those kind of figures, it'd be
Awesome to see some higher numbers. We've done two runs and now we're doing the third run so this is the one that matters
So it's 132.5 kilowatts, so that is the number to beat or to be beaten by?
With the factory airbox, we should see this number go down
to justify the cost of the cold air intake apart from aesthetics of dampening down the noise of that ah
Which is crazy?
You can hear at about three and a half thousand rpm. You can hear that resonance in the intake
Yeah
Which when we're putting the other box back on we'll have a look at the resonator the thing that actually takes that noise out of
It for a factory car yep
And we'll see that that resonator is actually you know if it's a restriction
And what is doing and if it's actually affecting the power so, so... people that is the number 132.5 kilowatts
at the wheels that is with the aftermarket cold air intake. Now we put the factory system on, who's excited?
I am it's gonna be amazing
And we'll also just put that in horsepower as well.
Oh there it is!
So horsepower at the wheels
This is the system that came on the car from the factory
Including this!
Hello!
Um, so now we put all this stuff back on
See what happens!
Because the S2000
has such a high powered naturally aspirated engine a huge amount of development has gone into this intake system
This is evident, not just in the cone style filter, but in the whole intake design
The factory setup is bulkier and heavier than the aftermarket one which is another consideration when deciding how to modify your intake
Manufacturers are trying to keep bugs dirt and water away from the engine. If your intake is dragging through puddles
You're gonna kill your car.
Other considerations for car companies are emissions and noise and believe it or not most customers buying new cars
Don't want to hear their VTEC y0
Across all three runs, we've lost power compared to the aftermarket cold air intake system
So, here are the result, people!
We've made five kilowatts with the cold air intake system on the s2000. Now, across the board
We've made around two or three kilowatts. Which is a small game, but up high there's five kilowatts. Now,
I would say for people that are into their choo-chooing snail turbo cars
It's probably not a big difference, but for a naturally aspirated car that's considerable right?
That, to get 5 kilowatts up top
I didn't expect it to make that much power in the top-end
Percentage-wise for an aspirated engine that that's a noticeable gain for not a lot of money.
Yeah
That's like 3% or something right an increase
So you can see that it did lose a little bit of air speed right down low here
When the engines are making around 40 kilowatts. Yeah, it has lost, maybe one kilowatt simply because the air speed has slowed down because
Also the air speeds increased, sorry, because the piping diameter has got smaller. It's more of a tuned intake system at the moment
Yeah up top. It's clearly restriction. It's picked up like you said 3 to 5 kilowatts
The air fuel ratio when we've gone back to the factory system has richened up a little bit
Showing that there is like a there's a vacuum in the intake system, so this is well worth doing to the s2000
We've also done a cold air intake test on a turbo car and we've tested some performance filters on the dyno
Which you can check out on our channel.
So there you have people! Cold air intake
Uhhmmmm...
S2000 a little bit more power boom so go get jiggy
Enjoy your unicorns follow us on Faceballs of course: faceballs.com/mightycarmods
Thank you tuning fork ladies and gentlemen
And thanks for Martin for coming along because I know he hates the car, but thanks for coming along anyway, man
And there it is! Happy days. See ya, peeps!
Does that mean it staying?
Yeah, leaving it on there
That intake?
No, no that will not know we're putting the cold air intake back on there Martin
So you think 5 kilowatts is enough to beat me at the drags?
Amongst other things, yes
But um, like, well.
I probably shouldn't get too much into it now Martin, but you're actually fired for the next couple of episodes mate
We don't require your services
Right...
Uh, you've made your feelings very clear about the Honda
And so you can take a nice little holiday, you can go on a sultana picnic with your mx-5 mates
I don't know what that is, but I'm sure it's not pleasant
And we'll see you in a couple of episodes time, Marty, so I'll take the camera now because we don't need you anymore
I'll see you later Marty!