1.5T PRL Cobra Intake - Does it really make a difference? (Results Inside)

[360glitch]

Several weeks ago I ordered the @PRL Motorsports Cobra Cold Air Intake. I will admit that I did not really expect any noticeable performance gains, at least not with the stock turbocharger. I still have the stock turbo and am waiting on the right aftermarket option to become available. Nevertheless, I took the plunge and went with the "Race" sized MAF housing to make sure the setup was future proof. I knew this would require a tune but also knew I'd have plenty of help with that so I was not worried about that part.

The Cobra intake is one of, if not the most expensive intake options currently on the market. As soon as I opened the shipping box it became clear why. PRL clearly took lots of time developing the product, used high quality materials, and took advantage of industry leading manufacturing techniques to produce a very high quality cold air intake for the tenth generation Civic platform. As you can tell, I was very impressed.

However, as much as I can appreciate a great looking, well built product, I was in it for the horsepower gains. I do not have easy access to a dyno in my area, but I have spent a lot of time over the last few months datalogging on the street in a controlled and safe manner. This gave me lots of baseline data to compare the post installation datalogs to. I typically do third gear pulls and amongst other things, keep a close eye on my 60-80MPH times. That will be our benchmark for today. Now for the information that everyone is here for...

After installing the PRL Cobra Cold Air Intake with Race MAF housing, my 60-80MPH time decreased by 0.2 seconds. This may seem like a small number to some, but I can assure you that it is not insignificant. Imagine how much time would be picked up over a full 0-100+ MPH quarter mile run. It is also worth noting that I saw the same 0.2 second gain on my 93 octane tune as well as my E40 (40% ethanol) tune.

I am still dialing in my tune, but wanted to go ahead and share my findings so far. Thank you @PRL Motorsports for offering such a great part!

 

[elusiveaura]

It is definitely a wonderful intake. How are you liking that clutch. I wanna pull the trigger but sucks when labor is more expensive than clutch lol

Several weeks ago I ordered the @PRL Motorsports Cobra Cold Air Intake. I will admit that I did not really expect any noticeable performance gains, at least not with the stock turbocharger. I still have the stock turbo and am waiting on the right aftermarket option to become available. Nevertheless, I took the plunge and went with the "Race" sized MAF housing to make sure the setup was future proof. I knew this would require a tune but also knew I'd have plenty of help with that so I was not worried about that part.

The Cobra intake is one of, if not the most expensive intake options currently on the market. As soon as I opened the shipping box it became clear why. PRL clearly took lots of time developing the product, used high quality materials, and took advantage of industry leading manufacturing techniques to produce a very high quality cold air intake for the tenth generation Civic platform. As you can tell, I was very impressed.

However, as much as I can appreciate a great looking, well built product, I was in it for the horsepower gains. I do not have easy access to a dyno in my area, but I have spent a lot of time over the last few months datalogging on the street in a controlled and safe manner. This gave me lots of baseline data to compare the post installation datalogs to. I typically do third gear pulls and amongst other things, keep a close eye on my 60-80MPH times. That will be our benchmark for today. Now for the information that everyone is here for...

After installing the PRL Cobra Cold Air Intake with Race MAF housing, my 60-80MPH time decreased by 0.2 seconds. This may seem like a small number to some, but I can assure you that it is not insignificant. Imagine how much time would be picked up over a full 0-100+ MPH quarter mile run. It is also worth noting that I saw the same 0.2 second gain on my 93 octane tune as well as my E40 (40% ethanol) tune.

I am still dialing in my tune, but wanted to go ahead and share my findings so far. Thank you @PRL Motorsports for offering such a great part!

 

[TranceFC1]

Is your intake touching the Radiator hose as well?

 

[360glitch]

It is definitely a wonderful intake. How are you liking that clutch. I wanna pull the trigger but sucks when labor is more expensive than clutch lol

Very happy with the clutch. I installed it with the help of a friend so I did not have to pay for an expensive installation, thankfully.

Is your intake touching the Radiator hose as well?

It is not. If that is something you running into, I bet you can turn the silicone intake hoses enough to get it off of the radiator hose.

 

[werdna]

Several weeks ago I ordered the @PRL Motorsports Cobra Cold Air Intake. I will admit that I did not really expect any noticeable performance gains, at least not with the stock turbocharger. I still have the stock turbo and am waiting on the right aftermarket option to become available. Nevertheless, I took the plunge and went with the "Race" sized MAF housing to make sure the setup was future proof. I knew this would require a tune but also knew I'd have plenty of help with that so I was not worried about that part.

The Cobra intake is one of, if not the most expensive intake options currently on the market. As soon as I opened the shipping box it became clear why. PRL clearly took lots of time developing the product, used high quality materials, and took advantage of industry leading manufacturing techniques to produce a very high quality cold air intake for the tenth generation Civic platform. As you can tell, I was very impressed.

However, as much as I can appreciate a great looking, well built product, I was in it for the horsepower gains. I do not have easy access to a dyno in my area, but I have spent a lot of time over the last few months datalogging on the street in a controlled and safe manner. This gave me lots of baseline data to compare the post installation datalogs to. I typically do third gear pulls and amongst other things, keep a close eye on my 60-80MPH times. That will be our benchmark for today. Now for the information that everyone is here for...

After installing the PRL Cobra Cold Air Intake with Race MAF housing, my 60-80MPH time decreased by 0.2 seconds. This may seem like a small number to some, but I can assure you that it is not insignificant. Imagine how much time would be picked up over a full 0-100+ MPH quarter mile run. It is also worth noting that I saw the same 0.2 second gain on my 93 octane tune as well as my E40 (40% ethanol) tune.

I am still dialing in my tune, but wanted to go ahead and share my findings so far. Thank you @PRL Motorsports for offering such a great part!

Would you recommend the street maf or race maf?

 

[17siturb0]

Street MAF- Able to run the intake without a tune, for mild bolt ons if you want a good power bump. Will also work with future modifications.

Race MAF- We bit bigger housing, will pull in larger volumes of air. Custom tune required, biggest gains are to be had here, and will work with future modifications from Prl to extract the most power.

 

[360glitch]

Would you recommend the street maf or race maf?

Race. It's a little more work but you get more out of it. @Hondata has a thread comparing dyno results from the two.

 

[10GenPearlSi]

Would you recommend the street maf or race maf?

One more point is that if you flash back to stock tune when you take it back to the dealer then with a race MAF it would not be tuned when the dealer worked on it. If you have the street MAF then you can flash back to stock and it will still be fine for most dealers.

 

[360glitch]

One more point is that if you flash back to stock tune when you take it back to the dealer then with a race MAF it would not be tuned when the dealer worked on it. If you have the street MAF then you can flash back to stock and it will still be fine for most dealers.

This is a great point. It will run on the factory ECU calibration, but poorly.

 

[nvtive_b]

now does anyone here have any experience with the stage 1 intake they offer. i wanna pull the plug on the cobra intake but i know the stock airbox is already pretty well put together and up to par. i just wanna upgrade the hosing and air filter? and prl definitely puts on good products

 

[maddmatt02]

any chance you measured the I.D. of the maf housing before install?

 

[360glitch]

any chance you measured the I.D. of the maf housing before install?

I did not, sorry. I believe it is about 50% larger than the OEM housing.

 

[PRL Motorsports]

I did not, sorry. I believe it is about 50% larger than the OEM housing.

Correct, the Race MAF housing is 50% larger than the stock/Street MAF housing.

 

[360glitch]

Correct, the Race MAF housing is 50% larger than the stock/Street MAF housing.

What this also means is that with Ktuner or Hondata you can simply increase the AFM flow values by about 50% to get a good starting point for tuning for the Race MAF housing. Further tweaking would be recommended though.

 

[Loccust]

Just installed my PRL Cobra Street last night, took about 2 hours. I must state your build quality and attention to detail is crazy. Nice job PRL. I am starting with the Street version for now and figure that when I do go to a tune down the road with the upgrade to the Race, I will be able to swap in the street maf when I go back to a stock tune for dealership visits.

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