Hinojosa

I'm thinking its one fo those "too good to be true" situations. I was browsing cold air intakes and stumbled upon this one. Its nearly half the price of most cold air intakes and doesn't require a tune. Comparing it with Ford Racing Cold Air Intake it produces around 15hp more without a tune and its half the price.



Graph for FR
http://www.americanmuscle.com/fordra...ai-0509gt.html

Graph for AFE
http://www.americanmuscle.com/afe-cai-0509gt.html

i did notice that on the side it has red numbers, which i suppose means hp, but 217hp for a V8 seems to be wrong,

so is this too good to be true?

SON OF 68

The red lines are supposed to be your HP curve, the blue is Torque. In my opinion, a cold air, is a cold air. I don't see how one could be different from another power wise. Most seem to like JLT, Steeda, Airaid....

I have a steeda that I bought with a tune. I installed the CAI only and drove it. Same car. No difference at all. Maybe a change in intake sound, maybe! Then loaded the tune...Now we're talkin! Definitely a different car. Woke it up a lot. Nice crisp, accurate throttle response. Much better mid range, and a nice pull in the top end. Worth every penny.

stags

CAI without tune is just for looks. You NEED a cai that requires a tune to get the most benefit.

JimC

If you think about it for a second ---- if the CAI doesn't require a tune, doesn't that tell you that you didn't change anything about the air coming in to the engine? If you don't change the amount of air flow, then you don't need a tune, and ------------- you don't get any more power since the car is still running stock and just looks 'prettier' under the hood. That is a lot of money just to change the looks.

The power is in the tune, the increased air flow you get from a CAI like the C&L is what lets you change the tune to get the power.

Hinojosa

if you look closely in the AFE cai, the biggest number in the HP curve is like 216, those are v6 numbers, a stock gt should make way over that, which doesn't make much sense, and tune wise, i thought that even if it didn't require a tune it should work to some degree, because the purpose of the CAI is to cool air because colder air has more oxygen which makes a better combustion. I thought that having the same quantity of air, just one with more oxygen and one with less, obviously the one having more oxygen would make a better combustion, increasing performance, and tuning just took it further.

JimC

What you're saying does make some sense, but, remember that the "no tune" CAI is still drawing air from the engine bay like the stock intake. And making power is more than just getting a little cooler air for combustion (and yes, cooler air will make more power, that is why you see cars at the drag strip run slower in the middle of the summer heat).

But you also need a higher volume of air to make power. That is why the "tune required" CAI will give you the power. You get a little cooler air, but they also flow more air so you can add the fuel you need to make the power. The no tune CAI flows the same as stock so the increase is small if anything (despite the dyno sheets - a good dyno operator can make the sheet show small increases as a large increase easily).

SON OF 68

Note that HP numbers are on the right side, Torque numbers on the left. At least that's what it looks like to me....

Hinojosa

so if i get any CAI and tune it i should get similar results wether i pay 194 or 330?

Rainson

So here's the thing. The idea is that cold air intake is supposed to be placed farther away from the engine than stock, thereby sucking in colder air. The lower the temperature of the air, the denser the air. More air than stock needs more fuel to keep the fuel ratio satisfied. At any given throttle position, this should result in more power than stock since more explosion mixture is being introduced to the explosion chamber.

The CAI without a tune,the only advantage here is the denser (colder) air. A cold air intake does not result in a richer mixture of fuel. If a mass ratio of 14.7 to 1, air to fuel, needs to be maintained, then the engine will keep it there. A rich mixture is a mixture with less air (flip side of the coin, more fuel) than the stoich mix requires, and therefore would not be the result of a CAI. (This could be the result of a reprogrammed ECU)

So do you get colder air? yes. How much colder? how much % of oxygen more you get from a CAI? I can't tell since I dunno what the temp different is. But there's 6% more oxygen(obviously 6% more everything else) comparing 32 degree and 70 degree.

Literally, it doesn't matter how much more oxygen you get from a CAI, you need extra fuel to match the air to fuel ratio, and that's how you gain HP by burning more fuel. Without a tune, a CAI gives same air flow with little bit more oxygen, you might gain about 1% HP.

By reading the comment on AM about the AFE CAI, some say the exhaust sounds meaner. Not sure what it is, I assume the un-used air was pushed out to the exhaust, not sure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Peace.

Hinojosa

so what sets CAIs apart from each other? there is no number as to how much more air it provides