[Official] "Which intake should I buy for my Z?" thread.

[Jordo!]

Originally Posted by Methodical4u

Good, honest post. Here is the issue though. The Stillen's Injen's are king when it comes to gains because of the simple fact that they are getting the coldest air possible... period.

There is NO way to get air any colder than ambient for obvious reasons, so no matter what set up you have if you are getting outside air in... that's as good as it's going to get.

The only way I would know (and i'm no mechanic) would be to increase the amount of air going into the engine and of course we could do that with FI, but without it, I suppose maybe a filter that has a higher CFM, but then the question has to be asked... how much air can an NA engine actually take in? You can design the most elaborate system in the world, but that doesn't mean that all of the air is going to be able to be sucked in and used efficiently.

As far as bang for the buck, I agree the post maf tubes and better filters are going to be the best way to go. I don't know how much power the fang vents would add, but it would have to be at least a few hp I would imagine. Here the problem is yet again though, how can they be tested? You could put a fan in front of each fang and test it if you knew the mph of the air and how much it was cooling the engine, but then, how accurate would that be?

If the stock set up with fang vents would work... where would the power band be? Would the ram air be able to compete with the G3's at the top end with that air being forced and sucked in at the same time or would it fall off?

All questions that really cannot be answered in all reality. There are 2 ways to tell, a dyno and 1/4 trap speed... i'd be interested to see myself.

Both the OEM airboxes and the G3's take in air from the same place -- in front of the radiator. There's ducting to the OEM airbox, so it is just as much a "cold air intake".

Fang vents on the OEM airboxes wouldn't hurt, but it's unlikely to make THAT much of a difference.

The key difference on the G3's is most likley just that cone shaped filters tend to flow better than panel filters.

The SRI's usually lose the OEM ducting to the bumper (at least as far as I know), and are open on the top, so they may get more heat soaked. Fang vents for those might fix the problem.

Not sure if it would show on a dyno... it's an empirical question.

Originally Posted by NFSZ86

Just got mine G3s from another member for 265 had to wait a while though =)) just bc I was waiting on some used ones. But let me tell you everyone says they're the best and look good as well, can't wait to install them this weekend.

THAT is an awesome deal. Even if the gain over modified OEM was on the low side, that's only about $50 more bucks over the cost of tubes and panel filters. If I could find the G3's around that price, I'd happily experiment with the swap!

Originally Posted by Methodical4u

Jordo, I assume you have seen this Stu’s 370Z Dyno Tune | Specialty-Z The numbers aren't to bad, however there is no HFC's or TP's ... which as we all know is the most restrictive part of the Z... if one of the 2 were installed, it would likely be quite close to the set-up with the G3's would it not?

Those numbers look about right for those mods and a tune (compare with mine in the Proven Power Dyno Thread). Wish I could see the correction factor used tho'.

If you look at the difference between mine and the other car that dynoed last time (one of my recent posts) there were two places that showed pretty decent gains, everywhere else differences were fairly trivial, including the very peak values... that's why I have been skeptical of the value of G3's.

Still, the gains at points under the curve appear to be a bit greater than I thought, which is why I see them as being worth more $$$ than I had originally thought (but I still think ~$500 is too much!!! That's me -- I'm just being frugal ).

On the other hand, if you have the cash, don't mind pulling the bumper, love the sound, etc. etc. then by all means go for the G3's -- they do make more power than the modified airbox -- but they aint cheap.

I'd still like to see a definitive back to back comparison. If I can get hold of a set, I'll definitely do it to see what the gians are with everything else held constant (the compariosn between me and the other car wasn't a perfect one).