Russ Taylor EVO 8 – Schooled Magazine

From Schooled Magazine September-October 2008 Issue

Over the next few issues, Schooled Magazine and Road Race Engineering (RRE) will take a stock 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and perform some serious modifications to show you what you can do to enhance your vehicle. This issue I hung out with the RRE crew as they modified the performance of the vehicle. By Russ Taylor

Intake Challenge
When choosing an intake system it is important to consider airflow. The more airflow the engine receives the better it will run. To find the best intake system for the Evo X, we wanted to compare three different systems to see what would give the best gain.  With the three systems-the stock intake, Injen Cold Air and AEM Cold Air Intake- Schooled headed to Road Race Engineering (RRE) located in Santa Fe Springs, California to get the dyno results on which system would give the best performance gains.  The dyno is a system that measures horsepower (WHP) of the vehicle.

I met up with Mike Welch, the master tuner at RRE, who has been tuning Mitsubishi vehicles for over 12 years.  He was the perfect person to handle the intake challenge for the Evo X. We started with the dyno run to find the base numbers to compare against. The dyno placed 248 WHP with no modifications done to the vehicle with the stock intake system installed. Now that we had a baseline to judge by, we were then able to compare the two intake systems.

We started with the Injen (www.injen.com), and the results were depressing. There was only a 2 WHP gain. Considering that the unit retails at over $400, this was definitely not a very good bang for the buck.
We then tried the AEM intake (www.aempower.com) which increased the vehicle with a power gain of 26 WHP. With the cost of the intake at $285, this was a huge gain for a low price.  AEM’s engineers took a different approach and designed a power-producing enclosed airbox. The airbox is constructed from cross-linked polythene. AEM’s revolutionary DRYFLOW synthetic performance air filter is the first cleanable, reusable performance air filter that does not require oiling to filter and trap dirt.

Even though the Injen unit looks considerably nicer with polished pipes than the AEM intake, the 26 WHP  gains made our choice obvious- to go with AEM for the project.

Custom Fabricated Exhaust by RRE

To help with the airflow for the vehicle, RRE made a custom fabricated exhaust system. Art Thavilyaei, one of the RRE crew, pieced together what later would become a custom fabricated dual exhaust system.

RRE decided to use 3” piping going into dual 2.5” piping for the rear section, and the process was amazing to watch. They start by removing the stock exhaust system. A jig is used to hold the new piping in place as measurements are taken and airflow is considered. Once each piece is measured, it is then cut, ground, and welded in place with the use of the jig. Each bend and weld in the exhaust system potentially decreases the amount of airflow from the engine. Art took his time to ensure that the end product would produce the greatest amount of airflow from the vehicle.

After several labor-intensive hours, Art finished with the placement of the exhaust system only to have to remove the entire exhaust to perform the finishing welds. He completed the welds to perfection, and he placed the finished exhaust on the EVO X. Mike ran the car on the dyno and saw a 17 WHP gain over the stock exhaust. The total cost for the exhaust system like this from RRE is $650. It gives the vehicle solid power gains and sounds a lot nicer.

With the AEM Cold Air Intake and the custom fabricated exhaust by RRE, we saw a total 45 WHP increase on the vehicle.  “The best bang for the buck is the intake and exhaust,” says Mike. With a total of 45 WHP gain, Schooled Magazine would have to agree.

In the next issue Mike will perform a custom tune and will add some additional performance parts to get the most gains possible out of the Evo X. You don’t want to miss the next issue of Schooled!