flash_xx

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and the Cold Air Intake name is the most idiotic name ever. How can something that is pulling air from an infernally hot engine bay be called a CAI? If they went and took the air from outside, let's say the fender I might agree with the name, but on our cars they all end up where the stock airbox was, except they don't have the tubing pulling cooler air from the fender.

I have to admit I fell for this scam and got a C&L racer intake with a tune, but I think the only real gains came from the tune and a bit maybe from the larger diameter tubing and maf housing. I have a tablet running torque connected to the obd port and the intake temperature is over 120f at idle. Granted, once the car picks up speed the temperature goes down, but on launch down the strip, those precious few seconds when the car is launching mean it's taking in air that about 40f above ambient, sometimes more.

I'll see if I can adapt the C&L maf housing to the stock airbox and see what the temperatures are. I'm guessing they will be lower and the stock air filter is not precisely small so I don't think it will restrict airflow that much if at all.

ucinn

Don't know about yurs, but the JLT I have has a cushion on the CAI box which mates with the hood and keeps the engine bay air from entering the CAI box. Yes, the CIA takes the air from the intake tube that was left by the original airbox, so it is cold air coming from outside the engine bay.

Dino Dino Bambino

The C&L Racer is a very good, high-flowing intake but I agree that the design of the heatshield on that, as well as other "cold air intakes", does leave a lot to be desired.

algregory

I just went out and popped the hood on my '05 GT with a C&L intake with a Diablo Tune. Truth be told I am always really impressed with its get up and go anywhere in the RPM's and MPH's. Even on the highway at 70 - 80 MPH 4th or 5th gear, I give it gas, and rear end buckles down a notch and acceleration happens.

Looks to me like you are going to get a lot of cool air flowing into the intake vs. hot air flowing forward from the engine. its a question of movement and flow, and volume demanded by intake I am thinking. Also, I think there more of a chance of unused cool air bleeding into to engine air, vs. more air being demanded being sucked in from the engine.

I'm also into the motorcycle world, my Yamaha FJR1300 which I "tuned" with a "Power Commander" probably puts out near 150HP. It doesn't have "Ram Air" but has intakes rear facing that lets the FI intakes take it into a "cool box" to use as needed. I really do not think, top of my head, that there are too many, or many at all, bikes that have "Ram Air" from the front. I think I recall a couple that went that way, and that method did not remain around, nor spread across the industry. Regarding the "cool box" I think I read that having a sufficient volume of air available, but without pressure, or a lot swirl/movement was the thing. So, the FJR has two intakes, one on each side, rear facing, that are not humongous or anything, dumping air into a good size void with four intakes feeding a healthy, strong 1300cc engine and allowing the engine take delivery on what it needs without being force fed.

I think our car's get the cool air they need, when they need it, and as much as they need with very little warm/hot air in the mix. FWIW

flash_xx

That's exactly my point, is that little piece of plastic really supposed to keep the heat from the engine away from the intake? The only way I could think of to keep the intake from taking in hot air is to totally encase it in maybe a custom made fiberglass box, that way I can keep the cone filter but not have it suck in hot air all the time.

Goldenpony

I've been down the CAI road a couple of times, never really felt it was any real benefit. I went back to the stock airbox on my '06 GT. In reality, the paper air filter works better anyway.

flash_xx

Did you by any chance dyno the car before and after? I'll probably do that when I mod mine just to see if I made it better or worse. There are several paths to choose from, one is to go back to stock and tune for that, the other is to keep the tubing and maf sensor housing of the C&L and adapt it to the stock airbox and the third would be to custom make an airbox as big as possible and fit the cone filter inside it. Honestly, I might just go back to stock airbox and get a custom tune for that, unless I can find a cheap stock airbox on ebay to cut up, which I'm going to look for now actually. I just love tinkering, can't help it.

cavediver

i have an Airaid CAI and FRPP tune and I'm very happy with the performance improvements. That being said, even if I had ZERO performance improvements from it I would still be very happy with it because of the huge improvement in the SOUND of my Mustang. That sweet "whoosh" you hear when you hit the throttle is worth every penny I spent on it!

ghunt

I had been thinking about making a tube to go from the lower front grille up and discharging somewhere near the filter for mine, and while there are some openings that would work well there just isn't much room and not many good places to mount anything. I might still do it one of these days if I can figure out some good ways to securely mount it.

Really, I figure as long as you're moving the filter has to be drawing more outside air than engine bay air anyway, and C&L's heat shield isn't bad compared to some others out there (and it's plastic which helps block some heat). I have to wonder how much of a difference you could really make with something actually drawing air from somewhere outside the engine bay at anything above low speeds.

PNYXPRESS

Well, I had my 08 GT dyno'd stock and then right after with a k&n cai. I gained a whopping 3hp with the cai over stock. So, was it a gain, yes. Was it a noticeable gain, maybe to some.