Ckeffer, I have been poking around the forum and even joined the mazda6club.com
It seems you are very helpful to a lot of people, so I hope you don't mind me asking you for your opinion.
This is what someone else has posted on the mazda6club forum.

Quote
"The tuba is only a small secondary inlet, that is not a restriction by any strecth. The Primary inlet that is opened by removing the tray and the flapper valve is more the nessesary to provide the needed amount of air to the engine. At that point the tuba does nothing.....If you realy want I will dyno test it, but I realy dont care to waste my time proving the point. I have done this for many years of vehicles that require far greater air flow to produce power based upon airflow/hp/CI.


The real proof is in the dyno numbers. My car produced equal, if not better than most vehicles with aftermarket CAI, and the CPe combined. And did it still having an incredibly rich a/f ratio.

Given the proper tunning software, with the stock/modified air box, I see no reason that this vehicle should not see at least 210whp. Given it is already running at an 11:1 a/f ratio, with an obvious WOT fuel enrichment delay (the lean condition at the begining of every run), and likely a very conservitive timing curve. To add the last run I made with the car, (dyno graph I will post shortyly) in 4th gear made just over 190whp, but was easily on its way to 195whp if it wasnt for hitting the govner on the pull.

I will aslo add, your argument is that the tuba causes the air to have to "bend." Now Im sorry if I sound condisending here, I do not mean to, I only mean to educate. Air can bend. Air can flow around gradual smooth curves with little to no restriction at all.

Look at a production 4.6L manifold. Air enters through a throttlebody, then curves down into a comon plenum and then curves up, and then curves around back into the cylinder.

You have to think of air like a liquid. As long as it can move fluidly without restriction, without turbulance, it will move efficiently. A river can flow around bends, around islands with no effect on its current. However make too tight of bend, and the inside water begins to move too fast for the outside edge of the water, and this causes turbulance, this is the back flow you see at tight bends in rivers.

Same thing happens with air flow... As long as you keep the bends smooth, and transition non restrictive, air flow will remain constant. The tuba is of no issue, I assure you.."



So I have a few questions befor doing it.


1- Is it reversible?
2- Do any "tunnings" need to be done because of the a/f mixture changing?
3- would it void any kind of power train warranty?

Thanks for your help, in the meantime I will continue to search.

 

1. yes
2. no. You would see bigger gains if tuning were an option, but there are no affordable options for us at this point in time.
3. it shouldn't as the power added is pretty negligible and Mazda endorses a CAI which should make more power than this does. However, it would all depend on the dealership. Some see any mod and void your warranty on the spot (ie. your HID's obviously blew your motor therefore no warranty for you!) where as others are what we like to call mod friendly and take things case by case. To be on the safe side though it may be a good idea to reverse it if you need to take it in for any work.

Also, a good number of the most helpful people from mazda6club have moved on, due to differences with the staff, to www.6crew.com there is a ton of info on both sites pertaining to mods of all kinds. From suspension and engine mods, to exterior and wheel info, as well as a bunch of DIY's. Look around and feel free to ask questions. This site is much better for questions on standard maintenance maintenance though as you don't have to sift through quite so many inane questions about the problems i warned you about.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have and I will do my best to answer them or direct you to a place where you can find ur answers. Good luck and happy modding!

-Cameron Keffer