After my first dyno and rather dissappointing results, I had a theory that my K&N was actually costing me horsepower after seeing other cars on stock elements pull higher numbers. Last Saturday I dropped in a "secret" paper element to see if I was in fact losing HP. My butt dyno told me that my car was pulling a bit harder between 4-6K so off to the dyno we go.

Today SKiDaZZLe and I dropped by Speedworks in Lewisville, TX to do another three pulls. I had my new "secret" air element and he had his new INJEN to test. Fortunately for apples-to-apples comparision's sake, the temps today were actually just a bit warmer (70-71 degrees) than the first runs back on 02/01 which averaged around 67-68 degrees.

Below are my runs 003 and 006. Roughly one month apart, same temps and ~1500 additional miles on the odo since the last time out at 8700 miles. Mods on Run 003 were a K&N and grounding kit. Run 006 was "secret" air element and a grounding kit.

003 yields 237.2 HP and 234.6 TRQ
006 yields 241.6 HP and 238.7 TRQ

Note the air/fuel leaness today vs. 02/01 as well...



For historical purposes, here is data from all six runs:

02/01/2003
001 yields 235.4 HP and 232.6 TRQ
002 yields 236.5 HP and 234.1 TRQ
003 yields 237.2 HP and 235.1 TRQ

03/08/2003
004 yields 241.2 HP and 235.1 TRQ
005 yields 239.4 HP and 236.9 TRQ
006 yields 241.6 HP and 238.7 TRQ

CLICK HERE NOW to reveal my SECRET air filter element!


SKIDAZZLE'S RUNS
Mods on 002 are K&N and grounding kit. Mods on 003 are INJEN intake and grounding kit.

002 yields 241.7 HP and 237.9 TRQ
003 yields 241.7 HP and 238.1 TRQ



So what's the bottom line? We seem to be all over the place with the 350Z numbers from numerous member dynos. The K&N clearly cost me power and the INJEN did NOTHING for Michael's car. These mods may and will probably produce different results on YOUR car, but take into consideration at what cost to see a loss in my case or ZERO gain in Michael's.

 

Interesting. How long ago did SKiDaZZLe get his Injen installed?
Is the gain you experienced from your ECU getting use to the Intake, rather than using the different filter? Maybe get SKiDaZZLe to test his in a month with whatever filter he has in there now...

 

you should take those "secret" filters out of the box and put your packaging on it and sell them for double the ##

I would love to hear K&Ns take on those #s

 

Great post !!!

I have yet to see any sizeable increase in HP or torque that can be directly associated to an intake modification to the 350Z. I think the results of your test confirms my thoughts that the original intake is pretty hard to beat. It was very interesting that the K&N did so poorly, surprizing is a better word. I have never held much respect for the K&N replacement filters, although on other cars I have experienced good hp gains with a K&N cone type filter.

Good work guys !!!!

 

Michael dropped the INJEN a while back. We both drive the **** out of our cars, so the ECUs should have plenty of data to make adjustments.

 

Michael and I joked about that. The FRAM filter is under $7 at Wal*Mart. We thought about buying a shitload of them, re-badging them and selling them for $40 a pop.

 

just a note: i installed the injen on 2/8... i have added 300 miles since then.

main thing that stands out on the graph is the leaness of the run with the Injen.. now this should have made power, but it didnt..

i will say that the injen looks good, and sounds terrific under load... i can't say that it improves HP, though...

wasnt injen going to have a dyno day soon also (maybe today?!?!)

m

 

maybe when the ecu is cracked you will finally see the gains a CAI should yield

 

I did this same tests exept I did 3 pulls with K&N 2 pulls with stock and one more pull with K&N. The hp went up every run. So the final run with the K&N was higher by one hp. The runs with the stock filter went up by 2 each run and the K&N went up by 1 (went something like 232 233 233 235 237 238) K&N Stock

 

do a run with no air filter or a simple sheet of paper nothing beats that.

but not in the desert

 

Interesting guys... I guess we need to start printing up FRAM stickers and putting them on our windows?

Below are my numbers when I ran with them in Lewisville on 02/01.

001 yields 232.2 and 231.4 TRQ
002 yields 237.2 and 235.4 TRQ
003 yields 239.6 and 237.5 TRQ

My Z is bone stock with about 5000 miles on the Odometer at the time.

You think there is any way the combination of your grounding kit and air filter has diminished returns from your air filter???

 

i remember reading a comparison of a k&n filter vs. a stock paper element a couple of years ago when installing an intake system on my dad's 280zx. it stated that k&n filters air at a rate the same as a brand new air filter does. also, i read that the k&n filters get better as they become dirtier. the best performance gains using oem parts can thus be seen whenever you install a brand new paper element.

 

LOL, Fram!

Does anyone know why we're all getting such varied dyno results? I dynoed at what? 249 or 246 or so, but I still see people getting results in the low 230s, even though we all used a Dynojet.

 

Thanks for confirming what I've thought all along!

 

Lol...nice packaging.

2-3 hp fluctuations could be the result of heat, humidity, air density, or even farting near the intake during a pull. I wouldn't buy an intake unless I only wanted to do it for looks or sound.

Thanks for the info.

 

those spikes on the top end are kind of scary... did you hear any detonation at all?

what step plugs are you running?

am i reading the A/F ratio correct? once you started getting the spikes, Run 006, the ecu started to go a little RICH and then back down again...

the maximas had this problem when we were boosting at around 5500, we changed to 1 step colder plugs and it smoothed things out a bit,

but i wouldnt think that Texas would be that hot right now, was your engine heat soaked? was there a fan blowing into the intake?

perhaps crummy gas?
stop going to ARCO!

 

here's the weird thing..

i had the squiggles with k&n, but not with injen (see pic above)
brad didnt have squiggles with k&n, but not with fram (see pic above)
michael-dallas had squiggles with k&n
silverzman didnt have squiggles bone stock (see pic above), and neither did colecatZ (bone stock run).

it doesnt correlate to anything that i can see... just happens on some runs...

 

Thanks for the info guys.

1 question. Droid, how can the Air Fuel ratio be higher with the K&N than the FRAM, yet it produces less HP and Torque? I thought more air would always be better?

 

more air = leaner... this is the case with my run.. injen lets more air in than k&n

brads is the opposite... he got less air in, and it looked to run richer...

 

In the air fuel ratio, the higher number means higher air doesn't it? ie. leaner?

Because on both of your dyno stats, the blue line (which has the K&N) has the higher number of air fuel ratio.