The Hyundai Short Air Intake (p/n U8970 1e3x0), Pros / Cons? Anyone have it? Options

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I have been thinking of a installing the short air intake system that is built by AEM and sold by Hyundai under their own name. My goal here is to increase my fuel economy and hopefully get a bit more power available by easing the load the engine requires to draw in air. I have read that drawing in warm air from inside the engine compartment does increase fuel economy because the warmer air has less oxygen content in a given unit of volume. The best analogy I can think of is blowing up a balloon and placing it somewhere hot and cold. It's diameter will increase in the hotter environment and decrease in the colder one. The lower oxygen content will result in a leaner burn (i.e. less gasoline). Something that confuses me here is that the control unit will sense the leaner burn and open up an intake control valve allowing for more air. Here's what confuses me. Should the opening of the intake valve restore the air/fuel mixture and bring me back to where I was to begin with?

A shorter intake system would seem to have less frictional loss so I would guess that the engine would have an easier time sucking in air and cycling about. Also, the intake area looks bigger than the stock tube we have in our Accents. This makes me think that more air can come in too. Again, wouldn't the control valve compensate by closing a bit?

I have also read that short air intake systems reduce the amount of available power due to the drawn air being warmed by the engine. So it seems that these systems are not really "performance" upgrades. Is that true?

I would really like to see two power curves, one with the stock intake and one with the short air intake. Is there any difference?

Has anyone actually installed something like this in their Accent? I would love to hear some feedback on this.

All of this is confusing to me and I am grappling with the interaction of all the variables.

-- Boris

[PaCHeKo!]

I have the AEM SRI from Hyundai.

First thing noticable with the short ram will be the sound coming out from the engine... it will give the engine a much more aggresive sound.

Actually, I'm not sure you will feel much power gain from installing a SRI. HP gained from installing a SRI will be noticeable at higher RPM.

You might feel a better throttle response from your engine.

In the end.. does it worth the money? Yes.

[StevenWang]

Just take out the whole stock air box and put a cone filter on the rubber part like i did. the gain is the same and the rubber stays a little cooler then the aem one. cost me 9 dollars...

[bloodninja]

Just take out the whole stock air box and put a cone filter on the rubber part like i did. the gain is the same and the rubber stays a little cooler then the aem one. cost me 9 dollars...

This is generally true, though when I went from my jury-rigged setup to the official one, there is a noticeable difference. Was the difference necessarily worth the money? I don't know. BUT my jury-rigged setup's filter was rubbing against my battery, and I don't like that. The official one has enough clearance to not touch any other part of the car.