I'm thinking about picking up a new intake and throttle body for my Z. I'm not really expecting too much of a power gain, maybe just enough to be noticeable. I'm just trying to help the engine breath a little easier. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, I'm very much new to nissan. I was eyeing the throttle body on 350evo, and the AEM CAI. I know that AEM did a fantastic job with their CAI for the old saturns (yeah.. saturn, I know). They managed to engineer a rut in the HP curve right out of the engine, just with the intake. Does anyone have any opinions or experience with either?

 

THe AEM intake is a good intake for the Z. But, i'll tell you from personal experience, no matter what intake you go with, it's only a modest gain at best. The Z's intake is pretty good stock. Sure there is HP to be gained, but not a whole lot of difference between intakes available. The best bang for the buck, and by far most popular are the JWT pop-chargers.
Next in line are the Nismo intakes.
I have the most expensive intake you can get for this car, the gruppe m, and it's not worth the money, just bling factor, lol.
In this case, cheaper is probably better if budget is a concern. Cold air intakes produce more hp than the JWT, but it's not really noticeable, and thus for the extra money, not really worth it.
I did a while write up on the intakes a while ago, just do a search for it, you'll find tons of info and comparisons.

 

I think that someone has said that the 350evo throttle body does close to nothing, maybe like 2-3hp.

 

Yeah, I didn't expect the intake to add any HP at all really.. just looking for that nice low RPM growl. I found a cheapo one on ebay for $15 with free shipping, so I picked that up. Could be interesting, next maybe the popcharger.

 

15 dollar intake for the Z? Good luck with that. This is a Z not a Saturn, mod it accordingly (do a little searching ahead of time).

You probably wont notice a low rpm diff in sound, most of the difference is heard above 4000 rpms.