Performance (Aftermarket) Honda Acura Cold Air Intake Systems. Get The Horse Power at Your Wheels

     There is power that can be unleashed from your engine simply by up grading your air intake system with a performance one. The air intake system’s job is to take outside air, clean it and deliverer it to the engine so it can be mixed with fuel and burned. Sound like there is not much in to it, but there is a good amount of horsepower that you are not getting just because the air intake system is a stock one.

The engine is a giant air pump, the easier the engine sucks air less power is being waste to get the air inside of it. The number one problem with the stock air intake is all the turns, bends and chambers that the intake air has to go through in order to get to the engine. The purpose of the chambers is to make the air intake quieter, the performance air intake is slightly louder then the stock one. Every turn that is on the way of the incoming air or every chamber  that it has to go through is making the engine to suck air harder. The harder the engine works to get the needed air less horsepower goes towards the wheels. The second problem with the stock air intake system is the air filter. The filter  has quite a resistance for the air flowing through it. Usually the air filter is made from a couple of layers of paper and the more dirt gets in to it the harder the engine has to work. Simply by putting high flowing air filter in your stock air intake instead of the stock one  will gain you some horse power. K&N is the leading manufacturer of high flowing air filters. K&N makes OEM replacement high flow air filters for nearly every car. The K&N filter uses a free breathing filter that can flow up to 100% more air then the stock air filter. The K&N filter is also very durable and can be washed and reused many times over and over again, saving you a lot of money. Usually the horse power gain from a drop in filter is from 1.5-2 hp. The limitation of a drop in filter is that the size of the filter is the size of the filter originally designed by the manufacturer. If the Honda or Acura was designed with a tiny air filter your drop in filter is going to be tiny too.

    The second solution for you to gain more horse power from your air intake is a cone style open air filter. These filters are racing type cone shaped air filters with a large area for filtering. The bigger the surface area of the filter the less restriction for the incoming air flow the filter will have. Cone filters usually have an adapter that bolts on to the cars intake pipe, replacing the stock air filter and air box. Cone filters typically give you between 2-3 hp gains.

    The third and best solution is a performance Honda Acura cold air intake system. It could be a short ram air intake or a cold air intake. Short ram air intake has a shorter pipe than cold air intake. When installed the filter of the short ram is somewhere in the middle of the engine compartment near the fender, as opposed to the front bumper for cold air intake. It depends on the year and make of the Honda Acura if there would be short arm or cold air intake available for it. Most of the air intake systems, no matter short ram or cold air intake, use mandrel bent pipe to replace the restrictive stock rubber pipe. Most of these pipes range from 2.25" to 3" in diameter and from 12-30 inches in length. Some of these systems can be plumed to the front of the car to take advantage of the high pressure air coming from the front of the car.  The colder the air, the more oxygen it contains and it is also denser. Colder and denser air makes extra horsepower for you, because it compresses easier and the extra oxygen helps for better fuel burning. These performance air intake system will typically add up from 4 to 6 more horse power. Air intake system can increase the gas mileage too by reducing pumping losses. There is a downside of a cold air intake systems. Water from the road can be sucked through the intake if you go through a puddle in a rain storm which can damage your engine. They can pick up water because the air filter is mounted all the way in the front bottom of the engine compartment ( this does not apply for a short ram cold air intakes, they are way up and there is no chance for water getting to them, unless you try to cross a lake). Many cold air intake manufacturers such as AEM have thought about that and have come up with a solution for the problem. The way they fix the problem is by making the intake pipe in to two sections so the air filter can be mounted quickly higher in case of rain. Some air intakes have a special bypass valve that is going to redirect the airflow to a higher intake if the intake sucks up water.

Performance Honda Acura cold air intake systems and cone type filters are much louder then the stock intake system, so if you are sensitive to noise that is a thing to consider when building a performance Honda Acura car. Cold air intake and short ram are the best way to go if you want an easy gain of horse power. Nothing else will do the job better than them. It is not a huge horsepower gain but every horse counts. Performance cold air intakes are very easy to install and they do not require any special tools. All you need is a couple of wrench sockets and a screw driver. They come painted in a variety of colors and the filters are washable. Good manufacturers of performance Honda Acura air intake systems are AEM, K&N, Weapon R, Skunk 2, Injen, Vibrant and Pilot. Performance cold air intake, short ram or cone type filter can be installed on any Prelude, Civic, Integra, RSX or any other Honda Acura car.