Mugen Intake Box vs Injen/AEM CAI

[Nuci]

Hey all,

I wanted to know what the differences in power, sound etc between these two were on a DC5R. Money isnt a concern (i know mugen is exxy). I have an AEM CAI at the moment, but ive had to remove my foglights and washer bottle, which id rather not do. Plus it leaves a huge ugly hole in the engine bay. So if the mugen is going to give the same performance i would consider it.

Any help would be great. Cheers.

[Jump]

if money is no concern then get a gruppe m intake

[Nuci]

Well it's more the fact that I have found a mugen one for a good price 2nd hand. It's hard to come by 2nd hand gruppe m intakes

[Nuci]

Also, i'm aware that the mugen airbox has that little pipe that let's air in, if I was able to make that larger, or rerun an extra one to try increase airflow would that improve performance at all?

[45SET]

I assume you sent me a PM on boost... I'll just answer on here.

You don't NEED the Mugen front bar for the Mugen intake to work. I've been running my Mugen intake with my stock front bar for 3 years, and have NEVER had a problem with it. At one point I actually removed the grill to make more of a airflow for the intake, but noticed no difference.

Basically a quick run down on intakes for the DC5

Injen - Arguably the best intake you can get for the K20. Offers a great noise, and gives noticeable gains in top end power. There are no real problems with this intake. People that have a cry about "hydro lock" are kidding themselves. As has been proven time and time again, you have to drive INTO a lake and let the car run for it to take effect, splashes of water onto the filter do not effect the engine
Mugen - Great intake. The shear size of the panel filter, and the bottom half of the air box is MASSIVE, which is a very good thing as it can hold more air (durr). Again, no problems with this intake... expect for people saying you need to buy the Mugen front bar for it to work
Gruppe M - Again another great intake. Draws air from a cowl at the base of the window, and then feeds air to a pod filter. Again the air box itself is fairly large. Only problem with this intake is that SOME people seem to have problems with the cowl vibrating... a lot.

So going from Injen to Mugen you'll notice a drop in top end, but this is mainly due to a placebo effect, because you can't hear the Vtec crossover point as loudly, so you don't think you are going as fast.

At the end of the day for a car that is still running stock ECU, you'll loose maybe 2-3kw (which you can't feel with a bum dyno) and the car is going to be quieter... but you'll have a Mugen intake. Which is more important, overall power and noise, or JDM brownie points... I know which one I would choose.

[Nuci]

Well I plan on upgrading the ecu in the future. So can you hear the vtec crossover at all with the mugen? Coz from what I heard it was the same as stock. And is it worth getting the upgraded mugen panel filter for it?

[VTec1987]

if ur after power gain and aggressive cross over, get INJEN CAI

[45SET]

Well I plan on upgrading the ecu in the future. So can you hear the vtec crossover at all with the mugen? Coz from what I heard it was the same as stock. And is it worth getting the upgraded mugen panel filter for it?

Yes you can still hear the cross over clearly. It is nothing like stock.

When you buy the intake it comes with the Mugen Panel filter, there is no upgraded one. The stock filter in the OEM airbox is a pod.