[EURO] Mugen or GruppeM airbox

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Originally Posted by Tobster

I find it interesting that so many people are prepared to pay for big wheels and body kits that don't do anything (wank factor?) but don't like paying for performance mods...

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Yes i remember a time when a Hyundai Excel would roll by, with the full works done, giant wide body kit, with a fake scoop on the hood, big spoiler, and a nice point job, chromies.. and the car is worth peanuts... for quality, build and performance.

With that amount of money invested, you would've had quite a reasonable vehicle.

But Tobster, i am flinging the term 'wanker' very loosely. I don't mean everyone who would buy something for name brand is a wanker. I'm being very general.

My family have owned a few mercedez, the name plays a factor, but the comfort of the cars are in a league of their own imo.

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Originally Posted by VirIIx

i am flinging the term 'wanker' very loosely. I don't mean everyone who would buy something for name brand is a wanker. I'm being very general.

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I understand that -- I'm being fairly general myself and have gone off at a tangent spouting bedroom philosophy! :)

IMO, coz mods don't really do that much to the performance of any NA car, I find it difficult to justify for expensive performance mods (eg mugen airbox instead of an Injen since I'm getting the filter jsut for the noise).

Different story for handling mods.

Tobster,

MUGEN developed the Mugen airbox specifically for CL7 EURO R K20A engine,(which has less torque than the CL9 K24 unit) so I'm guessing it's to do with not loosing the torque down low.
But then again, Mugen never developed an open pod style CAI.

It's a bit hard to justify paying X amount of money for the Mugen when you can get the same performance from a INGEN for half the amount.

Fair enough!

I just like investigating all options, regardless...

I think the difference seems to be in the "type" (i.e. where in the rev range) of performance.

Between cars, mortgages and a dozen other things, I get very picky about what (little) I choose to spend on mods so I like to investigate things before I part with the $$.

I'm starting to think cat-back exhaust may suit me better...

Cat back exhaust gives you very little performance gain actually.

If you don't mind the noise, best bang for buck is definately INGEN CAI.

I opted for Comptech ICEBOX is because it's not noisy as my exhaust is loud enough & I favor more torque down low.

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Originally Posted by baboo

Cat back exhaust gives you very little performance gain actually.

If you don't mind the noise, best bang for buck is definately INGEN CAI.

I opted for Comptech ICEBOX is because it's not noisy as my exhaust is loud enough & I favor more torque down low.

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Spot on baboo. My last car had a CAI and i loved it, a bit loud tho - at least.. my mother didn't like it. With comptech, similar performance, a nice rumble (not as loud but a lot nicer than stock) and most of all.. mother can't hear/notice it haha :)

How about extractors? do you think that would make a difference? I know they do in some cars.

The thing is with the Euro that you're already dealing with a fairly high output NA 4-cylinder (certainly compared to most 4-cylinders), so really all you're ever likely to get is a little bit here or there...

It's doesn't seem to be one of those cars where you can say, "There's heaps of power hiding in the..."

I don't want to start another hydrolock conversation (I will always argue that the chances are negligible), but do you find the Comptech Icebox sucks a lot of other crap into the airbox? I know the opening is pretty large...

i haven't opened mine up yet to check. The concern is there but from memory it is sitting right behind my fog.

Perhaps yfin, or peekay have opened up theirs to look at in the past few weeks?

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As far as performance goes, i believe you can squeeze a little bit here and there out especially with the hondata ecu flash. Any small modification that i indend to do - i don't have my mind set on mass performance. I feel it's more of a refining in performance.

eg. comptech revs a bit happily 3500rpm~ and above (better response), but the car vibrates a bit more when idle now because of the loss of the resonator - or so i believe that's the case.

If someone wants performance and has the money and isn't happy with what's on the market - turbo/supercharge it up.

That's overkill for everyday driving - where the hell are you going to use that much power on the roads anyways.

ECU > CAI > Header > high flow CAT > CAT back exhaust

K-series engine has ALOT of potential, 150Kw~170Kw is easily achievable with the right mods. And that's staying with N/A. With turbo/supercharge we are talking another story.

Mugen Airbox. No doubdt. There is a reason why Mugen put so much effort into making an intake system. First of all, the Mugen Airbox for these models are dually-resonated - which means a great deal when it comes to performance. Since the entire intake chamber of the car is resonated - from intake to intake runners - the resonation helps keep the air moving upward the intake arm.

The stock intake on your car is really good, and there is no need to change it at all! If you do choose to swap it out, you don't go cheap on an intake - because the intake system is crucial to performance on these engines. Using a simple intake system will in most cases result in a performance decrease.