Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter
K&N Style Filter with Ractive Heat Shield also order the K&N Filter cleaning & oil kit - Heat Shielded K&N Style Filter and a piece of black metal with about five holes in it. No instructions included.
Mixed-I chose this product because it is the only custom Air Intake I could find that will fit with STB - I try to take apart the OEM filter box and give the whole thing a good look see. No good. Instructions are meant to be had and followed. One call to Brain Storm & Hector immediately puts a set of instructions in the fax. They make sense - the Air Meter needs to be turned 90 degrees the black metal bracket attaches to two other screws holding a cooling line beneath the frame. The bracket fits and it is not a perfect fit for the job - it leaves a bit of flex in the cooling line to the airmeter & power stack...it's a rough fit. The very end of the heat shield is either touching the brake lines or it rests between the brake lines and the STB. It is one inch from the manifold cover. Once you take out the OEM Filter box & turn the Air Meter 90 degrees there lots of room in the engine bay - cooler air to the filter?
Driving the car - I don't feel anything at low speed or from standing start - it seems to add a few horsepower in the upper RPM's around 4500-6000 and up - I am getting a little something extra between 60 & 80 mph. The sound is a nice little gutteral roar at hard acceleration. I am not sure about the K&N Filter cleaning kit I ordered with the power stack or why I even need this product (the Powerstack) other than I really like the STB and wanted to add a freer flowing air filter. Could the same results have been achieved with the K&N Drop in filter? Maybe. Bottom line it looks good in the engine bay - it adds a little bit to performance - I am not sure about the effect of contact with either the brake lines or the STB - but now that the Power Stack is in I am going to keep it.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
Performance air filter with painted plastic heat shield assembly
This air filter is not made by BSP. It is made by Toucan Industries and the real name of the filter is called the "Ractive" (probably misspelling of the word "reactive"). It comes with all necessary hardware, and all of which fit well except for the bracket, which has 4 holes that don't match up with anything on the 90-97 Miatas. This was probably meant for the 99+ models. In any case, I'll have to fashion another bracket myself to fix up the problem. Right now, the filter is squeezed into the brake lines, and is about 2 inches away from the exhaust heat shield.
I don't recommend this product unless you have extra time to fashion a metal bracket yourself. Overall quality of the filter is ok, it makes a growling sound from 2000-4000 RPM and the heat shield probably works if you use an aftermarket header without the stock shield.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '90 - '97
A sheilded cone-style air filter assembly.
This is probably the most good news-bad news application I've yet to install on the car. The hardware that arrived with the cone in no way, following the 'instuctions' or not, will fit any orthodox mounting principle as there is no way a bracket designed for use in a '99 should be shipped to a customer who indicated owning a '90. On the other hand, the adaptor that fits the round exit port of the cone to the square inlet of the air metre fits perfectly. So I'll have to fabricate a bracket where all the holes line up and it can secure the unit with some strength to the engine bay. All in all, it took a couple of hours and some excessive flexing of the vocabulary to fit this 'simple' install to the car
I'll sum up my view of this product in point-form
Looks-lends a sporty image to a somewhat boring engine bay
Performance-a noticable gain in the high end and suprisingly off the line, too.
Installation-brutal due to absolutly no attention paid to the fact that the car changes over model years.
In short, I can only recommend this product to those that can either fab a bracket or own the right year car for the mounting hardware. If I do it again it'll be a JR CAI.
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '99 + 1.8 liter
K&N cone filter assembly to replace stock airbox.
Very easy install, different from the Racing Beat intake in that it does't have that aluminum 180 degree bend. Never knew the stock airbox had some many darn bolts...air temperature sensor was a bit of a head-scratch. I think i may have pushed it in too far.
Nice growl when opening the throttle...don't know if there is actually any specific perfromance increase due to the mouth of the filter pointing to the hotter air of the back of the engine bay instead of the stock tube that routes air from behind the driver's side headlight assembly. Also, the single metal bar that supports the unit allows a fair degree of movement. So I'm thinking of a combination addition support/heat shield.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
| Back to Product Reviews | 15 December, 2001 |