TRUE OF FALSE Power Loss After Intake and Exhaust Setup
 

Hey guys,

I have been seeing multiple people say different things about the end result of an intake and exhaust mod. Thought I would try and get to the bottom line :)

1. Does a Stillen (or any other good brand name) Intake and Exhaust cause a power loss? I would use the qtr mile and/or 0-60 to crosscheck the "claimed" power gain or loss.

2. Since I hear more "powerloss" stories then gain stories, say there is a power loss, what needs to be tuned for the power loss to surpass the stock performance? Typical costs and success rate?

Also how does that tune effect the rest of the car? Would it cause other issues down the road since other components in the car are not built around the new calculation?

Thanks for all the help!!

Assuming proper installation and proven parts, there should be gains. What forum are you getting this information from?

Yeah, power loss across the board with any breather mod. Don't pay attention to those pesky dyno sheets

I hear the same thing (power loss) loss of low end torq with the long tubes….power loss with short ram due to heat soak. Its either oem, z1 tubes, or g3’s. Honestly F*** what you heard my Z pulls with long tubes/catback….HARD.

You won't lose power compared to stock if you're installing the right parts.


1. You may lose a small amount of torque on the low end but not enough to notice, after a *GOOD tune you will gain all your losses back plus some.

2.Success rate of gaining power after a tune is pretty much 100% , *as long as you're being tuned by a tuner who knows what they are doing*.

The tune makes the difference but even without one, there are many dynographs floating around showing proven gains.

I believe tuning is the key regardless. Night and day IMO.

FALSE. You could lose tq based on decreased back pressure but you would pick up HP. I picked up almost 40whp with Stillen G3's/CBE and Berk HFCs. Another 15whp with the tune. Went from 262whp stock to 314whp full bolt-on tuned.

the other thing to consider is breathing mods alter the orgasm point. where you used to feel the car pick up, it now happens generally later with such mods. i lost a noticeable amount of low end torque going from an Exoticspeed mid/Y pipe with stock rear muffler to the Invidia full catback

The tune fixes that

on my to-do list ;)

When I did all the breathing mods on my car (intake, test pipes and exhaust) the ECU was not happy. It was not able to cope with the changes and fluctuated from lean to rich which caused a power loss and a crappy running car. IMHO, when you modify the breathing, especially the intake, you should (read "need to") tune the car. That is the only way to get the benefits from the money you spent. If you are not planning to tune the car to match the mods, save your money. For the exhaust, if you want to change the sound, get an axle-back system.

Honda Civic Ricer Forum?

I don't know with you guys but I do have all the breather mods intake, full exhaust, HfC etc. etc.

No tune..ECU smart enough to re-learn and my car runs like with a Ferrari engine. And I smoke pot!:tup:

If you change out the cats the car will run leaner. Change the exhaust and intake AFTER taking out the cats it will be even WORSE...without a TUNE.

Swap out the cats LAST and get a tune and it will be fine

Same boat before I went turbo:tup:

You guys do know you need to reset the ECU after the mods and maybe perform the idle relearn


Yo pass it left homie:D

Yup I had all my mods at 2k miles and I'm at 27k miles now the engine is like getting better and better without a tune.

The only time I would possibly go and have a tune once I swap out my manifold with motordyne. That to Im still thinking if I'll do...as the car runs perfect!

I can roll one up for you bud!

It depends.

A DIY intake (home hack job), in which the tubes may move around, will cause lots of air turbulence and the MAF's will not get stable readings, usually resulting in power loss.

A poorly designed intake with a different diameter than OEM or bends just before or after the MAF can cause a related set of problems due to misreads, stable or not.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the non-DIY/non-ebay intakes cause this to the point of significant problems; where they might cause some misreads (e.g., reading lean -- not generally resulting in power loss, BTW), a tune will correct.

The only other thing I can think of is the M370 IM, which tends to move peak torque down a bit, resulting in a low end bump at the cost of a tiny bit of top end. Also can be mitigated with tuning.

For exhaust, short of overly large diameter piping, really any mod that improves flow will gain power on this motor. Some header designs favor mid to top end gains over low end. The issue is more complex than merely accounting for "backpressure" (e.g., valve timing and lift comes into play), but overly large diameters (say, over 3") could slow exhaust pulses enough at low speed for some loss, although it might pick up power approaching redline.

Pretty much any cat back and ANY replacing or removing of the cats (CEL's from secondary O2's notwithstanding -- again fixed with a tune) will result in more power.

In short, other than a custom, but inexpertly made, or random "generic" part, most bolt-on's result in gains, not losses. Whether a quality part or not, a tune is always advisable -- not necessarily required for safety, but advised for optimal performance.

I've heard that turbocharging increases back pressure and decreases horsepower. That's why the C7 is faster than the Focus ST.

:bowrofl:

What the Fart back pressure is that? Thats really funny!:tup:

there should be no physical way to lose power with intakes and exhaust. its commons sense and dyno proven. who the hell told u this stuff?

Hey guys! Thanks for all the help! I'll let you know my findings!


Cheers!