Berk HFC's over Stillen HFC's

MrZ

So i have been doing a lot of research as far as bolt on upgrades for my 370. I see a lot of people go with Stillen G3 intake exhaust but Berk HFC's. Do the Berk hfc's operate better with the stillen exhaust? Or do they offer about the same HP gain?

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m4a1mustang

They should be roughly the same. Berk has a great reputation of quality HFCs, and since pricing is so similar I think that's why most people use them. That's where I'd lean.

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MrZ

That makes sense. Now for intakes im partial to the the K&N Typhoons and they seem to have the same power gain as the Stillen G3's with out all the labor of installing. Which would you recomend?

m4a1mustang

I would go with the Stillen G3. They are the best available for the 370.

Something to consider is that the engine bay of the 370 gets extremely hot... so hot that any short-tube intake is going to get heatsoaked. The Typhoon might show some gains on the dyno (with the hood open and a massive fan blowing cool air at it), but in real world situations it could very well lose you power since you are breathing in all of that hot air.

The beauty of the stock airbox system is that the filters are contained, and they draw air directly from the outside of the engine bay. They are pretty efficient and flow pretty well up until the last 500-1000 rpms of the range. That's where the aftermarket systems will really show some gain, and the G3s do it best. They keep the filters outside of the engine bay which is important because they won't be subject to the same heatsoak issues as you would with the Typhoon and other short tube intakes.

Install will require a little bit of work, but it's very simple if you take your time and be careful.

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MrZ

ok. Thanks that actually helps a lot

m4a1mustang

No problem

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UNKNOWN_370

I have heard 2 sides of the Berk story. The quality of Berks is questionable to me.

overheated Berk's HFC? - G35Driver

This was an openly discussed and fairly large issue on here a couple years back but for some odd reason... the threads disappeared. Hmmmm? Anyway. It is discussed here and there's an extra thread link to this thread inside it. Though the outcome was less here. I have read where they creamed in a few months on our cars. The melting process begins early on on many of them. Making them unusable quickly.

Stillen has been doing intakes HFC's and exhausts on Z's for years. What disappoints me about Stillen is there disclaimer negates them from ANY RESPONSIBILITY if a product is faulty. Anything past a visual inspection isn't there concern. Like if your car began overheating from a defect you couldn't see? You're done with stillen.
Though I know they make a superior product. I probably wouldn't give them my money based on that alone.On that basic level,they are more trustworthy in terms of build quality.
Look into FI. From what I can tell through various threads. Tony goes above and beyond and his build quality is excellent. He has a much better limited warranty against defects in functionality

We have a lot of Z1 loyalists on here. I don't know much about their HFC but many swear all of Z1 products are top notch??? Something else to investigate.

MrZ

I will definitly look into that as well the way i look at it I have at least a month or two before i will actually start purchasing parts

m4a1mustang

Fwiw, HFCs will not last long if a car isn't tuned properly. I'm on my phone do I didn't check the link unknown posted, but in general a car with a lot of unburned fuel will degrade the catalyst very quickly and lead to an early failure. If you add intake, cat back, and hfcs you definitely want to get your car tuned.

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MrZ

Now by tuned do you mean just taking it to a dyno and having them run it or getting like one of those uprev engine management systems or can they tune it at the dyno?

ChrisSlicks

I had my Berk HFC's on for over a year driving on track, when I took them off they still looked brand new despite the abuse. It would take some serious heat to melt them I would think, i.e. from a bad tune or the extra heat of FI. The Berk's also have the tab for the OEM vibration damper and a 2nd bung for wideband.

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m4a1mustang

A good tuner will put your car on the dyno and use software like UpRev to fine tune fuel trims, throttle control, etc.

The best thing to do would be to find an UpRev licensed tuner that has experience with the 370Z and have your car tuned there.

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MrZ

Cool Thanks guys for all the Info and help.

UNKNOWN_370

Is the tune necessity something associated with berk or HFC's in general?

m4a1mustang

There's a "rule" that you need a tune if you do Intake/HFC/CBE because it is usually enough to throw your a/f out of whack to where it needs correction. It's possible that you might need a tune after just two of the three, but in general you're usually OK unless you do all three.

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