DON'T!!!
I went to the Dyno last night at the AutoLabz here in B'ham.
Dyno'ed with my stock intake and drop in K&N filter.
245HP 228Tq
Later that night after it had cooled down a bit, let the vehicle cool down, i installed the ole CP CAI i purchased when i knew nothing about the vehicle when i first bought it.
Dyno'ed,
I LOST 8 hp and 7Tq, came in at 237HP and 221Tq.
Never, i repeat NEVER, buy a no name CAI!!! I can't speak for other CAI systems but, i just can't believe that they gain any power either since the airway is longer and has too many curves.

 

+1

I witnessed it.

 

+1. I too witnessed this with the Injen CAI at the first Central Florida Dyno Day.

 

That makes me feel good about my choice to go with just the drop in, but how many pulls with each did you make?

I ask, because I noticed on my baseline that the first pull was the weakest, then the next two were consistently 15hp higher than the first. The dyno owner said he did the local Z club dyno day and all the other Z's did the same thing...the first, cold pull was the weakest.

 

Yeah how many pulls did you do with each and how many miles did you drive with the CAI prior to re-dynoing? We all know the ECU is picky.

 

What i did was reset the ECU then did 6 WOT runs on the way there.
Let it cool off then had 3 pulls.
I did this for both intakes.
Had 6 pulls total.
That was the best run. The other 2 were both 236hp.

 

I am building one right now that will suck right under the air dam .. I will do a b4 and after track test

 

I did 6 pulls that day, 3 at a time. Horsepower tended to slightly increase per pull, like .5-1 HP per pull. The 1st set I didn't let my car cool down, and temp. was 104.49 degress F @ 30% humidity. 242, 242, and 243 HP with torque 229, 229, 230. 2nd set of pulls I let my car cool down for a couple of hours, and temp was down to 90 degrees F @ 60% humidity... I got HP of 248, 249, 251 with TQ of 236, 237, 238. This dynojet is new, calibrated, and SAE corrected. My gain probably had mostly to do with letting my car cool down (compared to the last 3 pulls earlier in the day). A/F looked a little better with a cooler engine too (not quite as lean the 2nd set).

I have had my JWT popcharger w/ heatshield for about 1 year, and close to 10K miles I think. The test pipes only about 6 weeks, with a few hundred miles on them. I have never reset my ECU, ever... I now have 27k miles on my '03 Z. We have 93 octane gas here in AL.

 

Pretty bold statement for someone with only a few mods. I know nothing about the CAI that you used but I do know that with my many mods, the Injen CAI makes a huge difference over the stock intake with a K&N drop in. No dyno testing, all out at the 1/4 mile strip with real world application.

 

Dyno it and see what happens. Let us know. Agreed i don't have the mods but, just seems to be the common belief. With that many mods it may be different since you changed the stock setup so much.
I was running 14.0 -14.1 typically while hot.
Changed to K&N and stock and run 13.9 typically while hot.
Sounds like 8hp loss change to me.

 

I thought it was known (to most) that the stock intake is one of the best out there (with aftermarket drop in...K&N, greddy etc).

Thats why I returned my Nismo CAI even b4 installing. The only other popular CAI that I've seen being used is the Injen...but I'll stick with stock!

 

Popcharger all the way, no regrets.

 

Love the Pop Charger

 

Yea that one too...but I don't consider it the traditional "long tube" (through the body ...and out the engine bay) cold air intake.

I considered it as well.

 

I went with the popcharger because of this independent review:

http://www.nissanperformancemag.com/june03/350pop/

Take a read, you will be surprise that out of all the CAI, the popcharger had the best performance.

Here is a quote:

"Not wanting to mess around we put the car on the dyno immediately and recorded the biggest gains we.ve seen on any 350Z yet: 6.5 hp at the wheels! The driving difference was noticeable, springing a welcomed quickness to redline. To say we were amazed is an understatement. It.s not that we.ve ever been let down by the POP-Charger but it usually gets out-gunned by the fully piped Cold Air Intake. What a welcomed discovery: the most affordable intake modification we.ve tested makes the most power."

$110 bucks... beats all the CAI... You don't have to be a brain surgeon to decide.

 

Not to discredit the effectiveness of the Popcharger, b/c people do seem to get good results on the dyno with them, but I don't think this article is reason enough alone. It's not a CAI shootout or comparison test...hell, from that statement it looks to be the ONLY intake they've tested.

 

I took 2 months to read and research which intake to get. After reading that article, it was the turning point into ordering it instead of just reading about it.

"...the most affordable intake modification we.ve tested makes the most power."

I don't know about you, but from that line, people would deduce that they have tested other intakes. Or maybe I don't have as good a command of the english language anymore? When they use "most", I can only conclude that they have tested other intakes to say that the popcharger makes the "most" power.

I know dynos are not a good basis to decided on something, but you know that if there wasn't a dyno, people would call it to question that it makes the HP it claims to make.

 

No need to be smartass ZlleH...but that is a unsubstantiated conclusion you are making, meaning they provide no proof of other tests in the form of subjective or objecting testing data. Whatever "most" and "we've" means is left completely to the imagination.

Dynos are the only conclusive objective data we have to substantiate claimned manufacturer's power gains.

Anyway, I'm glad you're happy with your choice. I would rather see a full comparison before making a decision if someone has that. Did SportZ ever do a shootout for intakes, like they did for exhausts?

 

ZlleH, I see we have the exact same mods with the Borla and JWT Pop Charger. You know I don't believe the POP gives all that much performance, maybe 2 hp somewhere at the most, but I'd be surprised at that. It was the cost and the sound effects that sold me on this unit. I love the sound of it and the Borla duel exhaust working together. I would not trade my POP for anything right now unless a proven miracle intake were developed.
I wonder if you might feel the same way?
Anyway the sound from my Z is going to change after the 1st week of Sept. so I hope it is for the better. Certainly I know the new power will be dramatic.
But it will be very interesting to hear the new upgrades for the first time.

 

Hey, sorry. After I wrote that line, I thought it might have sounded smartassish. But if you can tell with my previous posts, I'm not too great with spelling and grammar.

But I would think that performancenissanmag.com have tested other intakes. To there defense, they never said that article was a comparison article.