[sudev]

Originally Posted by GTO

The Civic-specific kit brought me over 4 horses.....

That would be on account of this filter or only the shield giving 4 horses extra?

[kutlee]

Fix one end to the front grille (best) or front lower grille or fog lamp area and the other feeding the air intake. This should provide a better intake system, with colder air.

Beware not to suck up rain and get into intake. Do not do a direct feed.

Now a few things i've learnt from all the research I've done, Turbo cars dont really require a CAI setup, as the air going into the turbo is going to be heated again, so it doesnt really make too much of a difference.

Turbos require CAI since lower the intake, lower the compressed air temp and lower the intercooling required and better cylinder temps.

To cool the air further you require an inter-cooler which then cools the air before it gets into the engine. This makes a big difference, so you will see that a better intake system (overall, not just a filter) will be one of the major investments a car junkie would make before he went all out!

Intercooler is mandatory for performance. But intercooler will rob some engine radiator efficiency.

[aayushnair]

Originally Posted by kutlee

Beware not to suck up rain and get into intake. Do not do a direct feed.

Turbos require CAI since lower the intake, lower the compressed air temp and lower the intercooling required and better cylinder temps.

Intercooler is mandatory for performance. But intercooler will rob some engine radiator efficiency.

Hi,

Thanks for the info buddy.

I've made sure that the probability of water sucking up the intake is very low, as I've not removed the lower airbox cover which practically covers the entire filter from below - the direct air feed is from the stock air intake where the OEM system gets its air (grille).

I'm not planning to install an inter-cooler right now, I'm focussing on maybe a free-flow exhaust sytem (cat-back)

Still doing a lot of reading, any help on this would be appreciated (by all)

Here are the things i'm actually looking for:
1. How will the car sound, I dont want/like the farting sound? I want more of a refined vroom than anything else.
2. Will there be a performance improvement (with a cat-back) or should I go with a turbo-back?
3. Are there any cons?
4. What about the exhaust emissions on a cat-back compared to a turbo-back.
5. What kind of monetary damage am I looking at?

Also, Skoda had installed spacers on my car as per a "circular instruction"
I'm not really happy with this mod, it really increases the height of the car from the front leaving an ugly gap.
I want to remove them, the car suspensions were fine before they were installed.
What are the benefits of installing the spacers other than increasing the ride height?

Cheers,
Aayush.

[devilwearsprada]

A friends car had been DIY'ed by us for a CAI install. Now, the problem is it requires a good clamping and welding. Need a professional who can do this in Delhi/NCR.
Some outrightly refuse to install products not bought from them, the others charge horrendous amounts of money for the same ~Rs.3000.

[abhijeetsng]

Originally Posted by devilwearsprada

A friends car had been DIY'ed by us for a CAI install. Now, the problem is it requires a good clamping and welding. Need a professional who can do this in Delhi/NCR.
Some outrightly refuse to install products not bought from them, the others charge horrendous amounts of money for the same ~Rs.3000.

Try contacting Arush of Autopsyche. He might just do it for you.
He is on the forum too.
Drop him a PM or just drop down to his workshop. Google Autopsyche for the address.

Cheers..!!

[joybhowmik]

hi Aayush. Good DIY. One thing bothers me, with the naked filter. Everytime you go for a car wash/engine wash you would need to get it covered?
Also in heavy rains, if you drive through flooded streets, sloshing water, would it not get wet?

[aayushnair]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

hi Aayush. Good DIY. One thing bothers me, with the naked filter. Everytime you go for a car wash/engine wash you would need to get it covered?
Also in heavy rains, if you drive through flooded streets, sloshing water, would it not get wet?

I have to be extremely careful on those visits to the car wash facility to ensure they dont pressure wash the engine area.
Just recently I had been to one and I made sure he only cleaned the bay with a damp cloth (no wash).
During the rains, I dont feel the water will get there even as the car has an under-engine cover (Skoda's Rough Road Package) - plus the filter sits exactly over the existing under cover of the OEM air intake (so its blocked from down under!)

Now with the heat shield, i've also added an extra cover for those splashes if any from the front grille (if any, highly unlikely).

Cheers,
Aayush.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by GTO

The Civic-specific kit brought me over 4 horses : Link.

That said, there's no denying that sucking in air from the outside would make things even better. Have seen a lot of new cars whose air intake plumbing starts from above the radiator grille.

I have similar experiences with other cars. Depends a bit, but a free flow filter gives you 2-3% extra HP. It also tends to improve pick up in the low rev range and produces a better sound.

The point about sucking in hot air is relevant and to some extend offsets the potential gains. So i dont use these cone fliter anymore, but I get the K&N replacement filters that drop straight into the cars filterbox. Obviously, you dont get the full gain, but you dont need to modify anything and you dont need to worry about hot air being sucked in.

Do take note of the proper maintenance, as pointed out by others. No air blowing, proper cleaning, drying and oiling with the proper fluids is the only way to go. Dirty filters dont work as filters. They make things worse and restrict airflow into your engine.

Jeroen

[kutlee]

free flow might not be of much use for your purpose. you will have to live with some resonance and can be irritating.

[aayushnair]

Hey all,

Bringing back an old thread, just wanted to share some updates with all.

Its been around 9 months since I installed the K&N Filter, here's an overview of whats happened since:

1. Initially felt the throttle response was much faster to begin with but as the temperatures in the city rose (Summer Months) I could feel the low end pull getting slower possibly because of the higher air temps. So installed the heat shield.
Since then the pick-up in the lower revs has increased again and it felt much better with the car gaining momentum much faster than stock.

2. Now the heat shield's been there a while too, but since about 30 - 40 days back I started feeling a lack of response again, especially in the lower revs. I know my high rev response and acceleration felt better but it just took time to rev freely if you understand what I mean.

3. In came the search for a filter cleaner, 'cause that's what I figured it could be because of. I bought the K&N Filter Re-charger Kit and while it was being cleaned went back to Stock intake for 2 days.

I felt the power return, and the car pulled so much easier now, I started to worry if the Install was actually worth it or not. Still decided to go ahead with the cleaning and followed the instructions on the kit and got an almost new looking filter again!

That kit is awesome, the cleaned filter actually looks like its from out of the box and hasn't been used before except for a few scratches on its aluminium head cover!

Any-way I wanted to see if there really was a difference in this vs the stock so as mentioned I drove around for 2 days on stock to get a feel.

5. Re-installation of the K&N and my Heat Shield took an hour, and I was back at checking if it really made a difference.

What came next was what I think I had forgotten when I had purchased this filter! The acceleration and throttle response, lower end pick up was excellent! It had improved quite a lot over stock and felt so much better. The rpms increased without much lag from 900 or 950 easily to 3000-3500 (I dont push harder than that, beats the purpose too as torque an power range is max around this). The grin was back on my face and my investment in the filter was justified. What a relief.

So for all those who may face this, please ensure you're cleaning your filter regularly (i've now kept a schedule to clean it again in another 5000Km this time around).

I didnt take any pictures of the cleaning process, so sorry about that.

But I will share a few pictures of the car as i've made a few cosmetic changes through some stickers and badges, soon.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Aayush.