I have a 12A and nobody seems to make a cold air intake. I know i could make a custom one but are they much better than the bolt intake kits from rx7.com or racing beat.com

http://www.rx7.com/store/rx7/saintake.html 60$ uses stock canister but replaces top part.. would look kinda weird.
http://www.racingbeat.com/FRmazda1.htm 54$ replaces canister and would look a bit better.

So what should i get? Do either types of intakes give noticeable hp?

 

To get a link from Racing Beat you have to right click on the white part of the page, go to properties, and copy the URL that you find there. Otherwise you'll just link to the home page.

As for a cold air intake, the stock is as close to cold air as you're going to get without custom work. A true cold air intake gets air from outside the engine bay (through a wheelwell for instance).

The stock intake uses a plastic tube to get air from further away from the engine. Most aftermarket intakes actually pick up warmer air that's closer to the engine. Either way, it doesn't make much of a difference. You're better off getting a header and/or exhaust. You'll pick up at least 20% more power at a pretty decent price.

 

Header and exhasut make a huge difference. As for the air filter, get an adapter to go to a standard 5 1/8 holley and go with a 14" chrome filter with the gm hei offset base followed by a K&N filter. Don't bother with the cold air thing. You'll like the sound of your carb better too.

 

I'd go with the RB intake. That funnel at the bottom helps flow, IIRC. I do believe that RX7Carl was experimenting with a similar shaped airbox and noted some significant gains in power. A cold-air intake is probably not worth the effort vs power gained, at least on a street car.

If you're really jonesing for a cold air intake, I shamlessly copied RX7Carl and Pratch's idea of modifying the passenger side rad mount and drawing air from in front of the rad. See attached picture:

 

[hijack]

A) Is that a 5" or 7" blower?
B) Is it from Camden?
C) What else do you have done?
D) Any dyno sheets/time slips?
E) Any problems with over heating?
F) How long have you had it?
G) Do you think it was definately worth the cost?
H) How much boost are you running?

If that isn't your car, whose is it? I really am considering going with a S/C, but I want to find out as much as possible. Thanks in advance.


[/hijack]

 

I was running the Racing beat intake UFO looking thing and it made a noticeable difference from the stock cansiter. It feels like you are running the carb open without filter. It also shapes the sound of the intake noise very nicely compared to running the carb just open with no filters at all.
I do believe the Racing beat lower portion help with flow also...or at least in theory of its design.

 

i trie starting a thread about this earlier in the week. but yeah i think the RB intake bottom portion is for flow but all the air coming in is really hot right? well even if yopu made your own intake and ducted it out would it not help, yeah you might not get a HP gain but if its cold air it cant hurt. i plan on making my own intake out of aluminum which will pull heat out of anything and despers it away. then im going to have two three inch inlets that will be ducted out in front of and beside teh oil cooler, tahts my idea and im sticking to it, cold air helps in other applications why not with my 1st gen. ill post pics when im done its going to be a cold air but look kick *** to im maching it out of solid alumium and cnc maching it to look like a rotor

 

Yeah, most aftermarket designs definitely improve air flow, they just don't necessarily get any colder air. If you do make a setup that pulls in cold air from somewhere, it might add a hp or two.

Personally I'm not worried about it too much. Instead of making a bunch of ducting through my engine compartment, I'd rather have it clean and be able to look at K&N air filter and assembly for my Mikuni. They charged me $160 for the damn thing, I'd at least like to be able to see it lol

 

Don't forget that no matter how cold you can get your intake air charge, you still have hot coolant being plumbed through the lower intake manifold via your bypass holes in the housings going to the manifold itself.

While these are designed to decrease time to warmup in cold weather, they also cause heating of the intake manifold that will heat your intake air charge right where it matters most - just before the rotor chambers.

I'm not sure how you could block these on the housings, but it would be worth doing if you're trying to do it right.

BTW, this only applies to 12a blocks, since 13b-EFI engines don't plumb coolant through the LIM. HTH,

 

I'm not sure about other aftermarket manifolds, but I know the manifold that I got with my Mikuni (single piece) blocks off those coolant passages.

 

I'll soon post a substantial writeup on the camden. I run a 7"in an SE with an aggressively streetported 13B, S5 rotors, light flywheel, street strip clutch, etc etc. I have resolved a lot of s/c heating issues, have no engine heating issues. Have run the factory fan and now a taurus fan. I need to do a final dyno run before storage to make the post complete. I have experimented with 3 different carbs, 3 different pulleys to vary boost, 3 different air cleaner configuarations, 3 different exhaust configuations, various timing settings as well as a different timing configuration that a friend has on his 12a s/c. BOTTOM LINE: the s/c provides great low/midrange torque and great driveability with great simplicity. If you are laptop friendly, can program your own standalone, willing to deal with the technicalities of a turbo project (piping, intercooler, programming, selecting the right injectors, etc) you will get more power for the same money. Trade off being, turbo provides a lot of power at the top end, how much do you wanna run over 7000? S/C gives a nice wide torque curve, simplicity and engine durability since you don't have to rev it as much. Dollar for dollar the turbo will win the 1/4 mile, s/c will outdo it in autocross since boost is predictable. I have a buddy with a TII that has yet to run a race since he can't get it running right to where he can trust it. Mine always runs puuuuurfect!

 

There is a lot Camden does not tell you, this is what I shall reveal! It "is" a great product, there service for me has been very good, and I have nothing but good comments in regard to Dan Atkins. I have called him on numerous occasions and never felt blown off. One thing to make clear, I do not feel Camden "hides" anything or misleads in any way, just there is more you need to know to make an educated decision. This is a great product for the right application! I am happy with mine.

 

correction, I listed 3 pulleys test, actually I've run a total of 4 different pulleys.

 

I will be anticipating your thread with unparallelled enthusiam.

 

Just do what I did and make your own, it's ghetto rigged...but it works

 

It seems that evey aftermarket intake manifold I have seen blocks off the water passage to it.

I am running a stock nikki and manifold.
I block off the water passages by sticking a coin in each hole. I think it's nickels that I use......or maybe it's pennies...I forget.
But at any rate you stick them in there and tap them in place with a screwdriver and hammer, the screwdriver may be substituted for anything you might have lying around( LOL )...
After you tap them in place just put a large glop of silicone in there and let it set before you put the manifold backon.
I always do this whenever I pull a manifold. A plus to doing this is also that the small rubber O-rings don't need to be replaced the next time you pull the manifold off since they didn't swell up from the coolant.