Intakes And Reported Bhp Gaines

[Stuno1]

It narks me a bit that air intake manufacturers claim 15bhp+ gains when dyno tests often show 5bhp or less!

How do they keep getting away with it?

Stu

[Peter P18]

Pretty much all aftermarket manufacturers suggest bigger gains than you actually get. I'm a much bigger fan of the companies that underplay the gains, so you actually get more than you expected (doesn't happen often I know!).

I'm guessing they don't offer a guaranteed gain of 15HP for example, because the consumer would then be able to send it back and demand a full refund.

They 'suggest' it could gain as much as 15HP, knowing full well it's nearer to 5HP at best!

If you use a generous dyno (plenty out there!), tweak the base settings to be as generous as possible, push the car past the safety point most good dyno operators use, you could theoretically get that much additional HP.

Every car has some level of variance as well remember. Recall a lot of cheesed off GTR buyers who got less power than others. Some came out with as much as 40/50HP more than others, despite basically being the same car! :(

Is annoying though! :(

[Stuno1]

Yeah it annoys me. As many people will buy then expecting good Gaines.

Stu

[mikeyv]

If it was that easy to gain 15bhp, all performance cars would roll off the production line with kits fitted as standard.

I was like you, and when asked about my Honda's cold air induction kit, told the truth....I could feel no difference in performance, but when vtec kicked in, it sounded lovely.

However, the owners forum was full of guff like "crisper throttle response etc, etc", because, basically, people hate to admit they've fallen for a well established con trick.

[Peter P18]

If you appreciate one performance part alone will not make a lot of difference to the overall performance of your car, but by addressing the intake and exhaust side, you should see a healthy increase in performance most of the time.

I'm going with the Takeda on the intake side, and probably a set of PPE headers along with a custom stainless exhaust. The whole lot should add 40/50HP, but more importantly to me will improve things across the full rev range, and improve the sound. It's not like we need huge HP gains when we have over 400HP as standard! ;)

It's torque and getting a smoother curve that I am looking for. Making the power the car has more accessible.

You normally find a mixed response on forums about any intake system. Loads of them suggest it's more responsive, faster, etc. Loads of them are honest and say they can't feel much difference over OEM, but it sounds a lot better.

Unless you are talking about a turbo-charged car like the Supra for example, you won't get much extra power from add-on's that cost a couple of hundred quid! ;)

[Cable]

Nope, deffo note a cheap game, modifying NA cars. As Peter said, you can and will get gains from breathing mods, but nothing like a turbo car. That said, in my experience, researching and buying the right bits do make difference. The Gruppe M intakes were probably the only kits to make a substantial gain on the Civic Type R; not cheap though at £600.

Also when product manufacturers claim a '15bhp gain', it doesn't necessarily mean it's peak power. It could be a 15 bhp gain midway along the power band, which is actually more beneficial...

If it was that easy to gain 15bhp, all performance cars would roll off the production line with kits fitted as standard.

Sorry Mikey, but this isn't the case, as mentioned in a previous thread, the car manufacturer isn't constantly battling to extract every last horsepower out of a car. Their criteria is to fit into a certain bracket, power wise, which they do not want to exceed. They also have to make massive compromises for noise and cost, so are more than happy to fit a restrictive exhaust or intake, so long as the required power is met.