real life driving results vs dyno Intake specifically

TPrelude-370z

Now by all means I am no expert in this field nor do I claim to be. This is just my own thoughts and I wanted to test the validity of it by other people.

Intake dyno numbers have varied from intake to intake, dyno to dyno, temp to temp, etc... These are a lot of variables. I know nobody really wants to hear this, but the most important dyno in my book is the butt dyno.

My thinking on intakes is they are most utilized and efficient while driving at speed with tons of fresh air flowing through. The faster you go, the faster and more volume the air flows. I do not believe a dyno can come close to replicating this.

Yes the dyno has been the standard for so long and is a great tool to use in testing performance increases of many modifications. I personally do not believe a large fan blowing on a stationary hot car/motor that has no consistent air flowing through it to keep it cooler. Really, how much is that fan really simulating.

I have been surprised that this has not come up before but I have had this thinking for a while doing my research on the threads here and weighing the variables.

I do agree all intakes are not created equal and there are definitely poor designs that restrict instead of add power. I have a real life testimonial from what I experienced today. Take it for what it is, but be open minded.

I got the stillen g2's used for 250$ shipped which I thought was a great deal. I researched intakes and dynos and designs for a long time before making this decision. I believe the stillen intake is just an improvement on the oem intake which flows very well already. Putting the intake in and comparing the components to stock, the difference is very obvious in favor of the stillen.

Everything about the stillen intake is better, bigger, more open, more free flowing, etc... I had hks drop ins prior to this which made a huge difference in acceleration by themselves. I really only got the stillen for noise purposes, but in my mind, no matter what anyone had posted, they would make a substantial performance increase.

Now everybody has a butt dyno, and everyone thinks theirs is accurate, but lets take that out of the equation as I have no reason to hype this intake up nor try to impress anyone with how fast my car is or big dyno numbers. Here are my experiences in order of mods.

*erz resonated test pipes - huge power increase and decent sound increase

*test pipes plus hks drop ins - again, more increase and smoother acceleration sound changes negligible.

*now add obx y pipe to the above mods and we have a very free flowing machine. The plus of the obx is significant power, way more than I anticipated based on dyno and reviews of other pipes. The sound increase was very nice as well. The only downfall is the legendary hiss.

*I then matched the 3" outlet flange of the obx y pipe to a 3" y transition down to 2.5" midpipe straight to the muffler without resonators. This increased power a bit more and opened up the exhaust sound even better. Cleaned up the hiss sound to a smoother one, but still very much still there.

*So now to the reason for this post. I just installed the g2 intakes this afternoon and went for a short but enlightening test drive. The pull was incredible. The car felt like a powerful v8 and screamed all the way to redline. I loved the deep tone you hear from the intake towards the higher rpms.

Now I don't know for sure if the reason for such a noticeable improvement in power is because this is the first intake mod compared to all the exhaust mods, all I am saying is I know what I feel and it is not just placebo.

Moral of the story is depending on what mods are done when, and in what order, one power adder can seem small because of the other mods involved, and vice versa. I read a recent post where someone mentioned a huge increase in power (dyno) due to an intake yet believed it was because it was his first mod and the exhaust mods yielded minimal results compared to other dynos.

Again, I do not believe when it comes to intakes a dyno can be an accurate tool. I like the short ram over cold air from experience. The faster response is unprecedented over the colder air which is not that much colder.

Thanks for reading