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The reason I said remove the tray is because the PRL air vent has a little bracket that I believe bolts the vent to where the intercooler baffle used to bolt to. (I’m not 100% sure on where the bracket actually mounts till i get it, if i do). Though now that you mention it you might be able to access it by the wheel, like i said I’m not sure as I haven’t actually bought or installed it.




I had a K&N on my SI and it does give you some of the turbo whoos noises but it is pretty subtle. If you’re not planning on going full bolt on or anything like that then the k&n is the way to go
yeah that’s the plan. He just wants the presentation and sounds. K&N is a gorgeous and wonderful sounding intake.
 
I did the HVI from PRL anyway, but instead of their stupid $50 add on intake to the bottom of the box I did a custom tube to my fog light for more air instead....I quite like how it whooshes under solid acceleration.
Is the money worth it? From a pure performance to cash stand point no. Am I happy I did it anyway? Yes
I am very curious as to what you used???? because I was thinking of doing the exact same thing, running a tube down to the fog light hole to get air from there instead of purchasing that $50 add-on.
 
I don't get any gains at all. What I absolutely notice is the fun noises and how much I can coast now. I can coast for dddddddddaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyysssssssss. It's tuned now, but I could coast even before that. You 2024 owners should be seeing your tunes released to the public soon.
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I am very curious as to what you used???? because I was thinking of doing the exact same thing, running a tube down to the fog light hole to get air from there instead of purchasing that $50 add-on.
A $15 amazon tube lol I drilled out the intended hole on the HVI box for the PRL attachment and put one end of the tube through that (the red end comes off so I put that inside the box with the tube coming up to it from the outside, did not fit perfectly so used some tape and locktite to firmly secure) then I took the fog light insert/cap off, flipped it around, and drilled out a 3in hole to match the intake tube to attach the intake tube to it and then reattached the fog light cap backwards to the same OEM holes on the black bumper trim, the whole intake is inset behind the outer trim, very sneaky and most people won't even notice it unless they catch a shimmer of red from the intake pipe hose

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The lower you go with an CAI pickup the more concerned you should be with picking up water. I learned what hydrostatic lock means the hard way. CAI kits used to offer a cover shield or sock to prevent ingestion of water.
I was very minimally worried about this in the first place, the hose is quite long and vertical travel for the water to take, meanwhile it is still at fog light level so unless you drive through a significant amount of standing water it still isn't too horribly low. Nonetheless might as well be safer than sorry so I put a hydro shield sleeve cover over the intake filter as well. No idea if the sleeve has prevented anything but I'll take the peace of mind for what it cost to do it anyway. Get quite heavy and significant rains down here in sunny Florida and so far zero issues driving in them
 
As for heartland's comments, not to worry about increased air intake causing trouble with fuel trims. For example, I have a ram air system and the reader for the SAE sensors to measure its effects, and they confirm that the MAF and the 02 sensors are working together to adjust fuel trims perfectly: at higher boosts the trims are in the 10s where they should be for power and at idle are nearly adiabatic. The increased air density causes the sensors to add fuel and thus power. No codes ever.

I do notice that I have far more spark advance under max power and boost with 98ron than with 91. With the latter the device shows that Honda even retards spark up to -10 degs on 91 while with 98RON never any retard; and up to +15 advance instead. BIG difference in the spark curve, then.

I've run E85 (mine is compatible) but didn't have the sensor readouts dialed in then. Perhaps next will see how the readings change better/worse with E85, if at all; I know the matchbot app expects bsfc to increase and ve to increase, too, substantially with e85 vs any petrol. We'll see what the OBDLink EX has to say about all that because both of those have to be set in the app before use.
 
Hydrolocking from a CAI has been overexaggerated for many years IMO. Don't drive into a lake and you'll be fine. I used to have a really low Iceman CAI on my old car, never had an issue. Be mindful but don't worry too much.
 
Analyzing the Honda 1.5T such as my 2023 with direct injection, shows Honda was very clever in designing the factory airbox: air enters at a level higher than the air filter, is sent downwards to another level BELOW the air filter, then relies on engine vacuum to bring the air up through the filter itself then across to the rest of the intake past the MAF where flow is read. IMHO, then, nothing heavier than air can be lifted even up TO the air filter, and in the case of the oiled fabric of the K&N, even water vapor cannot be absorbed by the filter and must fall back out. I drive in the heavy rains that are common here in summer and fall (which it is here).

With the ram air that I'm using, the forward lip of the hood/bonnet has had its weatherstripping carved away in front of it to present a completely clear intake opening for the intake funnel. Without doing that I expect that any so-called ram air is just drawing hot air from the engine compartment, that is not only heated by the turbocharger next door to it but from the radiator fans as well. So my intake crossover is shielded from the turbine below it, and another shield blocks cold air onto the turbine from the grille openings, too.

Using a reader that displays or records the intake temperature, when one knows the intake temp is only a degree or two higher than ambient (the car's factory display for that) then one knows that air density is the same as the turbocharger's pressure ratio, in my case at 18.5 psi = 2.25. So more than double what the NA engine can produce. The OBDLink EX calculates power and torque and I am unable to verify its readouts; whereas all the others are SAE PIDs and read directly from the engine's factory sensors (such as intake air flow, another for temp, etc).
 

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Hydrolocking from a CAI has been overexaggerated for many years IMO. Don't drive into a lake and you'll be fine. I used to have a really low Iceman CAI on my old car, never had an issue. Be mindful but don't worry too much.
My first car, I had a 95 Civic LX, my cousin owned it before me and had an he had installed an AEM CAI on it. Well one day I was driving down the street and had the choice of hitting a box truck (he was hogging more than his half of the road) or swerving into the grass. Obviously, I chose grass, only there was a puddle in a small dip between the road and the grass. Long story short it sucked water, hydro locked and bent one of the rods. Mind you I did not have a water-resistant sock on the filter. I was young and almost mechanically illiterate other than change oil and spark plugs. My point being that even a small puddle can destroy an engine.
 
P.S. to the above: after initial setup difficulties with the OBDLink EX, the company sent me a replacement (free incl postal) and updated their firmware. The early version overstated power and torque and the logs and 'gauges' disagreed significantly.

This morn I completed my last run with 98 RON because next w/b E85 for which my motor is compatible, and see that the logs and 'gauges' now match exactly. The maker of the reader is OBDLink and I'm using their EX, of which this is a new unit sent free by them to me here, and then a firmware update. Pleased to note something new: for the first time the reading for boost is above 18.4: read 19.3 this morning, suggesting this motor (Thailand FFV) is limited at 20.2. CVT version of CRV that is a 2023 here (likely a 2022 for you there).
 
To play a tiny bit of devils advocate here. It isn't so much the special heat resistant plastic (for that they are mostly referring to the MAF housings being previously machined from billet aluminum, which WOULD be hotter than the plastic they are currently using) along side the larger 'tank' area the filter sits in, which would in theory assist in regulating temps by having a larger amount of ambient air to heat up in that area.

Secondly, the air ducting they copy from the factory duct supposedly has a bit larger and more smooth path into the filter area. (looks indistinguishable to me honestly and I'm not spending $350-400 to compare either.

Thirdly, I've seen a youtube video where they tested the HVI intake on an accord and it only made power on the stock set-up, not with bolt-ons and a tune. Could be user error, could be the difference in temps etc. But I am definitely not sold on it 100%.
yea, those power gains PRL listed could just be normal dyno variances. those oiled filters need to be oiled for a reason; they don't filter as well because you are sacrificing particle filtration for airflow. good for performance, bad for longevity. if Honda knew they could add more power just by tweaking the intake design, why wouldn't they?
 
I watched a teardown of one of these engines, and I have no concerns with it lasting a long long time in stock form, but I just don't think its a great engine to build on. Of course there is going to be someone out there making over 300whp on stock internals because they tune it for low torque or with a ton of headroom using Ethanol/Methanol, and the baby carrot looking rods will not bend. Just keep in mind the engine is designed with efficiency in mind. How do they do that? Lighter weight (and hence weaker unless forged) rotating assembly. Stuff like the rods, pistons, etc. are all tuned to be light and let the engine spin more easily, they are not designed for higher torque loads. The cooling system is likely not up to the task either.

If someone is into FWD platforms and wants to tear the engine apart and upgrade a few pieces (rods, head studs, maybe a few other little bits) then they can probably bump the power and torque safely closer to 300. Unfortunately this is not one of those engines like the FC20/22 that can make 2-3x the factory WHP without ever being opened, and the days of boosting a stock D series way past its prime, knowing its going to blow up and you and your buddies can swap in another junkyard $200 engine on a Saturday, are over.
i watched a video from Honda and one of the engineers said they focused on weight savings and friction reduction with the L-series engines.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
I just took a look at that PRL kit. I'll give you a little background on my experience with intake plumbing modification. The largest gains will come from those that will require tuning of modules. I wouldn't expect anything over 15 HP. Because they increase the air volume into engine so much they mess with fuel trims. A tune would definitely be in order to compensate and take advantage of all that new air. However if done right you could probably see 15HP maybe. I tried to read that PRL Dyno readout they posted but for the life of me I can't see the chart numbers.😅 I understand this kit doesn't require a tune. However their short ram kit or whatever they call it. Using the Big Bore tube it would require a tune but it looks like it would suffer from heat soak horribly. View attachment 14500
I wouldn't put much faith in these dyno claims so many manufacturers make and are inflated. A Dyno chart like this below would be much more readable however this one is not overly inflated. It also pertains too much more than intake plumbing only mods tq/hp gains. Though I do believe they exaggerate a little bit like most. View attachment 14503
View attachment 14505
See that adds 8 HP this is all for a 96 F250 with a 7.5 L gas engine by the way. Also note this is not as high as the PRL intake kit gains for the Honda. These are the install instructions below for that intake mod on a 7.5l. Note they have you remove the factory air silencer horns a common modification that costs you nothing. Those little air horns have other bigger tubes over the top of them. They severely restrict airflow from the airbox into the engine. They thought in the 90s through an effect those horns created back then. That it would create a smoother air flow spin effect. Whipping up the air in like a cyclone type motion. Not to mention keep everything quieter but it severely robbed the engine of air. That's why you don't see them anymore in intake plumbing. This truck is also an OBD1 system so it has a very dumb computer and no MAF sensor. It uses speed signal density and programming in the engine control module that pulls from a giant program table. It's a very forgiving system it has its pros and cons. Therefore there is no need to tune anything with allowing that much more air in. It won't mess up your fuel trims and allows for maximum gains. Here's the instructions for removing the air silencer horns. You can see kind of what I mean it lays it all out. View attachment 14504
Most of the gains in this system come from the type of air filter used and the removal of those air silencer horns. Still yet it only amounts to 8 hp. When it comes to the PRL kit and your Honda with the 1.5 L turbo engine. I don't think the PRL kit is worth what they're asking. Looking over it below here we can see it is pretty much the same design as the factory OEM plumbing. View attachment 14501 View attachment 14502
Though it doesn't use a flat style filter it uses a canister style and it is oiled. The setups look very similar and the filter is in the same position as oem. Look to be same size shape roughly but one is made out of over $200 plastic the other is not. Not to mention they would have us believe it is heat soak resistant plastic very special. Below here is pictured the 1.5 L Turbo with its Factory OEM intake box/plumbing. Where it's located I don't think you have to worry much about heat soak. The location that draws air just like the PRL is a good one. From what I can tell it doesn't look like it's pulling air through the radiator directly into the box. It would have to be drawing for much lower than where it is even with that drop in the lip . View attachment 14498
View attachment 14499
These are things I highlighted that stuck out to me. The type of filter used being an oiled filter makes a big difference. Oiled filters are not like dry filters. They actually allow for more CFM of air. The gaps in the filter are wider that's why they have to be oiled. This is where most of your gains are going to come from. All that other stuff they pitch is just marketing in my honest opinion like many others. I would drop in one of these filters below if it were me. Best I can tell you're going to see about the same amount of gains as that whole PRL kit claims to gives. Putting in the better performing filter will increase air flow. Probably gain about five to seven HP in a real world scenario. Best part you did it all for the low low cost of $47.69 plus shipping.
View attachment 14506
Remember I said the banks Dyno results I didn't feel was too overly inflated. Most of the gains that come from that kit. Come from a more free-flowing exhaust along with exhaust headers that scavenge. Creating like a vacuum effect on the engine reducing back pressure. Causing more air to be drawn in and cylinders gasses to more efficiently empty out. Being the dumb system it is you get the increase but there's not really much to tune. If you did that to a modern vehicle today you would definitely want to tune for it. That or you risk O2 sensors going off fuel trims out of wack all sorts.😬 That's my two cents on the fancy air intakes. For the kind of money they ask on these intake kits. You could really add some serious power. Plug and Play modules better exhaust tune more boost. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to be as thorough as possible. If it were me I would put an oiled air filter in and call it a day. Google has a lot of good articles about dry verse oiled intake air filters cfm. An engine is like an air pump. The more air you can put in one end and get out the other. The more power it's going to make. As long as you keep it within acceptable limits and tune everything for it. Swapping to an oiled filter will net some gains and will not mess with fuel trims. I would imagine you would be able to also feel this in throttle response. Hopefully you find this helpful I probably overexplained the crap out of it. 😅 Being under warranty you can always slap the OEM filter back in there if needed. Good luck and cheers 🍻
Thank you for all this great info! I read it contemporaneously, just revisiting it now a bit later. Love learning about it
 
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