Pod type Air filters?

[Kulwinder]

Hi guys,
I had installed pod type air filters in my cars (Commodore VX wagon and Hyundai Grandeur XG). But not feeling much difference. only louder induction noise. sounds great.
My VX commodore had a plastic pipe sucking cold air between bonnet and front grill and taking it in to the factory air box. sucking air from out side of engine bay. and same in my Grandeur old factory air box was sucking air from under the car behind the bumper. sucking air from outside engine bay. I have noticed that factory air boxes are more efficient and sucking air from out side, really cold air. not like pod filters. they suck air from inside engine compartment. where air is already hot with engine temperature.
should I install these air filters outside. I mean somewhere far from engine heat, somewhere behind bumper using longer pipes and attachments. or stick with factory air boxes?
whats your opinions.?

 

[mpower]

Pod = poo.

 

[Pollushon]

Yep. Your engines didn't need more air, the cooler the air the better, so effectively you've gone backwards.

 

[Immortality]

Pod filters need to be enclosed. If done properly they are an improvement over the factory item.

 

[graham7773]

To quote a previous thread of mine on here, "pod filters suck and make your right foot 35% heavier" which accounts for why your car goes faster (look, I have a pod filter and a heavy right foot.) and use more fuel therefore more expensive!

 

[Nut Kracker]

Unless you are going to enclose it like the Mace CAI, or use an OTR (not likely on a V6), stick with the factory intake.

 

[Kulwinder]

Thanks for reviews.
I think I should stick with factory system or install enclosed pod filter. In morning when I start I leave it run idle for few minutes and drive I feel lot of power and nice induction noise. But not same after its gets hot. I should enclosed it.

I heard about K & N Apollo filter kit. I think it would be better. It is in nice shape and colors, enclosed. And a duct pipe attached at front sucks cold air from outside. I K & N filters have better air flow then factory ones. That's why I don't wanna go with factory system. I wanna install this Apollo kit. What are your reviews about this.

 

[kangavxss]

Save your $$$$. Your engine MIGHT breathe better installing a k&n filter to your standard air box, but in every day driving situations you wont gain a poofteenths of noticeable extra power especially on an asthmatic v6..( and if by some chance it does produce extra power its probably only going to be around 2kw which you can also gain by taking a big dump in the toilet before driving your car, reducing your cars weight.Its all just wank factor and not much else..

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

I also have an FD RX-7, which I went to Japan and bought back personally.
In the RX-7 community, we see a lot of blown twin turbo twin rotor engines due to people removing the perfectly fine cold air breathing air box that the factory engineers spent mega $$$$$ researching, designing and testing, and instead, these owners rip it all out and whack pod filters on the turbochargers inlets, in the engine bay, sucking in hot engine bay air, causing detonation and seal damage as a result.

I had an old AU Falcon 6 cylinder many many months ago as a daily beater. The guy I bought it from, had torn out all of the air box system and stuck a badly fitting, dirty super cheap pod filter on the throttle body with duct tape.
In the ad for the car, he advertised that as a "racing intake". It sounded shocking, like a vacuum cleaner, and it used more fuel. I took it off as soon as I got home and threw the bogan filter in the wheelie bin. When an owner can't be bothered to change his oil, degrease his dirty grease ball of an engine or replace faulty misfiring spark plug leads, yet he takes the time to whack an ill fitting old pod filter onto that mess with some duct tape, and then proudly stands back and calls that a "fully worked race engine, bro" you really have to wonder. (I did put the car back to stock, but did not keep the car longer than I needed to).

Point being, pod filters are a terrible thing. They look shocking, perform poorly and degrade your car and your wallet.
The factory air box is more than sufficient for 90% of daily driving duty. Maybe some better cold air ducting to the factory air box is worthwhile, but that would be enough.

I feel lot of power and nice induction noise

You will hear noises, yes. A lot of power though? Just from changing the filter shape from flat panel to a round cone? No.

The other thing is resale of the car. I can't speak for everybody, but personally I don't want to buy a car that has someone else's weird intake stuck on it, or any holes drilled for it, parts cut or missing, just for the sake of a pod filter. Because thats more work for me to revert the car back to stock, and I'll mention this to the seller and if he doesn't understand that, I'll walk away and find a nicer stock example of the same car as a better base to begin with.

The "Apollo" K&N intakes have been around since the mid 1990's- I remember as a kid looking through my Dad's Rocket Industries catalogues and seeing them. They are just a length of flexible brightly colored pipe tubing with a pod filter encased in the middle of it. Or a long pipe with a pod filter stuck on the end depending on which "kit" you buy... There's nothing revolutionary about that. I certainly would not part my money for that sort of thing. Especially not for an otherwise stock V6 Hyundai. K&N filters do not make any more power than a stock pleated paper filter. My dyno runs with both my RX-7 and my old M5 proved that just swapping the paper filter for a K&N washable filter had zero effect on power.

K&N do make some good oil filters though, but thats really all I would suggest from them. K&N filters do not make horsepower appear out of nowhere. in fact we did dyno runs on a Dyno Logic machine with the M5, and stock paper filter vs K&N vs no filter showed no appreciable power loss or gain. Engine bay heat and dyno fan speed was more influential than what sort of filter (if any) was inside the stock airbox.

If you must have more power, I'd suggest not using the V6 Hyundai as the basis to start. There are better cars that will handle, brake and respond better to simple modifications than that car will

 

[Husky]

Pod filters need to be enclosed. If done properly they are an improvement over the factory item.

Completely agree with this. The stock V6 intake is REALLY restrictive, having a pod frees it up, but to be effective and legal it has to be enclosed. For what it's worth, when my engine has been running for an hour, the ambient temperature in the MACE CAI box is around 26 degrees, which is a huge improvement.