anyone know if a K&N CAI if worth it??
 

So i recently got an 04 rx8 and was thinking about buying a K&N cold air intake (69 Series Typhoon Kits to be exact). I was wondering if anyone here has installed this or any similar air intake kit on their 8. The K&N website claims it will add 11.15 HP, but i'm highly doubtful a simple CAI kit will add this much. Btw i installed a K&N CAI on an 02 mustang i had and got a fairly significant power boost, so I'm tempted to believe the 11.15 HP boost claim. Anyways, your opinions would be great for helping me decide whether to spend $250 on this kit. Thanks everyone

9/10 people on this forum are going to tell you "Dont do it unless all you are looking for is a louder engine bay".

ya that's what i figured, the rotary is way different than i'm used to in my other cars so i sorta guessed a CAI wouldn't be as efficient. Think i'll just stick to bone stock for the time being. thanks

#1 DONT DO IT!!
It sounds good but u actually lose HP with it

I've heard it loses hp from others as well. That's surprising, esp since K&N is pretty reputable. I'm wondering how it loses power. Like is the stock air intake just really good to begin with?

:yesnod:

From what people say... it looses power from being a short-ram intake and sucking in all the hot air from the engine bay back into the engine....

Thats why people mainly stick to the RacingBeat w/ Duct Intake, and Mazdaspeed/AEM Cold Air Intake, and many will suggest just to stay stock.

Dont do it unless all you are looking for is a louder engine bay

the K&N typhoon kit still sucks up a lot of hot air from the engine, and is fairly loud. The Racing beat REVi is alot quieter, and you wont lose any HP, but wont gain enough to have a noticable difference.

Totally agree. I had the MS CAI, but I traded it up with extra cash kicked my way for the Typhoon II SRI. I have to say there is definately a difference in power. I had much better response with the CAI, so I would go that route if you want an intake. I would also highly recommend the MazdaSpeed. The only reason I switched is because of the adverse weather I see here in ILLinois. The filter was prone to getting wet from time to time, and I didn't want to risk hydo-locking my engine. It hic-up'd a few times with a damp filter. Anyways, after having both, go MS.

thanks for the advice, ya i'll probably look into getting the mazda CAI instead if its cheap.

My pleasure! You won't be disappointed with the MS intake system. AEM is essentially the same thing, as AEM produced the MS intake as well. Considering the fact that you're in NM, you shouldn't have the worries I had about hydro-locking and I'm sure your car will appreciate the ambient hot air vs. what's baking under the hood!

I own a K&N typhoon. It definitely increases the engine bay noise, but as for what people are saying about it decreases power, I don't believe it. I took my car for a ride after I installed it, first thing I noticed was the incredible sound, second was I was accelerating a bit faster than normal; and finally, I am receiving better gas mileage(not that it matters to me). I wouldn't push you to get it, but I wouldn't tell you not to get it.

I have to agree That I personally notice a slight performance increase with the typhoon 2 over the stock intake and filter. I know others will argue my point, but it is my true, personal observation. That being said, the CAI did Have better performance compared to the typhoon 2. I'm still happy with my personal choice.

I can comment on this as well.

A month ago I took my Typhoon off and went back to a stock intake (with the baffles removed) combined with a Racing Beat ram air duct. Here are some of the things I noticed:

1.) There was an IMMEDIATE gain in low-end power. At around 3000-4000 there is a very noticible increase in power. It was so noticible, in fact, that the second I pulled out of the driveway I was surprised by it.

2.) There was an IMMEDIATE loss in high-end power. From an indicated 8500rpm to an indicated 9000rpm there was a noticible loss in power. You could feel the car starting to drop off towards redline. When you shifted you'd feel the surge in power come back up and then drop off. With the K&N installed the car would surge at around 5000rpm and pull nice and hard the whole way up to redline. With that said, that could very well be an indication that there was a gain in mid-range power (with the stock intake re-installed) the rest of the way up to said 8500rpm loss. I haven't been on a dyno to see. I am simply basing it off of what I felt on the butt-dyno. My personal opinion is that I probably lost a lot of mid-range power with the K&N installed which made any gains in the upper RPM range feel much more noticible. This same exact thing happened with the K&N intake on the 2006+ Honda Civic Si's and was shown on dynographs as well. It made your car feel faster when in reality it was actually slowing it down because your average horsepower for each gear had actually dropped! A gain of 5whp at the PEAK of your powerband doesn't really matter if you've lost 5-10whp everywhere else in it, and I think that's what happened with the RX-8.

3.) It has taken a while, but for most of this time when accelerating the car has not been nearly as smooth across the RPM range. You could really feel each actuation that happened across the RPM range to keep the RX-8's engine making power. It's now back to those not even feeling like they were there, but I was surprised at how long it's taken the ECU to re-adjust to the stock intake. I make it a point to reset the ECU on any car after I install an intake on it (to give it a fresh start on how it's reading the incoming air) and I do the brake pedal ECU reset as well on each one. It took the ECU a much shorter time to get used to the K&N intake than it seemingly did with the stock intake!

That's my viewpoint on this. I took the Typhoon off because the idea of 100 degree summers combined with stop and go traffic scared me, especially when you consider my '04 RX-8 is still on it's original engine. I very dearly miss the amazing noise the K&N produced, but I'm sure my engine is thanking me for what I did.

Interesting take on this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I ended up creating a "ram-air"
pipe, similar to the attached thread, that seems to work nicely. All in all, I think I'm sticking with the K&N, but I would have to agree with your overall findings. Very nice job.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-aftermarket-performance-modifications-23/cheap-ram-air-147791/

I got K&N when it first came out. Version 1 AND 2.

1 was total trash so I sold it (good luck to whoever got it from me on ebay)

2 was ok, people keep saying "I got lost of power" but hmm I didn't notice anything. maybe my butt dyno is out of calibrate ? who knows. but one thing to keep in mind is that I use K&N Version 2 with Racing Beat duct.

I also had Mazdaspeed (which is just AEM), its not bad, I never had problem with rain.

Im back to stock already and sold the Mazdaspeed (yea I still have the K&N if anybody is interested), main reason is once you understand how the Mazda system works. You will be surprised most if not all of the intakes out there (with the exception of RB, I think they really understand Mazda's system the most) will give you something in one area but losing something on the other(or simply not gaining anything)

BTW, AEM IS K&N. K&N bought AEM long time ago.

#1 DONT DO IT!!
It sounds good but u actually lose HP with it

There were datalogs posted up that showed when moving a K&N that has a nice amount of air being routed to it (whether that's by cutting a hole in the bumper or using the RB duct) that temperatures were equal to what was outside. When you stopped in traffic, however, temperatures almost immediately skyrocketed to whatever temperature it was in the engine bay (I think temperatures of over 200 degrees were logged at one point). Start moving again and it went back down.

Seeing those datalogs scared me enough to get me to switch over. I miss the sound and I miss how it pulls up towards redline but I didn't want my engine being subjected to that kind of torture when I am stuck in traffic, and here in Johnson County (KS) stop and go traffic when you're driving around in the city is here to stay. You can sit at a single traffic light alone for a few minutes easily some days. :(

im the one who traded with Neverl8.

and what i noticed was yes i love the ms cai it is awesome but the K&N did sound a lot better .

the ms with my legamax is a little farty in the lower rpms.

but its back to sexy above 4

For my first 10-15 minutes of driving on a cold night (after car is warmed up of course), it feels and sounds absolutely amazing and my intake temps are roughly 5-10 over ambient (measured via dashhawk).

After a couple stoplights and a little heatsoak, my intake temps rise (and stay) at roughly 20-30 over ambient and it feels like a loss of power. At higher RPMs the sound gets choppy and it feels like my car is starving. No bueno.

BTW, at stop lights, sitting for about 30-60 seconds, my intake temps spike to over 120 degrees due to sucking in engine air....

SN: I have a carbon fiber duct feeding air into the intake, couldnt imagine how shitty it would be if I didnt....


It looks great, sounds decent, but provides zero gains. I would recommend it more as a show piece than performance piece. In fact, Im trying to trade mine for a stock one presently, I have a WTT ad up right now ;)

Butt dyno...

is the K&N drop in filter as bad as the rest? Thats what I ended up getting....havn't put it in yet though. Didn't wanna waste time with any CAI and worry about water puddles

The gains provided by the k&n panel filter are neglectable, the loss in filtering power is not. Is it worth it?

hmmm....ok point noted