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hes saying tube length plays a big factor in how much power you see and where you see the power. yes 2 identical tubes will be the same, but its unlikely that 2 companies (especially 1 being well known and doing tons of R&D, and the other being a cheap ebay knockoff) will produce 2 intakes that are exactly identical.
AEM didnt just take a 3" pipe, make it fit, slap a filter on the end then decide to sell it for 200+. no one would buy it if they did. im sure they look at all the variables (length, diameter, etc) and optimize them while still making it fit to the application.
They AEM short ram intakes are the same shape and length. Their cold air intakes are designed to fit the car, they don't do any "acoustical tuning" to determine anything. Its a tube. A 3" tube.
I can give you an example of what I'm saying by referring to Calesta's article on the Home page of the installation of a AEM Hybrid intake. Note the tube leaves the throttle body at roughly the same angle as any other short ram intake, such as the short ram he shows in the picture that he originally had on the car
This intake is the exact same shape, size, and has the same angle as my generic short ram intake. The intake he is replacing it with
is also a 3" tube and leaves the throttle body at about the same angle as the short rams do
Compare that initial angle with the one on the short ram above, and you will see that they are the same.
So what then determines the rest of the length of the new Hybrid CAI? The location that the manufacturer wants to draw the "cold air" from.
In "engineering" the short ram, the manufacturer wants to draw air from the area above the fenderwell, hence when
that initial section of identical 3" tubing comes out from the throttle body at basically the same angle as the AEM CAI, it continues just far enough along that same angle to place the filter at the end of the tube into that area above the fenderwell.
By contrast, the "engineers" at AEM want their CAI to draw colder air from the area
just below the fenderwell. Thus what did they "engineer" into their CAI's shape? A downward bend that then curves to the left in order for the filter to draw air from the desired location below the fenderwell. Just like in real estate: Location, Location, Location. There is no "engineering" in the bends, people.
The tube is bent...to fit the car, not "engineered for maximum performance."
If it were the shape that counted, then all AEM CAIs would be exactly the same shape and length, and you'd just have to chop up your car's frame and rearrange the engine compartment to accomodate it, other than just a simple mount replacement because the mount was in the way of the tube's final destination. That's why the shape of each intake is different for cars that don't have similar layouts under the hood. If the "engineering" line of thinking were true, then the CAI for a Ford Mustang would be the same as that for a Honda Civic. In fact they are just shaped so that they can draw air from the desired location, and bent to fit the car application. That 90 degree bend at the end of the CAI isn't a good thing. It's a consequence of having to draw air from that location, and it's compensated for by the long, somewhat straighter run to the throttle body bend.
I will acknowledge that the larger section in the upper section of the AEM V2 CAI does allow for a sort of "air supply reserve" to supplement the flow capacity of the intake beyond that of a normal 3" tube, thus giving the engine the potential to make more horsepower.
However, what I am referring to is intakes such as most of AEM's, that utilize 3" tubing throughout. The only thing that separates a 3" short ram from a 3" CAI, is where the air is drawn from and thus the temperature of the air, and the flow capabilities of the filter. That's it. There's no engineering, only accomodation. Don't get me wrong, AEM probably makes some products that have to be intricately modeled in order to extract the best power gain, but a 3" tube with 90 degree bends in it ain't IT.
Wan't proof? In the current issue of either HCi or Turbo, I can't remember which one (sorry), they dyno test a AEM CAI on a B18C1 with header and exhaust. The car gained 5.6whp. Password JDM's carbon fiber short ram intake makes peak gains of 6.5whp and 7.4 lbs/ft of torque. Note: the B18C1 makes about 170 whp stock and the head flows almost identically to the stock B16A tested with the Password intake, so the gains are fair to compare.
click
It's a short ram. Granted it's got a nice bulge in the middle giving it better reserve air capacity, but it's still a short ram. Now it could be argued that this intake would eventually possibly be drawing in warmer air than the CAI and thus wouldn't be putting as much horsepower to the wheels as it did on the dyno. But then we're back to the argument of air temperature. Still not research and development or engineering. The bottom line, and the whole point I'm trying to make, is that there is no "engineering" that goes into the AEM CAIs other than
how to make the intake suck air from the fenderwell and still fit YOUR car.
Ultimately, there are no scientific formulas being applied in laboratories to come up with the shape of the 3" tubing. It's bent to get the fenderwell air to your intake manifold, and that's all there is to it. I'm not saying that my generic short ram intake is gonna put 5 to 6 hp to the wheels. Until I or someone else dyno's this thing against the factory intake setup, no one's gonna know other than a person driving a car with the setup, such as myself, who feels a noticeable difference in acceleration from 3k rpm to 6k rpm. However, there is no way to justify paying $250 for an intake that the same (or better in the case of the Password CF intake) can be had for a lot less money. AEM sells intakes for $200 to $300 because they
they can!. They have the brand name recognition to get away with it. AEM
does make a quality intake, but you don't have to pay the AEM price to get the same level of performance.
Somebody shoot me please. Jesus how big is this frigging post?
really! well then guess I am a ricer....
at first i was wtf, but i caught that you were asking a question later on and I edited my post.