AEM SRI....Hype or Improvement?

bex · Nov 18, 2006

Just installed an AEM SRI into my 6th gen accord, and to be honest, I cant see any improvement other than a pretty cool intake sound when you depress the throttle.

I'm gonna take the car out for a full spectrum run when traffic dies down in an effort to be fair to AEM, but to be honest, I'm thinking of replacing the AEM SRI in the morning with the stock intake. The only benefit I can see now, is I have better access to the HID bulbs if I ever have to replace them.

FallenAngelHIM · Nov 18, 2006

honestly, it won't do anything unless you have it work as a system.

intakes are to work in conjunction with header and exhaust.

if you only have 2 out the 3 you might be able to feel something.

but if you only have 1 out of 3, you're looking at slightly better gas mileage and nothing more.

get an exhaust and header then come back and talk about the intake.

Totalimmortal · Nov 18, 2006

They work together to become a sum greater than it's parts.

bex · Nov 18, 2006

I think I understand completely now, its a stage process if you cant do all at once. My dilemma is, I have no intention of getting headers or an exhaust system for this car.

I think the AEM SRI is going up for sale!

P.S. What does the resonator add to the stock exhaust system because I dont think i'm putting it back in, it actually looks like its restricting air flow, and quite frankly, without it, I believe I can achieve the same thing as the SRI with the stock setup!

wg2k7 · Nov 18, 2006

of course its restricting air flow, thats why people put in aftermarket intakes. on our cars bolt ons (i/h/e) are really meant to sound cool, look cool, and usually help a little bit in mpg. if your expecting to feel 5 hp, you might need to get an evo or something that responds better to small mods. in most accords with full i/h/e youll get maybe 5-7 hp to the wheels, but i dont regret getting mine. my car looks sweet, sounds awesome, and thats all that matters. you also save a little bit of weight with the sri

theaccordian · Nov 19, 2006

The SRI does flow better than the stock airbox. But the stock air "box" is designed to produce low end power for daily driving, which is what 99.9999% of accord onwers use their car for. The SRI will perform better at the top end. So unless you race to work everyday and redline 24/7 your not gonna feel the gains.

Just throw your stock airbox back in, ditch the resonator, cut a whole out the bottom of the box, and slap in a kn filter. Youll get the low end from the box design, plus the top end from the larger whole and the airbox stock without resonator, sucks up cold air from the whole where the resonator used to be. thats what I did and im never going back.

honestly I think just slapping bolt ons on our engines in general, is a waste of time and money.

first of all, our cars have low compression. Which is geat for what our engines are desgined for, being effiicient. Therefore theres not much power to be unleashed by reducing restriction from stock components, whereas a high compression high hp motor like the k20a2 in the rsx type s can gain more from just an intake or header than an f23 can gain with all 3 boltons combined.

Secondly, our ecu's are tuned to be fuel efficient not for performance. So when you add any bolt ons its gonna feel okay at first, but the ecu is just gonna adjust the fuel in order to get the best emissions, not the best performance. So your gonna have to get your ecu to deliver fuel not to get good economy but to get the best performance. How you choose to do it is up to you. piggyback controller, convert to obd1 and chip it.

Thirdly, bolt ons move the power band to the top and lose power down low.boltons help your engine breath better, so the only time your engine needs this is at high rpms where they get restricted by stock partd. So youre gonna think its hurting your car more than helping because the majority of your driving is done below the cars power band (and the fact that you drive a honda, which are notorius for all their power being at the top end doesent help)

Personally, I felt very little, maybe 5-7 hp with all my bolt ons combined. considering I spent around $1,000 on them and for installation. this was also just in the top end and I lost low end. Not until I got my ecu reprogrammed did I feel real power.

I think people trick themselves into thinking that adding bolt ons acutally "ADDS" power, bolt ons dont add power, they allow the engine to run more efficiently than the stock parts allowed it to perform. NA mods like turbo, cams, and nitrous are mods that actually "add" power. bolt ons "free up"power the engine already had.

With any engine unless you tune it or upgrade internals" youre not gonna see much from bolt ons. So unless you plan to tune your setup or do an NA build, dont waste your time and money with boltons.Unless you like the sound, which is why I have bolt ons :rofl:

theaccordian · Nov 19, 2006

bex said:
P.S. What does the resonator add to the stock exhaust system because I dont think i'm putting it back in, it actually looks like its restricting air flow, and quite frankly, without it, I believe I can achieve the same thing as the SRI with the stock setup!

It does exactly what its name says it does, it "resonates" the air flow which quiets it down.

Twobit · Nov 19, 2006

Just put your stock intake in without the resonator...sounds nice and performs better

bex · Nov 19, 2006

Guys, thanks for the break down on engine performance! I am going to take your advice and ditch the resonator and stay with the stock intake system. I guess I was expecting a bit too much from the SRI and was a bit disappointed.

My next post will be in the For Sale section.

Thanks again for the assist.