I've had these for a while but haven't posted them. I bought an Injen 3rd gen CAI to compare with my AEM CAI. My car also has a TRD exhaust. I dynoed the car stock a while back as well. The same dyno was used both times as well as the same tire inflation pressure. This is how I tested the car to make sure the Injen and AEM results would compare fairly. I installed the Injen on a Friday night along with the TRD exhaust. I reset the ECU and cleaned the MAF sensor. The Injen was run about 200 miles total before it was tested, a mix of street, highway, and two days at the track. The best run was the morning after installing the intake/exhaust 14.8@98.95mph. I noticed with the Injen a massive lack of low end power compared with the AEM. The car also was hard to drive smoothly away from lights comparitively and had a big bog at about 4600 rpm under part throttle. You can see in the first dyno run that the Injen/TRD combo is killing the stock setup up top but is losing tons of power down low. The Injen HP line is red and torque line is green, stock HP line is dark blue and torque line is light blue.
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On Wednesday night after dtnoing the Injen setup, I removed it and reinstalled the AEM, resetting the ECU again. The car was driven about 50 miles before it was run on Thursday at the dyno. The low end power and drivability off idle picked right back up and the part throttle bog disappeared. The first graph shows the AEM/TRD combo vs. stock (AEM HP=dark blue, torque=light blue stock HP=red, torque=green) As you can see, the low end power loss is significantly less than with the Injen.
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Now this last graph shows the AEM/TRD vs. Injen/TRD This is where I was surprised. The Injen olny beat out the AEM by one peak HP. And the Injen only passed the AEM after 7300 rpm. Not only that, but the AEM absolutely killed the Injen down low. (In this graph AEM HP=dark blue, torque=light blue Injen HP=red, torque=green)
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After having both intakes in my car, I can say that the AEM is a far better choice for street use. The fitment of the intake is far better, and there are no holes or stumbles in the powerband. That isn't to say that the Injen may not have some promise or does not have good aspects. It may be possible to tune the Injen with a S-AFC to make more top end power, because that seems to be where its powerband is biased. Also, the Injen puts the filter in a far better location than the AEM. The Injen has a sharp bend at the end which causes the filter to sit nearly vertical and up and out of the airstream coming into the front bumper. This is beneficial in two ways. First, the filter isn't constantly being bombarded with road debris. Second, I think that in real world use, the AEM may suffer a power loss at high speeds. Its filter is located right in the air stream entering the bumper. When you move air at speed past the end of a pipe, you have a pressure drop at the end of the pipe. At high speeds, there is alot of airflow through the front end, especially with ny TRD bumper that has a large gap between the plastics and the bumper. I am thinking of making a fiberglass ram air box to mount the AEM in that is fed by the opening in the front bumper.
So I hope this all was enlightening to everyone. More stuff can be found at my site http://www.ameritech.net/users/trdcelica/celica.htm
On Wednesday night after dtnoing the Injen setup, I removed it and reinstalled the AEM, resetting the ECU again. The car was driven about 50 miles before it was run on Thursday at the dyno. The low end power and drivability off idle picked right back up and the part throttle bog disappeared. The first graph shows the AEM/TRD combo vs. stock (AEM HP=dark blue, torque=light blue stock HP=red, torque=green) As you can see, the low end power loss is significantly less than with the Injen.
Now this last graph shows the AEM/TRD vs. Injen/TRD This is where I was surprised. The Injen olny beat out the AEM by one peak HP. And the Injen only passed the AEM after 7300 rpm. Not only that, but the AEM absolutely killed the Injen down low. (In this graph AEM HP=dark blue, torque=light blue Injen HP=red, torque=green)
After having both intakes in my car, I can say that the AEM is a far better choice for street use. The fitment of the intake is far better, and there are no holes or stumbles in the powerband. That isn't to say that the Injen may not have some promise or does not have good aspects. It may be possible to tune the Injen with a S-AFC to make more top end power, because that seems to be where its powerband is biased. Also, the Injen puts the filter in a far better location than the AEM. The Injen has a sharp bend at the end which causes the filter to sit nearly vertical and up and out of the airstream coming into the front bumper. This is beneficial in two ways. First, the filter isn't constantly being bombarded with road debris. Second, I think that in real world use, the AEM may suffer a power loss at high speeds. Its filter is located right in the air stream entering the bumper. When you move air at speed past the end of a pipe, you have a pressure drop at the end of the pipe. At high speeds, there is alot of airflow through the front end, especially with ny TRD bumper that has a large gap between the plastics and the bumper. I am thinking of making a fiberglass ram air box to mount the AEM in that is fed by the opening in the front bumper.
So I hope this all was enlightening to everyone. More stuff can be found at my site http://www.ameritech.net/users/trdcelica/celica.htm
