The Lab: Mission Statement
When we set out to produce Tuner Performance Reports, it was our mission to take product testing to a whole new level. Why? So the tuner and enthusiast could get the best information possible. With the best information, the right parts could be purchased the first time around. We realize that not everyone has the budget to purchase the highest-quality parts, but it's our mission to supply the facts. If a user is willing to give up a little quality to save some cash, there's nothing wrong as long as they know what they are getting. Too many times, we've seen the first-timer get all the wrong info, buy the wrong parts and give up on tuning and personalizing his ride. Maybe he got the wrong info from a friend, from a stupid Hollywood movie or maybe he got suckered by an internet site, mail-order salesman or a crooked shop owner. This is a reality, and it does happen every day. Just about every person on our staff has had the experience with that one part that promised the world and left them nothing but a thinner wallet.

The Lab: Mission Impossible?
True results. People talk about it all the time. Are those results true? We're here to tell you that there is no such thing as true results or the truth. There is no absolute truth (unless we take this to some spiritual/religious plane). It is an impossible mission to achieve the truth in any test. So why test products at all? What we seek through testing are answers to some questions but not every question. We seek results that are repeatable. We'll tell you exactly how we conducted the test. If we get things right, another tester, in another state, on a similar dyno, with a similar car, following the same testing procedure with get similar results that repeat the story told from our original testing.

Sources of Error
As with any lab experiment, there are always sources of error. In the case of our intake evaluations, we subjected our test vehicle to over 140 dyno runs over three separate days. Testing started in the mornings and concluded in the evening. Those conditions alone should have you thinking about some possible sources of error. First, the condition of the engine can deteriorate between the start and end of a test. With 140 full-throttle dyno runs it is possible that cylinder leak-down can possibly deteriorate. Second, the temperature, barometric pressure and humidity of the air can widely vary in late February in Southern California. The dynamometer has correction factors built in to compensate for the changes in temperature and pressure from run to run. This compensation usual works very well to cut down the potential error from this to about one-quarter to one-half of one percent. Third, the temperature of the intake air can affect how the factory ECU delivers fuel and how it delivers the spark timing to the engine. Honda ECUs actually have a set of long-term and short-term correction factors for the fuel curve.

The Great V2 Controversy-Day One
On day two of our dyno testing, we labored through all of the cold air systems that we wanted to test. The AEM V2 was saved for last. Why? Quite simply the V2 takes the longest to install of any of the cold air systems that we evaluated. Taking a rather unique path for the 100mm piping requires that the factory transmission bracket be replaced with the bracket supplied in the V2 kit. In truth, the install was actually a lot easier than it looks or that the instructions make you believe. With the V2 in place we made another series of pulls and concluded the test (or so we thought).

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