aftermarket air intake

NOTDADSMX5 · Postby **NOTDADSMX5** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:25 pm

Im planning on changing the air intake on my mx5 and was interested in the mania or mx5 factory CAI but as ive got a NB8B its sounding a bit difficult so I am now considering the Unifilter Rampod with Heatshield as listed on the Mx5mania website.

Anyone used these?

Im sure the performance gains arent as good as CAI but i wouldnt expect there to be a huge difference.
Im also considering going to Performance Exhaust in Ringwood for a Catback system and was wondering if anyone else has used them and what they think of them?

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:40 pm

Please search first.

NOTDADSMX5 · Postby **NOTDADSMX5** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:49 pm

Sorry,
but i did a quick search and didnt find anything,

Matty · Postby **Matty** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:13 am

Performance Exhausts took a big gouge out of my rear bumper and denied it, cnts. :evil:

Exhaust was OK.

Postby **NitroDann** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:27 am

Wow, same as every car everywhere, it wont make a noticable power difference.

there I said it.

Dann

gslender · Postby **gslender** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:26 am

Last night I added a JR CAI, bumped up the advance to 14-16 BTDC, added a 4-2-1 header (heat wrapped) along with new stainless exhaust and hi-flow cat.

The NA 1.6 has some decent kick in it now - from about 4,000 it now has a new surge that keeps going strongly up to the red line.

I'm sure each of these mods on their own would do little, but combined, I can say for a fact the engine is very different with a very noticeable surge of power.

My advice - plan to do a few things or none at all. Often getting the engine to breath better requires a few things to be done and doing only 1 barely results in much of a difference. Think of widening only part of a section of hwy... it would hardly make much of difference to the traffic flow.

G

RawSouth · Postby **RawSouth** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:59 am

In my opinion, the best intake available for the NB8B is the SMB system.

And you are in luck, Regie has one for sale.

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:43 am

Also DDM, Autoexe & DIYs:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30885
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=32121&p=412814
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=45248
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=38147&p=494817

In terms of the Unifilter Rampod - save up for one of the others mentioned in this thread or DIY.

snshami · Postby **snshami** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:26 pm

I have often wondered whether a CAI or a louder exhaust actually makes a car faster or only appears to make the car faster. If you consider that one of the cues we naturally use to judge speed is louder sound.

Does anyone actually have before and after DYNO curves that show the difference.

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:53 pm

The T&C exhaust does provide a power increase and certainly the aural difference is appreciated by most. What of course is a factor for some is weighing up the cost of an upgrade to the return or whether there are other priorities like living costs which limits the spend on the car. The CAI may be a different story and drilling holes or cutting out firewalls etc simply rule it out for some. Those driving NA's 1.6l have a power disadvantage to those with NB's 1.8l but power is not the only factor. If a car feels fast , and MX5's do , then the perception is often enough especially if there is a good soundtrack from the engine.

Tony · Postby **Tony** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:23 pm

93_Clubman wrote:Also DDM, Autoexe & DIYs:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30885
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=32121&p=412814
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=45248
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=38147&p=494817

In terms of the Unifilter Rampod - save up for one of the others mentioned in this thread or DIY.

A noticable exception here is the IL Motorsports over the radiator cold air induction system.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=388631

I fitted one up over the Christmas break and am very happy with it. Looks extremely neat and most people think it's OEM.

I reckon it would certainly pull in more cold air than a behind the headlight system and you don't need to cut a hole in your firewall either. Servicing the filter is easy too, you don't need to remove the front wheel to get to it.

I also got a T&C system (including a steel cat) installed on the way home from Phillip Island last December. Now there is a noticable increse in throttle response, although the "power band" has moved up in the rev range somewhat. YMMV!

I've been meaning to write up a thread about the install process (installation takes less than an hour), but just haven't got around to it yet. I'm happy to throw up a few photos if that helps in the meantime.

Regards...

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:28 pm

Tony wrote:
93_Clubman wrote:http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=45248

A noticable exception here is the IL Motorsports over the radiator cold air induction system.

Tony, you mentioned it on page three of the above thread, but certainly worth reiterating with the additional detail: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=45248&start=30

Tony · Postby **Tony** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:36 pm

Apologies to the OP for taking this thread somewhat offtopic!

A couple of photos to illustrate the IL Motorports system. Basically you remove the existing system, then undo the two top locating straps on the radiator and lay it back, using the new shroud to locate it. The air box then draws air in from the front of the radiator (1st photo).

It takes less than an hour to fit.

Only two provisos:
1. Standard radiator only; will not work with large aftermarket alloy jobs
2. You need to remove the standard bonnet support rod as it will foul the airbox. You need to install gas struts to hold the bonnet up (see photo 3). Again, this will only take an additional half hour and you only need to drill two small holes into the existing hinges. The rest of the strut and air box kit bolts up using existing fastenings.

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:39 pm

snshami wrote:I have often wondered whether a CAI or a louder exhaust actually makes a car faster or only appears to make the car faster. If you consider that one of the cues we naturally use to judge speed is louder sound.

Does anyone actually have before and after DYNO curves that show the difference.

Matty, a forumite, authored the following article Free-Flowing an MX5:
http://www.autospeed.com/A_110680/cms/article.html

There are also dyno charts here:
viewforum.php?f=43

ak_perth · Postby **ak_perth** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:07 pm

snshami wrote:I have often wondered whether a CAI or a louder exhaust actually makes a car faster or only appears to make the car faster. If you consider that one of the cues we naturally use to judge speed is louder sound.

Does anyone actually have before and after DYNO curves that show the difference.

There was only one reason why i fitted a Mania CAI and Sports Cat Back exhaust to my Clubman, and that was more noise! Any improvements to performance would be an additional bonus. Many manufactures of bolt on performance parts claim pretty optimistic results. I was under no illusion that my car would suddenly gain "x" amount of HP.

I didn't dyno it before and after but what i can say for sure is that the noise the car now produces makes it "feel" faster and definitely more exciting, involving and enjoyable to drive.

People's tolerance to noise is of course subjective, but for me the level of noise my car makes now has truly transformed it to my perception of how a "sports car" should sound. Money well spent IMHO!

Cheers

AK