Differences

[sLADe781]

What's the difference between an intake system, an intake kit, and a fuel injection performance kit, air charger performance kits, and induction kits!?! And which one is better? This is so confusing....

[Igovert500]

All serve the same purpose, they are just different sizes/brands. Here's a link that might clarify things a bit:
http://johnmonnin.netfirms.com/Intakes.html
or
http://www.stealth316.com/0-frames.htm

If you have a vr4, you wont have the space in your engine bay for a cold air intake, so it wont be much of a system, rather just a filter cone and an adapter to connect it to your MAS. I believe the aircharger is the largest, I however have the FIPK and it works fine.
Just an additional note, when installing it, the old filter housing box has 4 bolts that have metal backings that look like rounded rectangles. You can see a picture of them on the 2nd link above, on that website it's the 2nd to last picture. Each of these rectangles is held in place by plastic strips on the back. Basically, these are POS's and when you try to twist them off, it will twist right through the plastic and then it's a real pain to get them off. I ended up using a hacksaw and destroying the damn airbox. Also be careful not to damage the honeycomb in your MAS, and if you do, fix it with a paperclip. Good luck

[sLADe781]

Originally Posted by Igovert500

All serve the same purpose, they are just different sizes/brands. Here's a link that might clarify things a bit:
http://johnmonnin.netfirms.com/Intakes.html
or
http://www.stealth316.com/0-frames.htm

If you have a vr4, you wont have the space in your engine bay for a cold air intake, so it wont be much of a system, rather just a filter cone and an adapter to connect it to your MAS. I believe the aircharger is the largest, I however have the FIPK and it works fine.
Just an additional note, when installing it, the old filter housing box has 4 bolts that have metal backings that look like rounded rectangles. You can see a picture of them on the 2nd link above, on that website it's the 2nd to last picture. Each of these rectangles is held in place by plastic strips on the back. Basically, these are POS's and when you try to twist them off, it will twist right through the plastic and then it's a real pain to get them off. I ended up using a hacksaw and destroying the damn airbox. Also be careful not to damage the honeycomb in your MAS, and if you do, fix it with a paperclip. Good luck

Umm....still super confused...

[Igovert500]

OK, they are all the same thing, they just have different names for them, depending on the brand you buy. Essentially, they are all larger, open-element cone-shaped air filters. Most people upgrade to these from their original air intakes, because the stock intakes are very restrictive. They have cheap throw away filters that must be replaced, and they are restrictive to airflow. The more oxygen your engine gets, the more hp it produces. The more air in, and the colder the air coming in, translates to more oxygen, which means more power. Therefore, people upgrade to these open-element cone filters to allow more air, and colder air to come in.
Typically, a cold air intake, is when you have the filter put down lower in your engine bay, towards your wheel well and front bumper, this gets it further away from the heat produced by the engine, and gets colder air from outside of the car. It is connected to a pipe which runs back to you Mass Air Sensor(MAS) and intake manifold. This decrease in temperature is good, for every 10degrees F, that the air is colder coming into the engine, you pick up 1 more hp. Unfortuantly, if you have a vr4 twin turbo, the engine bay is sooo full that you do not have room to move it, so the cone usually goes in directly where the old stock airbox used to reside.
In this case, that is what is call the FIPK(fuel injection performance kit) or aircharger, these 2 are simply names that the brand K&N assigns to their air filters, essentially they are the same thing except for sizes of that cone air filter. Pictures of all of these can be seen on the websites that i listed in the last post.

But basically, all of these names can be used somewhat interchangably, they all perform the same task, it just depends on the brand and size you buy. I personally have the K&N FIPK, and it works fine.
as for the 2nd half of my original post i was just trying to give you some advice for installing it yourself if you choose to do so. Hope this all helps, as for which to get, it's really up to you, I would get an Aircharger, due to the larger size, if you can find one. If you have an SL or base model and not a twin turbo, then you have more engine bay space and can search for a cold air intake to put lower down near the wheel well. But in the long run, any will suit you just fine. If you have any more questions or need more clarification, just ask. ~ Geoff

[sLADe781]

Hey Igovert500, thanks for all the help. Yeah, this explaination makes a lot more sense. Thanks. I will probably be getting a '94 SL but aren't sure which intake system I would be able to get because I really don't know where to look. Umm...is your pipe black or is it chrome? Thanks again.

[Igovert500]

Well, I have the vr4, so I don't have room for a pipe, I only have the FIPK(essentially just a cone filter and an metal bracket, for the vr4) If you look on johnmonnin's website up above, the last picture on it shows the engine bay of a vr4. On the left you will see a red cone filter, it has a blue top, and is lying on its side. That is it.

[sLADe781]

I was talking to my friend about intake systems and he said something about "making" it ourselves. He said something about stainless steel air filters that would be better than the K&N filters: last longer with less cleaning or something. Anyone know anything about this? What about the whole making it ourselves deal?

[Igovert500]

You can make it yourself, I think one of the websites gives you a little info on that. Also, the 2nd website I listed up there is just the main page, if you want to look at all the info he has about intakes, click on library on the left, then scroll down, and click on "K&N airfilter" under upgrade guides.

[sLADe781]

Originally Posted by Igovert500

But basically, all of these names can be used somewhat interchangably, they all perform the same task, it just depends on the brand and size you buy.

Hey Igovert500, isn't there a difference between a fuel injection kit as opposed to the intake system or some other one? I don't know, but from the names, I was thinking that maybe the intake system just had something to do with the air flow of the car and the fuel injection had something to do with the fuel!?! LOL Sorry if I'm not making any sense but I was just thinking from the names, they would affect different parts of the car.

[Igovert500]

No, its a perfectly normal question. Just to give you a little background. On a fuel injected car, when you step on the gas pedal, you aren't really giving the car gas. That pedal opens up your throttle body, sucking air in through the intake. Depending on how hard you press the gas, controls the amount the throttle body opens. When the air comes in through the filter, in passes through you MAS (mass air sensor). This senses how much air is coming in and tells the ECU(computer). The ECU then calculates how much gas in needs to relay to the engine to match the amount of air going in, to give you proper combustion(giving you propulsion). So the FIPK(fuel injection performance kit) is a dumb name K&N(the brand) gave to this specific filter. The more air = the more fuel being injected into your engine. Therefore, rather then calling it a performance filter, they decided to go with this name. But trust me, all it is, is a cone filter, and a metal adapter that allows you to bolt your filter directly to the MAS. On other cars(not 3000gts) some FIPKs come with plastic heat shields to put around your cone filter to keep the hot air generated from the motor from going into the intake. But on the 3000gts, its only the filter and adapter. There is nothing physically done to your fuel injectors.

[sLADe781]

When you say "combustion(giving you propulsion)" is that like the accelerating part of driving? And when you mentioined adapter, is that the pipe of the intake system? Thanks for the patience and all the help Igovert500.

[Igovert500]

combustion is what makes your car move at all. Read http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm, it will tell you all about a car engine and how it works. Also, as far as the adapter, no it is not the pipe. I forgot you have an SL. If you go to
http://www.3sxperformance.com/intake.asp
and take a look at their pictures, the 2nd picture down shows the filter and adapter, the 4th shows the pipe that you would need, being that you own an SL. I have hte vr4, so I don't have room for the pipe to fit under my hood, its too crowded. So if you got the K&N FIPK, for example, you would get a pipe and the air filter, and probably not get the adapter, I on the other hand, need the adapter. Hope that explains it all.