I have done a 180 on AEM cold air intake. 4 years ago, I rejected AEM cold air intake in favor of the AFE Power Takeda intake. I wrote a detailed review and gave it a decent score, but over the 4 years, the cheap plastic airbox that is mated to the OEM air box, cracked. I contacted AFE and they told me $160 USD shipped, but with duty, conversion rate etc., it comes out to around $250 CAD. Not worth it to get a cheap plastic box for that price. I got a boxing day deal for $580 CAD to get the AEM cold air intake. It comes with a carbon fiber top cover at least that looks quite nice. I might still keep the blue elbow pipe for the Takeda as it looks super nice. It is a bit of a knock-off of the Blitz/GruppeM design in some ways.

i had originally picked the Takeda since I wanted to retain the OEM air box and the dual-mode function. However, I learned over the years, the OEM air box is flawed as it allows hot air even when the flap opens at 3600 rpm and there is a lot of air coming into the engine bay, there is still a lot of hot air (RR Racing said the temperatures climbed up to 119 F even with high fresh velocity). The AEM cold air intake solves this issue where it seals the box from the engine bay. Only the scoops are allowing air into the box from outside while the hot air in the engine bay, cannot permeate the box to surround the velocity stack.

Long story short, I might have saved $550 CAD back in 2020 by picking the AEM cold air intake. I wanted to see if someone has gone through this transition and has any feedback? I have placed the order so it will be something I will be putting on as soon as the weather warms up and the roads clear up for me to drive.

 

The AEM has been a lot more popular these days for us when the IS500 came out compared to the AFE now

-Josh

 

Thanks very much Josh. Yes, after having owned the Taleda for 4 years and doing some research on the AEM especially after the cheap plastic box fiasco, it makes total sense. Looks AEM is the better design. I just was stubborn about not wanting to remove the OEM two-stage airbox, which is why I got the Takeda. At least, the silver lining is I will re-use the electric blue elbow pipe.

In case anyone is wondering, this is how the blue intake pipe looks with the AEM cold air intake box (disclaimer: this is not my picture. I got it off the internet and got the idea from here):

 

So got it installed over the weekend. The blue elbow I tried to retain, is not possible without a coupler and I did not want to put a coupler as it will cause the pipe to vibrate because of the rubber medium between the box and the elbow. I really like the look despite not having the blue elbow. I would only like to put some black screw caps over the carbon cover to make them blend in.

I did not drive it much and it was primarily in bumper to bumper. At low rpms. it sounds pretty similar to stock or with the AFE Power Takeda intake, but with an added bass/low end growl added to it. I only went as high as midranges up to 5500 rpm or maybe, 6000 rpm. Never touched high rpms over 7000+ rpm, but I could instantly hear a metallic sound from the intake that was not there and it was exactly what I was hoping for. I will try to drive it again and do some spirited runs to see how it feels through out the rev range, but my initial impressions are very positive. Wish I had gone with this over Takeda since you lose nothing and you gain a lot. I just had this in my head that the stock airbox removal, will cause a loss of low end torque. I know better now that the stock airbox sucks hot air from the engine bay. Power wise? I am not sure yet if there is any difference. I have quite a few mods and detecting a few horsepower here and there, is very difficult to tell when you are making around 510 - 520 HP at the crank. It also results in some weight loss on the front end as the stock airbox is not exactly light. A few pounds of loss.

More to come



The dynosheet they include in the box showing +18 whp gain at 6000 rpm (which means it is still in the midranges), but I take it with a grain of salt. Will know more once I drive it to see if there is a difference.

 

Thanks for your review, may I respectively know how you got the 510-520 crank hp from? I made 430 whp with the mods in my signature minus the cats (fully catless)

 

Based on the data from the dyno thrashing of RCF by RR Racing, the drivetrain loss is around 17 percent. Exhaust, tune and pulleys net around +25 whp to +27 whp. As my signature says, I have a full exhaust, lightweight pulleys, RR racing tune and CAI so 510-520 CHP is around 425 whp.