AEM V2 Intake

I am looking in to purchasing a cold air intake for my 99 Civic EX, and I cant decide between the original AEM CAI or the V2. How would the horsepower and torque gains vary between the two? Can anyone give me actual dynoed numbers from these intakes? Do you think it would be worth it to spend the extra $80 and get the V2?

Another question I had was will I have to mess with the ECU at all because of the larger amount of air in the engine? I already have an exhaust, so i dunno if that matters any either. Also, could I install this myself? or should I get a professional to do it?

Originally posted by 99civic03
I am looking in to purchasing a cold air intake for my 99 Civic EX, and I cant decide between the original AEM CAI or the V2. How would the horsepower and torque gains vary between the two? Can anyone give me actual dynoed numbers from these intakes? Do you think it would be worth it to spend the extra $80 and get the V2?

Another question I had was will I have to mess with the ECU at all because of the larger amount of air in the engine? I already have an exhaust, so i dunno if that matters any either. Also, could I install this myself? or should I get a professional to do it?

get an iceman cai and cut it before it bends down and run a good filter. or take your stock intake tube and do one of the following...

1. cut the airbox off and take a peice of pantyhose and double it over wrap it over the end of the tube and clamp it down....and NO nothing harmful will get ate up by your motor because of the filter being pantyhose. and wrap the stock tube in heat resisting tape
2. keep the airbox but cut all plastic attatchments and cut out the face of it (facing out of the engine bay). then if you do it right, use the money you saved from the aem and buy a k&n drop-in filter and install that. and wrap the stock tube in heat resisting tape


you should get a little better throttle responce with the second. those three intakes will give your better lowend torque and just about equal power up in rpms as the aem.
another tip: find a way to plumb cold air from the bottom of your bumper up near the filter via a peice of plastic flexpipe (like whats on the back of your washing machine)

and no you probably wont HAVE to mess with your ecu just for intake and exausht. if you have a fpr you might get more gain if you turn your fuel pressure up like 2 psi.

you should spend the money from the intake and get you a good header.

umm, dont use any kind of clothing to make an air filter out of. there are small particles that will pass through and eat away at your motor.

even if you get just some knockoff intake off ebay for 60bux, it will be alot better than just a drop in filter, or the stock airbox.

I did a little more researching and decided Im just gonna go with the original AEM. How much hp and torque would u expect me to gain from this mod?

Originally posted by crxlvr
even if you get just some knockoff intake off ebay for 60bux, it will be alot better than just a drop in filter, or the stock airbox.

then those guys over in japan running itr's on the circuit are just dumb arent they?

no there not, but im sure he doesnt care how hot the damn intake is gonna get to worry about the 1-2hp drop after it does, hes not a circuit racer.

umm...unless you dont have a job or any source of income you might wanna ignore shhh_burn. i have the AEM CAI and i love it, but i never dyno'd. i know from dynos that this intake gets 20.7 hp for the RSX-S and i think about 9 ft. lbs. of torque. but the K20 is a pretty damn good engine. id expect around 12 hp and maybe 6 ft.lbs of torque...and if anybody has corrections on that, feel free.

also, re: the ecu, i dont think you have to do anything to it, but i heard theres a fuse you can disconnect for 2 minutes and put back in and it will recalibrate itself...but i dont remember which one it is :eek: so maybe somebody else can fill that in

BUT - we rigged a k&n style air filter with some 3" PVC piping into my friend's 92 civic hb and he got some amazing gains... im sure an AEM would blow that away, but theres a good low budget alternative. not to diss shh_burn but i dont trust pantyhose in my engine compartment, or anywhere else in the functional areas in my car

guys...a CAI isn't going to show any bigger gains then MAYBE 4-6 hp TOPS. jus cuz its SAYS 10-20hp, doesn't mean thats' to the wheels or on a stock motor.

as for the k20a3, the gains from i/h/e were around 20hp, NOT jus for a CAI. those motor's love the simple bolts for some reason...(prolly cuz of I-VTEC) but...on a SOHC VTEC motor, u'll see minimal gains.

Originally posted by neunan
umm...unless you dont have a job or any source of income you might wanna ignore shhh_burn.


yeh.....i make alot of money and i would never dump an once of it into an aem cold air intake. your post was ignorant. i gave the best solution to his problem (unless of course he cares that much about how a cai looks under his hood) i ran a stock itr plastic intake tube with a peice of pantyhose on the end when i was running my allmotor setup and that car ran high 12's at the track with that intake.

Originally posted by neunan
i know from dynos that this intake gets 20.7 hp for the RSX-S and i think about 9 ft. lbs. of torque. but the K20 is a pretty damn good engine. id expect around 12 hp and maybe 6 ft.lbs of torque...and if anybody has corrections on that, feel free.


WTF. you can not compare power gains from an rsx-s to a 99 civic ex... your NEVER going to see gains like that from an ex. EVER.

20hp from the intake alone...rofl

...i wish

the rsx's seriously do get that type of power lol

those numbers where in an issue of import tuner.

actually they tested the v2 and compared it to the old school aem cai. its made i think in between 6-8 hp and 2-4 lbs. trq. on a sohc vtec im pretty sure a 98 ex.

until the whack ass metal heats up

you could also get mandrel bent piping from jc witney(its cheap). cut it in half and get ceramic coating ( it comes in a spray paint can and repelles the heat)and coat the inside and out. It fits perfect if you cut it right thats beter than aem IMO

and I have heard you can reset your ecu to ajust for more fuel