Remember these? HKS Mushroom filters
Discussion
I thought this would be best answered in Jap chat, since these filters were most popular on the Jap scene.
I remember a couple of years ago, HKS mushroom filters seemed to be de rigeur for modified Japanese cars. They still sell them, though they don't seem to be as popular as they were, as I noted when looking for an induction kit for the Type R. I suppose people have wised up a bit, or the tide has turned against induction kits in general, heatsoak etc some buy into it a lot more than others, but I hardly see these HKS filters used any more.
No doubt there will be some guys in here who've had them or still use them. What was their USP? I can't see any tangible benefit over a standard cone filter. What do they sound like? I've tried youtube but the sound quality is always pap, I think you really need to do a with and without test on your own car to see what they are really like. I'd imagine the air being sucked in through a fairly dense sponge would probably not give as good an induction noise as good as an open cone, and let's not beat around the bush, noise is a big part of the attraction with induction kits for most, or at least, they are on the Type R scene where actual performance gains from mods are minimal unless you spend a ton of money.
I think they look cool, but if they don't offer a benefit over a cone, and don't sound as good as a cone I don't see why you'd choose one.
Did HKS have a genuinely good product, or are they just a gimmick that is inferior to the regular open cone?
I remember a couple of years ago, HKS mushroom filters seemed to be de rigeur for modified Japanese cars. They still sell them, though they don't seem to be as popular as they were, as I noted when looking for an induction kit for the Type R. I suppose people have wised up a bit, or the tide has turned against induction kits in general, heatsoak etc some buy into it a lot more than others, but I hardly see these HKS filters used any more.
No doubt there will be some guys in here who've had them or still use them. What was their USP? I can't see any tangible benefit over a standard cone filter. What do they sound like? I've tried youtube but the sound quality is always pap, I think you really need to do a with and without test on your own car to see what they are really like. I'd imagine the air being sucked in through a fairly dense sponge would probably not give as good an induction noise as good as an open cone, and let's not beat around the bush, noise is a big part of the attraction with induction kits for most, or at least, they are on the Type R scene where actual performance gains from mods are minimal unless you spend a ton of money.
I think they look cool, but if they don't offer a benefit over a cone, and don't sound as good as a cone I don't see why you'd choose one.
Did HKS have a genuinely good product, or are they just a gimmick that is inferior to the regular open cone?
Yup, 2 of my Skylines had them on when I bought them.
TBH they're all much of a muchness in terms of power gains unless you're comparing isolated, cold air fed induction boxes with filters dragging in hot air from behind the engine etc. In terms of filtration, there was a few [probably flawed, and probably funded by those with a vested interest in deriding the competition] tests done which pointed to them being pretty poor in terms of filtration.
Noise, can't say I remember them being any different to what I replaced them with, which was probably Apexi. Certainly remember the intake pipes and AFMs being utterly manky after taking them off though, at a guess because the foam is pretty thin and porous so not much surface area for filtration.
TBH they're all much of a muchness in terms of power gains unless you're comparing isolated, cold air fed induction boxes with filters dragging in hot air from behind the engine etc. In terms of filtration, there was a few [probably flawed, and probably funded by those with a vested interest in deriding the competition] tests done which pointed to them being pretty poor in terms of filtration.
Noise, can't say I remember them being any different to what I replaced them with, which was probably Apexi. Certainly remember the intake pipes and AFMs being utterly manky after taking them off though, at a guess because the foam is pretty thin and porous so not much surface area for filtration.
I remember a big filter test where the HKS came out fairly badly on the basis that it flowed well but this was at the cost of filtration.
Things may have changed since those days (although they look identical) but I always went with the Apexi kits on the basis they had much better filtration and still flowed more than standard.
In Civic Type Rs there is a cold air feed pipe that feeds the standard enclosed airbox, the induction kits for EP3s are pretty much all designed to sit in this CAF and heatshields are available to buy, so heatsoak is only an issue in slow traffic, which is not somewhere I often go. I don't doubt that the HKS is just as bad as any other filter though, when heatsoak actually is taking effect, and the effect of cool air entering the engine bay when the car gets moving again is not going to dispel the heatsoak effect any quicker with a shroom than with a cone. I did see a photo of a shroom on google, I think on a Skyline engine, that was pretty much touching the head, with no heatshielding whatsoever.
Interesting comment about them not being great at filtering, I'd have thought that if anything, their actual filtering surface area would be massive compared to a cone element, even though the cones are pleated for extra surface area, the porosity would have given immense area I'd have though, even if the pores are fairly large, I suppose the material they are made out of just isn't that hot for actually trapping particulates.
Interesting comment about them not being great at filtering, I'd have thought that if anything, their actual filtering surface area would be massive compared to a cone element, even though the cones are pleated for extra surface area, the porosity would have given immense area I'd have though, even if the pores are fairly large, I suppose the material they are made out of just isn't that hot for actually trapping particulates.
My Evo that I recently sold had one, they are still very common and widely used
My Skyline also had one and I swapped to a Apexi one which flowed significantly less air
I logged intake temps on both cars and found that heat soak had the biggest impact on temps and just the intake manifold alone can raise the temps but when on boost these temps drop to manageable levels but on both cars I did have cold air feeds
My Skyline also had one and I swapped to a Apexi one which flowed significantly less air
I logged intake temps on both cars and found that heat soak had the biggest impact on temps and just the intake manifold alone can raise the temps but when on boost these temps drop to manageable levels but on both cars I did have cold air feeds
Mastodon2 said:
In Civic Type Rs there is a cold air feed pipe that feeds the standard enclosed airbox, the induction kits for EP3s are pretty much all designed to sit in this CAF and heatshields are available to buy, so heatsoak is only an issue in slow traffic, which is not somewhere I often go. I don't doubt that the HKS is just as bad as any other filter though, when heatsoak actually is taking effect, and the effect of cool air entering the engine bay when the car gets moving again is not going to dispel the heatsoak effect any quicker with a shroom than with a cone.
All cars have a cold air feed of some description.The "best" filters for the EP3 are the GrouppeM/TegiwaM or the AEM (although the AEM can and do suck up water from the passenger side wheelarch in extreme case).
Had these fitted at some point to my R33 & R34 GTR's, and IMO they're the best sounding filters you can get for them as they give a proper "woosh" noise from outside the car and you can hear them sucking "oo er" the air in, compared to the Apexis that I replaced them with, which were much quieter
They are however rubbish on filtering apparently, many tests have shown that, on my R34, i replaced them the filter elements for £20, someone was selling a new set of filters so got them.
For a Skyline, the Apexis were known to be quite good
Performance wise, no idea, both of my cars were tuned and running over 420bhp, the only difference I noticed was the noise, didn't feel faster nor slower
They are however rubbish on filtering apparently, many tests have shown that, on my R34, i replaced them the filter elements for £20, someone was selling a new set of filters so got them.
For a Skyline, the Apexis were known to be quite good
Performance wise, no idea, both of my cars were tuned and running over 420bhp, the only difference I noticed was the noise, didn't feel faster nor slower
Dave^ said:
All cars have a cold air feed of some description.
The "best" filters for the EP3 are the GrouppeM/TegiwaM or the AEM (although the AEM can and do suck up water from the passenger side wheelarch in extreme case).
I'm pretty sure the airbox on my old Cupra was just open on the bottom, and didn't have a standard fit CAF pipe, whereas the EP3 has a little rubber pipe that routes down towards the front grille. On the Cupra, the airbox was whipped off in favour of a Jetex induction kit and CAF pipe was routed down into the wing.The "best" filters for the EP3 are the GrouppeM/TegiwaM or the AEM (although the AEM can and do suck up water from the passenger side wheelarch in extreme case).
I'm fully aware of the "best" kits for the EP3, and as much as people day the AEM long pipe doens't hydrolock an engine, someone on on Type R owners.co.uk posted a thread last week having borked their engine when the AEM sucked up some water. I do like the Gruppe M and Tegiwa kits, but they are super-pricey for the performance increase (which you don't get unless you remap the car anyway, which I'm not) and a pain in the arse to fit, requiring a cutting to the scuttle panel. My interest in induction for the EP3 is purely for noise enjoyment, but that is getting away from the point of this thread. The pros and cons of the induction kits for the EP3 have been done to death, dug up and done again.
With regard to volume and noise from the HKS vs cone type filters, I've seen some suggestion that the pipe is actually responsible for the noise, and that the filter element, as long as it flows air at a high enough rate, will not effect the tone much. The hard induction note you get from induction kits seems to be from the air reverberating through the pipe, which seems pretty feasible to me.
Good to see some photos, that Evo engine bay looks particularly good. I know they are in still in use but I don't seem to see as many as I used to. I think in some cases people have been scared off induction kits recently by the "heatsoak" monster, which is overblown imo. It affected by Cupra R if I was escaping from a traffic jam on a hot day, but after a less than a few minutes of driving the effect was completely unnoticable.
Had a "shroom" with green element on my last FTO. No idea what increase there was (if any) but the noise was pretty good for an induction kit.
New elements were around £20 i think - changed once a year.
There used to be a copy of the HKS mushroom that was popular with skyline owners that had 2 mushroom elements instead of one large one.
New elements were around £20 i think - changed once a year.
There used to be a copy of the HKS mushroom that was popular with skyline owners that had 2 mushroom elements instead of one large one.
Mushrooms or cones, all the same really - same performance, slightly different sound if your being picky.
Mushrooms dont filter that well as stated above, also some have been known to get sucked into the turbo !!
I'm going for a metal mesh cone filter, no oil in it and never needs replacing, flows and filters well.
Mushrooms dont filter that well as stated above, also some have been known to get sucked into the turbo !!
I'm going for a metal mesh cone filter, no oil in it and never needs replacing, flows and filters well.
thetapeworm said:
I remember a big filter test where the HKS came out fairly badly on the basis that it flowed well but this was at the cost of filtration.
Things may have changed since those days (although they look identical) but I always went with the Apexi kits on the basis they had much better filtration and still flowed more than standard.
There must have had legs to this, as I was always told the HKS Mushroom filters had a poor filtration, but were cheap and looked after market so guess that's why they were so popular? My ST205 GT4 came with one but I quickly replaced it with an Apexi intake imported from Japan. Cost me the best part of £200 but worth it for better filtration from the cone filter. This was after a lot of reading up on which is the best to go for.Things may have changed since those days (although they look identical) but I always went with the Apexi kits on the basis they had much better filtration and still flowed more than standard.
Edited by Riknos on Friday 14th December 14:46
Same as above really, Make a nice noise but are apparently crap filtration.
I changed mine for a Stillen spec K&N filter on my TT 30zx, which is a HUGE filter in comparison to the Apexi I had on a previous zed. The K&N makes as good a noise as the HKS.
ARC make some lovely filter and airbox combos, but theyre mega expensive.
I changed mine for a Stillen spec K&N filter on my TT 30zx, which is a HUGE filter in comparison to the Apexi I had on a previous zed. The K&N makes as good a noise as the HKS.
ARC make some lovely filter and airbox combos, but theyre mega expensive.
My MR2 turbo came with these fitted, they were probably great when new, just a loud sucking noise under acceleration.
However as previously mentioned when allowed to get old they have a habit of being sucked into the intake, looked fine on the outside but after an inspection they'd been hollowed out.
I had my other cars fitted with K&Ns afterward, easy to keep clean and re-oil.
Apexi kit is easily comparable to K&N, they'd have been my other choice.
However as previously mentioned when allowed to get old they have a habit of being sucked into the intake, looked fine on the outside but after an inspection they'd been hollowed out.
I had my other cars fitted with K&Ns afterward, easy to keep clean and re-oil.
Apexi kit is easily comparable to K&N, they'd have been my other choice.
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