I myself do not have a cold air intake on my '03 E but from what I've read around here the general consensus is that CAI setups don't do anything for our Elements. Again, I'm just relaying what I've read. Others with actual hands-on experience will probably chime in and give better input than I can.

 

Most cold air intakes are actually hot air intakes because they don't reach far enough away from the engine/bay to suck in any cold air. Here's what you're looking at for an 08. Injen Technology
As for drone, I couldn't tell you because I didn't put any of these parts on mine. Not a lot of bang for your buck if you ask me.

 

Those CAI do very little other than allow more dirt in due to the crappy cotton oiled filters.

 

I chose K@N. See article on it below:

K&N Typhoon Intake System Breathes New Life into Honda Element

The C.A.R.B. exemption sticker must be visible under the hood so that emissions inspectors can see it during an inspection. My wife and I waited for a year after Honda introduced the Element before opting to buy one. The quirkiness of its design, which i

www.knfilters.com

I think with a dyno tune using Ktuner like I did, it is worth it. I insulated my intake myself to avoid heat soak and have installed a K@N filter wrap to avoid dirt. Link below:

Amazon.com: K&N RC-3680DK Black Drycharger Filter Wrap - For Your K&N RC-3680 Filter: Automotive

I agree with others that you will not get huge gains, I was against the idea for a long time until my fiancee got it as a present for my birthday. I was smiling ear to ear like a kid once it was put in. It just brought me joy. It does drone a bit and is loud when you hit the throttle.

 

Just my 2 cents. Any of the intakes are just bling unless you have a k24a2 swap, tuning, turbo, other thing to make your engine demand more air. If you want a mod that theoretically gives you more, get an exhaust. The Injen exhaust for the E has a nice sound with a very small but noticeable drone around 3k. Nicely put together, not super loud, doesn’t sound like a 90s civic with a bucket for a muffler. And cheaper than most others you will find. Can give it a good score myself and I know others will agree.
The important part. Do a bit of research. Find an exhaust you like in a price bracket you can afford. Get something that you like, it’s no small purchase.

 

Looks like there is a really good deal on that Injen exhaust system right now, am so tempted:

Injen 03-08 Element 2WD AWD & SC Models Exhaust System, SES1726 – RCA Garage

rcagarage.com

 

you have a great cold air intake OEM that takes in cold air around the left headlight.. you can't buy one better for the amount of air any 4 banger is going to suck

 

I have the Injen CAI on my 2010 SC. I never had it dynoed and I think it might have hurt the initial torque on take off as it use to accidentally slip the front tires on take off. It also seems to pull better during passing. It seemed like it was struggling to get air when passing. I'm sure a lot of it just comes from the great induction sound. It may not have actually added power but I do believe it shifted where power occurs in the rev range.

I put this on at 63k and now have 164k and I'm on my third filter element. I have had zero engine or intake issues. It makes absolutely no extra noise until you get on the throttle hard. Then it sounds mean!

 

I posted this back in 2015. This test was with a factory air intake and filter. Very little, if any restriction.


Stock air box with 54,000 miles and original factory air filter.
Full throttle up a long hill 4th gear at red line.
Water column meter connected to 'clean side of filter'
Water column reading showed 4.1 inches of water (restriction), that is .148 PSI.
Does anyone expect to feel any improvement in performance if it was less. The dyno test is just that, it's on a vehicle not moving with air flow to cool the intake charge, besides the fact that the filter is near the ground could possibly suck up water.

It's all hype to sell their product.

 

http://www.trucktrend.com/how-to/engine/0510tr-honda-element-intake-and-exhaust

Trucking magazine did a dyno test with just the intake on the Element and it gained 10lbs of torque. This was without tuning.

I got an intake as a gift from my fiancee to compliment the tune. Otherwise it would have been hard for me to justify such a purchase. My tuner (and now close friend) who spends all day on the dyno tells me the intake is worth it. I agree with others that just an intake will probably not make a noticeable difference, but to each his own. I like many others on this forum love my Element, and I have a young adolescent deep inside of me that finds joy in doing little upgrades to my ride.

Unfortunately there are limited performance bolt on's for the Element. I have been considering the purchase of the Injen exhaust but similar to our debate with the intake, is it worth it? I am not under any delusion that I will notice a performance gain, I bet it's maybe 2-3 hp at best. Injen claims 6hp on their dyno sheet but I find that hard to believe. Maybe I will finally get the exhaust and then post the dyno difference (if any) for the forum. We will see...

 

So I noticed a difference in the "butt meter" after installing the RBB intake manifold and thermal gaskets up to the throttle body.

Lol and then it all went away when I installed a new catalytic converter that was a quarter inch larger in diameter and the injen exhaust system....

 

Ok I’m gonna throw my 2 cents in. The K’s in elements are Torque/Economy engines. Emphasis on Torque. Thats why you feel wheelspin with a stock air box and seem to have less with the aftermarket intake. Torque is more noticeable in that situation. N/A gas engines gain performance through flow, but that performance tends to be expressed more as horse power over torque. So just because you are loosing that bit of torque doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a gain somewhere else, it was just expressed in a different way. Could be a more linear curve. Could be that you do have more flow when your engine is starting to rev faster, therefore, more horsepower at higher rpms.

 

Interesting, I wonder the torque in question might differ on newer Elements who have drive by wire and a larger intake manifold? This is the first I am hearing about a drop in performance with the Injen exhaust? Was this your experience YourOldPalElmer? Btw, my Injen exhaust system is in the mail.

 

I’ve worked with stuff my whole life. Cars. Motorbikes. Lawnmowers. And I’m from Hickville U.S.A. Nothing wrong with that of course, but there are a lot of diesels everywhere. It’s interesting, the K24a4 seems to almost emulate a diesel. Yeah you can rev it high, but the torque is really the engine’s bread and butter, and is way more apparent than the horse power. Without doing major head work on an engine you can make more power, but it doesn’t just magically appear. Not saying it’s isn’t worth it. Anything like this is worth it if that what you wanna do with your car and you enjoy doing it. It’s just that the stock intake is shaped for torque and efficiency. That is what this engine was designed for. You are going to loose some of that gaining horsepower. That’s why it’s called engine tuning. Like a musical instrument, you can change the tuning to put different things in different places. Almost like a switch. Or a slider. Right now it’s right in the middle. And intake slides it more to the horsepower side.