NEW K&N Intake -the actual production kit-detailed pics
 

OK so I got the K&N kit the updated one in exchange for them using our car at HIN here in Kansas City this weekend. I took several pics to show the comparison between the old and new kit. The new kit also uses the stock airflow straightener from your stock airbox to reduce turbulence. It was kind of a PITA to get it in between the intake tube and the heat shield but I have a method to make it much easier. ALSO PLEASE disregard the vaccuum canister in the pic, dumbass me forgot to put it on the back side of the heat shield it was 1:30 am and still 90 degrees out and I wasn't thinking to clearly. DOH!

Anyways, there is a VERY noticeable difference in power, idle quality and noise levels with the new kit. The car doesn't shakes or have an idle fluctuation like it did before. At high revvs there is also no sudden change in power when the remaining ports open above 5k. It is still LOUD but in a good and less violently vibrating and buzzing way in the interior of the car at full throttle.

I'm very pleased with the re-design. I think anyone that buys the kit will be extremely happy. On with the pics.

New filter and old filter
http://club.deathguard.org/upload/Showoff/Filters.jpg

Old heat shield new one
http://club.deathguard.org/upload/Sh...eat-Shield.jpg

old intake tube and new tube with filter adapter
http://club.deathguard.org/upload/Showoff/Tubes.jpg

On the car
http://club.deathguard.org/upload/Sh...ake-on-car.jpg

With the engine cover
http://club.deathguard.org/upload/Showoff/covered.jpg

i just saw in car and driver that they garuantee 10 hp. HOPE ITS TRUE! haha
It looks better in picture, but it still looks good.
Did it get deeper in sound or more of a high pitch noise?

the new one looks much better than the old one..

Looks like they stole the design from RB.

Yeah it's so guaranteed the 10 hp that when Tuner magazine tested it they got like 4 hp.

whats the model/part #? did a search on http://knfilters.com but found nothing :confused:

Thanks for posting. It will be nice when more folks get this intake, it will be interesting to see how it really compares to RB's REVi.

..but is there an actual cover for the filter element to protect the intake charge from heat? One of the biggest problems with the original Typhoon kit (I think) was that it sucks in a good amount of hot air creeping in from the engine bay. The OEM airbox is completely sealed away from the engine compartment and only takes intake charge from the air duct in the front.

You also must realize that the original Typhoon kit blocked incoming air from the front air duct thus, using the air around it. This design uses that air duct to feed air into the intake system.

Thanks for posting...can't wait to get word about it from actual users.

I am an actual user. It is MUCH better than the old one.

Still don't understand why they just cut it off about 2-3 inches from the front of the air duct hole on the bumper, why not continue the tube right up to the hole? Too much heat is able to still get into the filter.

I would buy this in a second if it came in an enclosed sealed box ala RB - looks like K&N didn't skimp like RB and actually gives you a piece to replace the damn stock accordian style rubber pipe :rolleyes:

is it better than the RB intake?

I am still going with the racing beat intake and ram duct. Racing Beat does their homework and plus K&N already messed up once on it.

if K&N messed up once and re-did it again, woudn't the revision be better?

otherwise why would they have remade the intake?

If it's supposed to be that much better why did Racing Beat do this

So K&N made the filter, so basically your buying the RB setup without the enclosed box. For that price of each one your better off doing what someone on this forum did and put that same or similar looking filter inside the stock intake box and then ran tubing to the front grill. I'm not buying it either one, maybe the air duct though I like the design, anyone get any numbers for this as far as HP is concerned from RB yet?

It looks like a better design. I'm sure K&N got egg on their face from the first unit, so maybe they called RB & they worked on this together. I would hope the revision is better. Those hokey "10 hp guaranteed" claims are straight up stupid though.

:rolleyes: Kinda looks like RB

RB worked with K&N to produce their intake
RB has limited experience in making intakes
K&N is a whole company based on making intakes

... i wonder who brought more to the engineering table here

yes, i'm sure RB really taught K&N a lesson :rolleyes:

So does that mean K&N's typhoon is just as good as RB's intake or maybe it's better than RB's intake?

only real world dyno's will tell.

From my perspective K&N has a good advantage getting rid of the accordian style rubber tube going into the throttle body, but given the design of the RX8 induction system RB's box should help in sealing out hot engine air and sucking nice cool air in (saying that though there is a slight disadvantage also in trying to draw the air through the relatively small box opening)

I would not be surprised if the K&N comes out with slightly more power.

SHOWOFF :

a video/sound clip/quick review of this intake would be nice....

it sure looks alot easier to install than the REVI, at least not having the needs to take off the front bumper :)


what about price wise? Anyone know the approx price range?

I second the request for a sound clip. For me, that is just as important. Does it have a low growl that does not give you a headache? :)

So, in your words since Bill Gates worked with IBM on DOS (the leader in computers at the time) then Microsoft didn't stand a chance at creating a better PC operating system.

Not disagreeing with you, but just not accepting that because K&N is the expert means that they will create something better.

I'm STILL waiting for that better operationg system from Microsoft!

RB worked with K&N to produce the FILTER, not the intake. If you've ever been to RB and talked with their engineering guys, you'd never make any comments slighting their engineering prowess. Just take a look at their products and how well designed they are, and how they fit right in with stock manufacturer systems. The RB intake looks like it could have come from Mazda themselves it integrates so well with the engine bay.

RB tested intakes every which way including loose and they stated openly that claims of hp above 3 or 4 just aren't credible. I believe them, having been there and seen and listened to dyno runs. I have the RB intake which is a work of art as far as intakes go, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an RX8. ANYBODY claiming 10hp for an RX8 just from an intake and/or filter automatically casts doubt in my mind about their product. If they feel they have to inflate the numbers or misrepresent what their product realistically does, then that tells me they themselves don't have enough confidence to market it as it really is....so why would I want it? If they feel they have to mislead me in order to get me to buy it, then I don't want it... I don't care who makes it.

That's great! A new and improved Hot-Air-Intake from K&N.

I suggest K&N fans get it. There's only one way to find out whether they have made this one right or not. Please note what kind of intake you have at the next Dyno Meets.

It's hard to tell from the pictures but the K&N filter looks smaller than the one in Racing Beat's kit. It also has an open front end where the RB unit is capped off. Does it have the intake horn like RB's unit? I think that would be the key element in either design.
________
Replay protoss starcraft 2

There seems to be quite a bit of Racing Beat bias on this forum, perhaps rightfully so. But I'm keeping an open mind about things. It could just turn out that this K&N design works just as well if not better. We'll all find out, as soon as more people get this intake. I'm just going to wait and see.

I'm also curious about K&N's so called 10 hp guarantee. So what do we get if it doesn't make 10 hp? A free intake would be nice.:D

Where do you get the new K&N filter, I only see the old one. I didn't see it on any webvendors sites.

It's most likely too new for the vendors to have on their site yet. Ask any of the vendors and I'm sure they can order it for you but don't expect them to have it in stock, especially after the bashing of the last K&N unit on this forum, (not that it didn't deserve it)

My guess would be a lot of headache & runaround. :D Getting rebates from vendors is like pulling teeth.

Though it may be better than the first one, it still deletes the airbox. The airbox is an essential part of the resonance tuning in the 8's intake system. Why remove something that was designed to benefit performance? Don't get me wrong, I've used K&N products in the past and loved them, but I'm not sure about their commitment to making an ideal product in today's market of making intakes for every car out there. The FIPK2 I had on my Camaro had a resonance chamber built in, and actually produced a tangible increase in power. It was designed to improve performance, not so much for a lot of their products currently. Maybe it's just the 8's factory intake being so good...I will await independent testing before making a final judgement however. But a couple hundred (+) dollars on a filter, a short tube, and a heat shield...I don't know. The same goes for alot of the other intakes out there.

^well said

i went with Rb b/c of their rep..also with past experience adn from what 7 owners have told me. also they seemed to get the intake right...with the sealed enclosure..now with the duct that is avaliable looks liek teh perfect intake for he rx-8 in NA trim :D

Resonance tuning only works over a very small rpm range - hence we have 6 intake ports of different lengths. Something like an airbox may have an effect over a range of 1,000 rpms at most - the rest of the time the only thing its good for is keeping hot engine compartment air out.

On the downside of the airbox, RB themselves says on their website that "enlarging the oval inlet to the factory air box - +2 HP (this modification eliminates the VFAD intake duct.)." The REVi box does not do this and the K&N will not have that problem. K&N also gets rid of an extremely restrictive rubber accordian style pipe leading into the throttle body which they can do more easily because if you rigidily mount the filter to the throttle body the filter is going to move with the engine - which is no problem unless your trying to seal the filter in a box.

I've read all the threads on both the K&N and RB that I can find and as yet not come across the answer to my question.

Has any one purchased the K&N and fit a RB ram air to it? I can't tell from the pictures if it's even possible (or desireable).

It's not available to the public yet. I got one of 2 production kits. The filter is a handmade prototype because they had some manufacturing issues with the carbon fiber. It will be available soon. I would do a dyno comparison with the 2 intakes but $336 is REDICULOUS for the RB intake. If someone in the St. Louis or Kansas City area has an RB intake I'll meet them at the dyno and we can install both intakes on my car or their car and compare them.

I'm in the St. Louis area and my RB intake is on the way. I'd be willing to do some dyno comparisons between the two, but would like to wait until I get my CZ back from Maurice so I can tune everything at the same time.

They are selling them on ebay and the seller says he will ship the same day - sound like one of us is being lead down a path.

That would be great! It would be nice to get some real facts instead of all the speculation.

I agree RX-Hachi, I want to see some real #s, perferably dyno sheets, and then pass a real judgment.

that thing sure does look cool! Anyone have a pic of the RB intake installed? Does it just look like the factory intake?

racingbeat.com

beers

either way all of these intakes will never produce more than 3-4 horsepower PEAK, theres no way around it unless you go CIA, which is why my money is going to Auto-Exe or AEM. You're limited when you suck in hot engine bay air and only a small opening of fresh air.

You might get maybe 1 hp extra out of a true, tuned CAI on the '8. But the added noise (to me) isn't worth it. Everyone has their own opinions. I'm just glad to see we're finally getting some options around here. The more competition the various manufacturers have, the better the products we get at a lesser cost. C'mon FI solutions!

Don't forget that there are a ton of people that still have the OLD intakes in stock. Trust me there are NONE available for sale yet in this design. Each of these kits is made per order. This one was made just for this show.

Old Intake

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

Old intake

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

Ok. I should know better than to trust anyone on ebay. Your right it was the second one that you showed in your next thread. When emailed the responce was that this is the newest design just released from K&N. Thanks for your help.