The hype behind air intakes

[berbatov]

Let's be geeky for a moment and discuss these contraptions. I love to see so many around intrigued and ready to invest in these "performance adding body parts".

I used to work in importing and reselling them. They were one of the easiest pieces to present, excite clients and sell.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong , or you think I am wrong, or you know you are right and ... any other variations :

It depends on what is happening to the air sucked in and directed behind the intake: will it feed a forced induction system / charger or an already N/A OEM system that is (most likely) already performant; will you have custom ECU to modify specs; will you scan to adjust those specs; will you have exhaust altered to allow more stuff coming out, will you remove cat converter and make exhaust shorter - hence more efficient ?

- Just because a product is aftermarket, does not mean it moves more air into the engine (and increases performance). Even if it does move more air, you would have to have upgraded exhaust ECU etc etc (you can't feed more air in without taking more out). If more isn't coming out ... then more isn't really coming in, so performance is ~0
- Even if it does move more air, that does not mean it's colder air (CAI) than on stock intake. Most of these bogus "applications" are feeding air from inside the bay
- Even if it moves more / colder air, is the performance really there ... ?

Performance wise - increases are minimal / negligible at best.
For a friend, I'd say save your money and let's go for wings instead BUT if I were still in the business I'd tell you get one from me at 10% savings if you also buy a "custom" header setup, ECU from my store better throttle response, amazing sound coming from the engine bay, amazing feel of power compared to stock ...


To those who want to buy one, I say : buy two
stack them for added performance

I miss marketing http://images.nicoclub.com/forums/images/smilies/biggthumpup.gif

[94boosted]

Good intakes have been dyno proven to add more horsepower and torque to a car that is otherwise stock all-be-it not that much ~3-5HP (not 20 like some ricers seem to think) it does still add power, and combining that with an exhaust more air in + more air out = more power.

Improving the filter element to one that can flow more air (Accel, K&N...) and increasing the surface area of the filter itself (cone vs panel) also makes it easier for the engine to suck in more air.

On a boosted application such as a turbo an aftermarket intake if made properly can actually allow the turbo to spool quicker and also add some horsepower and torque.

And then there are the guys that just like intakes for the way they look and the way they make the car sound.

[Tik-Tok]

I'll never have a CAI on a car again, as long as I live in Calgary. TOO MUCH DUST in the air. I've seen what gets by even a properly oiled K&N. :barf:

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
I'll never have a CAI on a car again, as long as I live in Calgary. TOO MUCH DUST in the air. I've seen what gets by even a properly oiled K&N. :barf:

QFT

[Mibz]

Only reason I got a SRI was to clean up the engine bay. A handful of screws and three chunks of airbox just to empty my catch can was too much. It's also good at making noise :P

[rage2]

Let's look at what an aftermarket intake does, compared to stock intake, on a normally aspirated engine.

First off, some can draw in cooler air. Cooler air is denser, which means more oxygen into the engine.

Next, an aftermarket intake provides less restriction, more volume of air, more oxygen into the engine.

Finally, an aftermarket intake will usually be quite different than stock in terms of how the air is routed to the throttle body, etc. This usually changes the amount of air going into the engine at different engine speeds. A properly engineered aftermarket air intake should bring in more air at ALL rpm's, but most intakes don't go through proper engineering design, and will bring in more air at some rpms, and less air at some rpms. Pretty random, and you end up with a wavy torque curve because of it. I've seen intakes that has a huge drop off in torque compared to stock right in the middle of the powerband. Makes the engine's drivability complete crap.

Most intake manufactures just design the piping to fit in an engine bay, and don't give a crap about actual airflow at any engine speeds. Trying to figure out what intake works best is pretty much a gamble.

Now, with ECU tuning, if your car is a MAF based system, it'll compensate for the cooler denser air as well as higher volume. With a MAP based system (Hondas), you usually need a tune to correct the fuel requirements over the entire rpm range to really take advantage of an intake system.

[rage2]

Oh ya, for turbos, all you need to care about is bringing in colder air, and the intake shouldn't choke the turbo at peak boost/rpms/hp point where there's the most amount of air going into the engine. The flow characteristics doesn't matter as much, because it'll just affect turbo lag, and is barely noticable. If it can't flow enough air at a certain speed compared to stock, the turbo/wastegate will just make up for it by spinning faster for that particular rpm, thus resulting in very very minimal lag differences.

[Senseiz]

I think with a CAI is completely dependent on how the stock air intake was designed.

If the car engineers took their time to do their fluid flow calculations to figure out the volume of air required to keep the engine running optimally, then a CAI addition will not add much performance.

However, if it is a budget car where they slap the engine together and decided to put the air intake where there is room, definitely a CAI will boost performance.

I think the answer to whether a CAI is worth it boils down to the type of car you have.

[j.garner]

What he said ^

[alloroc]

You would probably get about as much performance add f you threw some washers between your hood and hood mounts to keep the engine bay cooler.

I would also stay with paper filters simply because they filter better.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=70

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66&Itemid=76

[911fever]

Originally posted by Senseiz
I think with a CAI is completely dependent on how the stock air intake was designed.

If the car engineers took their time to do their fluid flow calculations to figure out the volume of air required to keep the engine running optimally, then a CAI addition will not add much performance.

However, if it is a budget car where they slap the engine together and decided to put the air intake where there is room, definitely a CAI will boost performance.

I think the answer to whether a CAI is worth it boils down to the type of car you have.

perfect

[thetransporter]

my "buddy" blew the welds on his cold air intake back in 2002? or was 2001 ? when that movie came out?

[gretz]

Originally posted by thetransporter
my "buddy" blew the welds on his cold air intake back in 2002? or was 2001 ? when that movie came out?

oh man, not a good attempt

agreed - definately car dependant for performance gains