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Minor Upgrade to RSX

Posted by mike | Filed under automotive, news, technology

In an attempt to extract a few more modest horses from an already ample performer (that’s my RSX Type-S, for reference – see autocross times from last week) i received and installed a new AEM v2 short ram intake this evening. Nothing special here, it’s just a more efficient way to cram gobs of air down the intakes throat; thus producing more power to the wheels – that’s the cliff notes idea anyway. Many people on the auto forums (who have no lives) will squabble over the benefits of a short ram intake (filter inside the engine bay) versus a cold air intake (filter outside of the engine bay). It’s obvious that a CAI (cold air) system will produce more power consistently as the SRI (short ram) systems tend to suffer from something called “heat soak”. This typically occurs when it is a very hot day outside and the engine heats up to normal operating temperature…it doesn’t take a doctorate to figure out that if the air filter is sucking in piping hot air next to the engine that performance will suffer. Yes, a bit, however anyone running an SRI also doesn’t have to worry about water getting sucked in by the filter in a CAI setup and ruining their engine. Anyway, this is more details than i’m sure anyone cares to read about but i chose the SRI type of setup for a couple reasons: A) don’t have to worry about water B) easier to clean the filter, do not have to take front bumper of car off every time C) heat soak will really only be a factor on very hot days, probably over 90 degrees, which there are not too many of these types of days in MN D) Finally, the new v2 system by AEM is dyno proven to produce nearly the same level of power as a cold air system without the issues stated above.

Now, enough with that, here are some pics of the car when i bought it with the stock setup, the new setup, and the box filled with the heavy plastic crap i took out. I bet it’s a net weight savings of nearly 8lbs, which also helps.