Stainless Steel Mesh Air Filter
 

I have located a company near my home who tell me they can manufacture a stainless steel fine mesh filter for my 8. Has anyone had or heard of this type and if so are they recommended? Apparently the filter will out perform the K&N variant. Total cost for manufacture and fittment £80. Secondly can I assume that the ECU will automatically compensate for any increased air flow (if any)?

Regards Peter

Hi, I kind of not recommend the stainless steel mesh filter, cause it won't hold the dirt too good. But stainless steel will give you super big intake noise (I don't think K&N will come close or foam one will), also the stainless will give you the most hp at high rpm range.

there won't be "increased air flow".

Correct me if I'm wrong but 'yes there will'. Is this not the point of aftermarket filters? To increase O2 flow and simplistically create a greater burn? If not then why bother if only to give a greater induction noise.

There have been many threads talking about this. THe RX-8 has a very impressive factory intake. I haven't seen anyone posting more than 2-3 hp gains from intakes. And even then some people have been posting hp losses. Most importantly if the MAF sensor sees turbulance from a change in the intake you can have serious problems. If the spin of air causes the MAF to think it has less air going in than than there really is you'll run lean. I only have one word for that. BOOM.

It is the point, but not always accomplished. It's like buying random stuff for your car from eBay...they claim great things, but it isn't always the case. I wouldn't mind seing results, if you don't mind being a guinea pig. If you read around the board, the sentiment is to keep the stock box and add a new filter. Mazda spent alot of time tuning this box along with the SDAIC.

The airbox design makes more of a difference for flow than the filter does. If you do get more flow, it won't be enough to feel. Everybody knows my stance on intakes.

The point of aftermarket air filters? That depends who you ask. For the manufacturer of the air filter and intake, the point is to sell as many as possible. For many of those vendors, that means creating hype and demand for a product, often way out of proportion to the actual benefits. There is huge hype about intakes being some sort of golden guaranteed solution for added power - but it simply isn't universally true. Sure, your generic econoboxes with cheap, poorly tuned factory intakes can benefit from a replacement intake/filter. A better engineered vehicle (like, specifically, the RX-8) has an extremely well engineered intake from the factory. Why do you presume that a few kids in a back room can adapt their Honda Civic intake to an RX-8 and do a better engineering job than the Mazda engineers?

The facts are as stated by the others - an aftermarket RX-8 intake is worth at best 6 hp, all above 6000 rpm (dyno'd for the RE intake). Below 6000, it makes the same or less power than stock. Other intakes make no more power anywhere, and usually less. Why are they sold? Because they're louder, and there's a market demand out there for intakes, so they're profitable for the vendor to sell. That's it. Do NOT presume that just because it's for sale, that it's a good product.

Regards,
Gordon

Nice work rg and Gordon. Just about exactly what I was getting ready to write.

BTW, Ft. Liquordale it's SDAIS (Sequential Dynamic Air Induction Sytem) and the VFAD (Variable Fresh Air Duct).

how about a K&N filter drop in, are they any good? Will it make it sound louder?