oh and mine isn't really a Short ram its one of those AEM cold airs that can take off the cold air extention and so the filter is by the big hole where the cold air tube goes down.

 

cold air intake
when they dyno a short ram they have a huge as fan blowing right into it, int he real world it will only suck the hot air fromt he engine

 

actually, on my 97 civic i had the same intake, and felt the same exact way, it seems to feel like it chugged a bit more.... what I think it is = the cold air intake adds more power and HP at wide open throttle and when it was short ram it seemed to have a lil more burst at partial throttle but kind of stay even throughout the whole powerband

 

i noticed that a few times too... shorter ram, rpms shoot up faster and it feels torquier. The cold-air seemed to be smoother in high rpm... i know the theories are reversed and i always heard the butt dynot sucks, but I have noticed this for a few years, just never dynoed it. i just stick with the short ram with various ways to get cooler air to the filter...

 

Tuning the length of the runners (attached to the head) is what alters high end vs. low end strength. Longer means lower frequency, which helps the low end. Narrow runners increase velocity, which can cause a slight ram effect at low RPM, but hurts airflow at high RPM. That's different from what goes on before the throttle. Getting less turbulence through the airflow sensor is what helps there. That's a different matter.