RC Autoworks CAI shootout with ACUITY/PRL/Skunk2

Hella JDM

Well-Known Member
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Saw this posted today and I thought I would share. Looks like RC Autoworks did an independent test of the ACUITY, PRL, and Skunk2 intakes for our cars. Very nice to see an unbiased review of the top 3 intakes. Impressed to say that ACUITY beat the competition a major way. Congrats to @acuity!!!

Here is the link to their FB:

https://www.facebook.com/rcautowork/

Here is what they wrote:


We did this test because we wanna provide real data to our customers so they can make the best decision when picking an intake. We've run our business like this from day one here, educate and inform so the customer can make the proper decision. Each intake made power over the stock air box, now don't be alarmed or shocked by the dyno numbers, as we mentioned before in our post all dyno's read different and can be fooled to read higher or lower given the circumstances, what we're looking for is the starting point and ending point with each intake.

Here is a little break down on the results that we found, Acuity did in fact make the most horspower but when it comes down to actual Intake temps its pretty close, so the question that should be asked is which one is the best bang for the buck. We'll be discussing some notes we had during the testing and installation rating as well. We'll be providing a video blog soon that will include sound clips of each intake.

The test vehicle had a stock downpipe, stock intake manifold

Acuity - $419
PRL - $389
Skunk - $319

Average Temps
Stock - 114
PRL - 90
Skunk2 - 80
Acuity - 77

Highest temp recorded
Stock - 120 and climbing
PRL - 97
Acuity - 88
Skunk2 - 86

So for installation notes, this is also good to keep in mind if you're paying a shop for install as labor rates would be a little different.

With the prl kit you have to remove the clutch line and reroute it, some people hate dealing with hydraulics and having to bleed a clutch so this should be taken into consideration. PRL also uses a battery adapter so the postive side will reach.

The acuity install is in depth, the instructions it does come with are very helpful and detailed, but theres a lot of steps and this one probably was the most time consuming. It does come with nice plug and play wiring though, so no cutting is required but it does recommend removing the radiator hose and draining the coolant so the wiring can be routed on the opposite side of the hose. We got around this though by disconnecting it from the fuse box. Just something to keep in mind because once again, some might not want to remove the radiator hose or mess with fuse box connections

Skunk2 install, this one by far is the easiest in our opinion the only big downside is they do not include the plug and play wiring harness like acuity does, you have to cut and wire the one plug in.

Hopefully this answers some questions, if anyone has any other questions post them up and we'll answer them in here.


Here are the HP and TQ graphs:



2pyds0j.jpg


2yooorp.jpg
 
Thanks for sharing. Def cool to see them do this
 
I'm kinda surprised the prl showed the worst numbers. Makes me wonder what the ambient temp was when they tested these.
 
What about the graph below 4K RPM?
Not all of us live in the upper half of the rev range.
 
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