It is a big shiny black finished piece of PVC pipe. It measures like 4" in diameter and folks look at it like . Plus, they have different color tubes incl. carbon fiber if you buy directly from JLT.

Mine: Look at the clearance b/t the strut tower and oil pipe.


Link to JLT

Edit: Also, BBK is common i believe because of the price.

 

Holy crap that inlet tube is huge. Seems like a lot of air being force fed into that small throttle body.

 

Lol, that is a 75mm, the biggest it can take.

 

I am honestly too lazy to type up the explanation of this up so I found it posted somewhere else (thanks Cliffyk)

"The fact the air in the intake of a piston engine is not a steady flow at a steady velocity. It is a series of pulses each having a low pressure leading edge, and a higher pressure trailing edge. The velocity varies not only because of the individual cylinders sucking in air at different times, but also because within each intake stroke things start off slowly as the piston leaves TDC, then get roaring as the piston reaches 90° past TDC, and then taper off again.

The larger diameter tube between the two restrictions (the MAF and the TB) is a plenum that provides a reserve mass of air so that once the column gets moving (at 90° after TDC) the inertia of that mass can "ram" air into the cylinder between 90° and that time the intake valve closes--more air that the piston would suck in while it's velocity is dropping off.

This is the real "ram air" part of JLTs ram air intake, it has nothing to do with what most think of when the term ram-air is introduced. JLTs fender-well intake (and to some extent the OEM tube) also has that bulging dimension for this reason. It is also why many of the el-cheapo straight tube CAIs can actually hurt performance.

One other thing, the tapered ends of the OEM and JLT tubes are also engineered to minimise or exploit standing waves that appear at certain pulse frequencies--to large extent an engine's torque curved can be affected by not only the volume but also the shape of the tube."


Cliffs notes: JLT is a Tuned Plenum design, thus it is good.

 

What about the steeda CAI? I didn't see anyone comment on this one...
10-12hp on GT's and 25+ on the cobras.

 

1st: Never believe the gain that is listed by the manufacturer. They are always very bluffed figures to make their products look amazing.

2nd: That design is amazingly similar to the stock intake w/o a snorkel and a high flow filter. It pulls air in from the same spot at the same flow rate. The only difference is that one cost about 8 times as much and is made of aluminum which is more prone to heat soak. The heat shield on that thing also terrible and is doing pretty much nothing for that setup.

3rd: The only gain that you are getting going to most of these CAI's is the benefit of a high flow filter. Which you can either spend $40 and get a drop in one or $300 and get one w/ two feet of shiny aluminum pipe attached. I think that is pretty much a consensus.

 

lol thanks for that! I never saw CAI the way you do. So when is it the best time to get one and really benefit from one?

 

Hmmm.

I would say when you have a built motor W/ heads ad cams when your spinning past 6500rpm.... But then I would have to immediately retract that statement when I looked at 01GT4.6 who has a built engine w/ over 320 rwhp and still uses the stock intake.

I really cant think of a time that you would need a new intake? Maybe a positive displacement supercharger if for some reason you didn't get one w/ the kit.

But to be fair a lot of people have them. Some for the sound, some for the look, some for the "performance". Its up to you as a buyer to make the call on whether you want one or not and why.

 

Cool!
I'd say I'll go for it.

 

Like I said, I only bought mine because its SHINY lol