What is the Best Cold Air Intake for a 10th Gen Honda Civic?

Buying a new car off the dealership lot is an exciting experience. That new car smell is intoxicating, and the new sound and feel get your motor running. Eventually every car enthusiast wants more horsepower and sound though. If you’re driving a 10th gen Honda Civic, adding horsepower and sound doesn’t get easier than installing a cold air intake. There are multiple available on the market, but if you want the best for your Civic, we have the best CAI for you.

What is a Cold Air Intake and What Does It Do?
Intake systems from the manufacturer have to balance the amount of air being allowed into the engine and the sound level of that air rushing into the engine. A cold air intake system (CAI) replaces the factory intake system to allow more air into the engine, and that can assist in creating more horsepower and sound. Typically, an intake system will consist of an airbox, tubing, and a high-flow air filter.

 

Honda has produced the Civic model since the 1970s. The 10th generation Honda Civic started production with the 2016 model year and many of the trim levels utilize a 1.5-liter direct injected turbocharged L15B7 VTC engine. The power output varied between 174 (on standard non-Si models) and 205 (on Si models) horsepower with this engine depending on the trim level of the car. The body styles were available in a 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan, and a 5-door hatchback.

 

 

Focusing on the 1.5L turbocharged engine, the best cold air intake system we recommend is the PRL Motorsports system. It features lightweight tubing that allows for maximum airflow from the filter to the intake manifold on the engine. The MAF (mass air flow) housing is designed and CNC machined from billet aluminum for maximum durability, reduced weight, and does provide factory-spec fuel trims for optimal drivability and performance. The CAI utilizes a 4” volume cross-section to reduce turbulence and restrictions inside the tubing. The PRL Motorsports Cobra intake system can be installed to both the non-Si and the Si trim levels on the 10th gen Civic, and it does offer two differing MAF housing choices: Street or Race. Both housings utilize the factory MAF sensor, but each offers a different diameter and profile. The Street housing is designed to provide factory-spec fuel trims without requiring additional tuning. The Race housing allows for a 50% larger volume of air compared to the Street housing and will require additional computer tuning to adjust the fuel trims accordingly. The larger volume of airflow reduces pumping loss and creates an unrestricted air path to feed the MAF housing with ambient temperature air.

If you choose the Street housing, you can expect to gain 15 horsepower and 12 foot-pounds of torque without additional computer tuning. For those that want a little more power, the Race MAF housing can gain an additional 5 horsepower and 3 foot-pounds of torque (up to 20 horsepower and 15 ft/lbs of torque), but it will require additional computer tuning consisting of a basemap calibration on Hondata and/or KTuner. If you want to switch between housings, you purchase the MAF Housing Conversion Kit without needing to buy the complete intake system. You can also convert to a Short Ram Intake with our Short Ram Intake Conversion Kit. If 20 more horsepower isn’t enough, you can add a titanium turbocharger inlet pipe kit and front mount intercooler with custom computer tuning for optimum airflow and performance.

Two Step Performance was founded in 2017, preceded by a lifelong passion of modifying and driving turbocharged imports. We began with a small assortment of handpicked brands that we personally used and believed in. As the company and the community around us has grown, we have continued to add carefully selected product lines to our catalog. In addition to offering brands that you already know and trust, one of our favorite things to do is to identify innovative new products and emerging brands and add them to our catalog as well. We only sell products that we believe in. We also take great pride in offering the best experience to our customer every step of the way. If we can help answer questions on your next build, give us a shout on our contact page.