@loco tertils my short ram pulls colder air than a lot of them because it has 2 cold air sources flowing at it, but his only has 1 cold air source and it won't be enough. That engine bay will hot soak the intake and kill power to keep the engine in the right balance between rich and lean.
@loco tertils I should be more specific. My short ram worked in one vehicle and not in another. It's results were terrible. Be sure to watch both @DE Nichols to learn why.
@loco tertils I have a friend who has heavily modified, I believe that very Ford, which responds very well even without a tune. You're smart to tune it though. Whp went up quickly for him. We're friends in the Toyota Nation forum. I'm David Nichols there...he talked more about it on a Ford forum of course. My Toyota responds VERY well to mods with the wrong O2 sensor by Bosch but responds with maybe 10-20 less wHP with the correct Denso O2 sensor.
Video not explained properly. An actual cold air intake's purpose is to allow the gathering of colder air than the hot air in your engine compartment, because colder air is more dense, and therefore compresses more easily in the cylinder, which creates more power. Many cars these days actually possess a cold air intake from the factory, like the one you demonstrated. So he actually swapped out a cold air intake for a non-cold air intake. What you were pointing to and saying this is wrong, wasn't even a cold air intake. Using this for a demonstration is kind of backwards. The scion fr-s(gt86) has a cold air intake from the factory for instance, but you can buy more free flowing intake kits that are also a cold air intake, they're just bigger diameter and designed a bit different for better flow. Toyota's racing division(TRD) even has an upgrade kit you can order with your car from the factory, and it is much the same as an aftermarket one. If you swapped the standard factory or TRD factory cold air intake system for a short ram air intake, you'd be downgrading to a hot air intake. Changing to a more free flowing filter, or an intake setup that flows better or is less restrictive, can also make it easier for the engine to draw in air. An engine has to use a portion of it's power generated to suck in more air and compress it, in order to create more power, which is a parasitic loss to power production, so the easier the engine can breath and push exhaust out, potentially the more power it can create. You are flat out wrong when you say the engine will pull in the same amount of air regardless for two reasons. First, there is only so much air that can move through a given space, at a given pressure. The engine creates a vacuum when the intake valve opens and the cylinder begins going down. Air moves from positive pressure to negative pressure at a limited rate, i'm not a physics expert, but unless you are pushing the air molecules, they basically decompress from atmospheric pressure at a set rate, no matter how much of a vacuum they are exposed to, and so the bigger the path leading to your combustion chamber, the more air can move through that space in the time that the cams have the valve open. That is why a more open flow head, and larger valves(and therefore valve seats) increases power, more air can come through, and therefore you can add more fuel. Almost all cars from the factor have a just slightly restrictive intake that allows for less air to pass through, than the cylinder is capable of drawing in. The second reason is that creating that vacuum is a drag on the reciprocating components of the engine, and therefore a parasitic loss of power. There is a set amount of power that can be created by an ideal mixture of air and gasoline, being ignited at a specific pressure. You can measure that explosive force and have a set number. For every bit of friction or resistance that goes on in a car, it translates less of that explosive force into forward movement. Have you ever operated a balloon pump? It's a piston creating a vacuum also. If you cover the opening that it pulls air in through, it gets harder to operate the pump, harder to create the vacuum. Any additional load or force on those moving parts wastes energy created by the exploding fuel. It's related to performance increase just as reducing friction and lowering mass of reciprocating parts also wastes less of that power output. Also the mass airflow sensor may potentially be affected, but if you do a tune, this should be something that can be adjusted, so not really an issue. Though it is true that gradual bends in piping and more volume of, generally allows for easier access to air when the engine needs it, just the layout of an intake setup isn't likely to produce huge results without additional modifications. As someone said in another comment, you really need things like a bigger throttle body(as well as tuning the fuel delivery, more fuel delivered by bigger injectors and a more powerful fuel pump, performance heads with better flow and bigger ports, more aggressive cams, etc) before you truly benefit from an upgraded intake. However because most cars are so conservatively tuned from the factory(obviously it's situational) you CAN potentially experience a modest performance bump(in power produced anyway) from a proper cold air intake, and an electronic tuner. It should also be noted that upgrading intakes lowers your gas mileage. From the factory, they make the intake more restrictive to limit how much air, and therefore how much air and fuel go into the combustion chamber, because without certain other factors being adjusted, there is a peak of efficiency that is exceeded by too much air and fuel mixture. For instance a factory engine that is really set up for efficiency, if you change the airbox and tuning, might produce 2% more power, but using 5% more fuel, therefore lower miles per gallon. A really conservatively tuned factory engine might actually produce a bigger 5% power increase with that same level of intake modification, but 10% more fuel. Those are rough examples. So in short, going from an engine compartment intake to a cold air intake, or just upgrading to a bigger more open intake in general can produce measurable increases in power, at the cost of fuel efficiency, but is more meant to accompany other upgrades, not stand on it's own. Also, really lean and really rich are OBVIOUSLY less efficient, but just a hair on the lean side creates more power than a hair on the rich side. Most engines do not absolutely perfectly balance a/f, and if they can pick one or the other side favor, slightly lean does produce more power. You had things backwards, running lean is more air to fuel, air has oxygen, oxygen is needed for the fuel to burn. Rich means more fuel to air, and beyond the optimal ratio of air to fuel, that extra fuel does nothing, because there is no oxygen to allow it to burn properly. TL;DR version: The guy in the video is sort of right and sort of wrong, do not buy an intake like the one in the video, save your money for other mods.
hzuiel good explanation. But i've always thought as you're driving, say at 70mph, 90% of the hot air in the engine-bay will be dispersed by airflow around the engine anyway, so the temp delta effect will be minimal..no?
This guy is completely wrong. Just look up mighty car mods videos on cai setups. We have dyno tested several cars with stock and cold air intakes (before and after) and every car (except a suzuki suv) made 5hp or more power gains across the band. Some lost like 1hp down low, but mid to high rpm gained at least 4-5hp.
Before you come off with a response like that, I have a few questions for you. Have you ever tested stock air boxes vs CAIs? Have you seen the sheets to prove your claim that it doesn't add power? If not, then do not bother to respond. Opinions do not matter, facts do. This guy in the video shows no proof what so ever, and I personally have, so I will believe what I have seen tested personally over what some guy with "college credits", and by the way I also have a few college certificates for Automotive Technology.
Great video. Finally someone who knows their way around an engine. For whatever reason, people buy a car and then automatically think they know more than the engineers who designed it. I recently bought a 2015 civic EX. I didnt buy it for power obviously, I bought it for fuel economy. But I wanted to get more power out of it while keeping its fuel efficiency and after learning more about engines in the past few weeks Iv discovered that to even get 20hp more out of it would take an insane amount of money and most likely drop fuel economy in every scenario. Which tells me that the engineers who designed my engine did an excellent job of balancing power and economy. Trust your car manufactures people!
SI RICKO no its not. Of the filter isn't insulated it will be taking the hot air from the engine. A cold air intake is insulated to keep it colder by sectioning it off from the heat of the engine.
Exactly. The short ram things are what he is talking about. A legit CAI has an airbox and is located in a way to pull in cold air. Like from behind a headlight or something. The one in this video is not a cold air intake.
+Taidana Kalashnikov that's what blew my mind about it considering he "went to school " for this stuff but I'm literally the biggest car noob and I can tell by one look it's not a CAI like he says it is..
I'd have to disagree with stock air intake being designed for efficiency on most cars it's made to have less intake noise and just be adequate on flow. Had a 1993 Z28 Lt1 car ran 9.15 in a 1/8th put a Slp cold air kit on it the responded to running a 8.90 with just this mod. I believe it's more vehicle specific than just saying cold air intakes don't work.
Yeah I know this was 5 years ago but I just put a cold air intake in my rendezvous and it doesn’t even feel like the same car. Filter was a box filter a week old super clean and as soon as I put the k&n cold air in it felt like a thousand pounds lighter.
Excellent video, I learned this along time ago. can't convince some of my friends that think they get more horse power by adding a C.A.I.. Installing a CAI is a big waste of money and like you said, in most cases you loose power. Good job explaining it.
Volumetric efficiency have not heard that in a long time except when I went to aircraft mechanic school. Well explained. Cooling the air at the air box with a water mist injection system will increase volumetric efficiency. Great for real hot days.
im glad you know your stuff. I would say that on a normally Aspirated auto you need to be build on what it already has like you said, cars are designed to work efficiently the way they are build . simplest way turbos supercharges or heck Nitro.
Short rams work very well, just have to consider your application. I had a turbo car and short ram give me better throttle response. After the turbo and intercooler that little it of heat in the engine bay didn't matter at all. CAI on the same car was actually not fun because it would suck in all sorts of dust and crap due to much more suction generated by the turbine.
Thumbs up to this guy for actually knowing what he's talking about. People don't realise that throwing on a cone filter and chopping off your stock muffler actually looses horse power. Even out of the box tuners don't do anything to N/A vehicles. The claims the company makes about horse power gain are from best case scenarios and custom tunes.
Ryan, I'll be nice and do the oreo effect. Positive: Great video, lot's of very convincing knowledge. Negative: Wrong information, and if you went to Florida, get your money back on your education unfortunately you may have wasted a fortune on bad instruction. Positive: Nice little garage set-up. I am an engineer, this means, I have devoted my life and education to the working of ENGINES. With that being said, you had one thing right. Hot air equals worse combustion. However, let me correct you on a couple of things. The term "Cold Air Intake" by design was purely a marketing scheme. While most companies call it this, the real term should have been "unrestricted air intake." This in fact WILL improve overall efficiency of most petrol engines, especially in those wild OEM intake set-ups that cause turbulent air. Mass air flow sensors in 99% of car manufacturers detect flow of ambient air and adjust fuel injection accordingly for the most efficient burn. Installing one of these intakes will not "lean" the car out. The vehicle will simply match the incoming air with a proportional fuel ratio that is equivalent to the output the ECU demands. With that being said, in 99% of cases, freeing restriction of airflow will cause an increase in CFM to the intake manifold for a more abundance and concentrated source of free oxygen molecules. More oxygen on a fire creates HOTTER and more EFFICIENT burn ratio's rendering more OUTPUT, and in lamens terms BHP. Please, before you educate the masses on incorrect information, do some research. I have to agree with you though, the intake set-up your buddy has is disgusting and full of "rice," and he would have been better off leaving the stock set-up on his vehicle.
Justin Walker since you sound like you know a bit more about these setups, I wanna ask your opinion on a 4G Eclipse CAI that Injen makes, idk if I can link in comments so I'll just say the model, its an Injen SP1870 (p or blk doesnt matter) Injen says that the L4 Eclipse will get about a 15WHP boost out of it, but even 10 in this car is huge when it runs 135WHP stock. But also the intake runs into the side of the bumper (if you look it up there will be a manual where you can see the location they want you to put the filter in). But the concern is, the bumper is not exactly letting air through, but it is a much cooler location than a short ram setup like this guy. The only way I see it makes sense is that the bottom grill on the 4G eclipse is completely open and that's probably where the air will come from to flow into the filter. So whats your opinion on this?
Hey buddy, thanks for liking my response, and listening to educated reason. I have fully investigated the set-up that you are proposing, and after said research I have arrived at the conclusion that you should be good to go to get that set-up. I would not count on 15 horsepower from this set-up alone, mostly because it is a lower compression engine compared to more modern engines such as the 2.0TSI from VW/Audi, where smoother air in abundance reacts in substantially higher output. At a minimum, I would estimate around 10bhp, with increased throttle response, and possibly better gas mileage given you drive it conservatively. If you were to pair it with a decent turbocharger set-up later down the road, you would see substantial gains. As for now, there is nothing wrong with getting the intake set-up. I would also contact K&N to see what different intake models they offer for your model. Other than that, happy modding!
Hey justin very informative comment you have here so I decided to ask for your opinion too,I drive a stock 2002 rsx type s and trying to go for my first modification under the hood,Im going to stay N/A because it's my daily car.I just wanna hear your opinion about short ram intake,if it is any better than my stock intake or will it be bad because it is sitting right next to the engine.I live in Canada so 80% of the time it is cold here and half of the year it's snowing,I've heard people say SRI is better than stock and safer than cold air intake,what's your say on this matter.I'll appreciate your time and response for this.
Hi Brian, and thanks for the compliment. I am familiar with that engine ( I had a buddy that owned one, and we worked on it a lot). I regret to inform you that the short ram intake in that vehicle is not going to benefit you much horsepower wise. If it is a sportier sound you are looking for, you will DEFINITELY hear a difference. Unfortunately, how Honda/Acura designed that particular motor, the air intake is actually pulling air from the rear of the engine bay (pretty close to the driver's side firewall.) You will not have the added benefit of ram air effect, any colder air, and honestly, as short and as free flowing the stock set-up box is, no less restriction. Your benefits will be a cooler looking engine bay, and better sound. If that is what you are looking for, go for it by all means! If you are looking for added BHP, you won't see it. Now, there are multiple software upgrades available for that engine that will give you more what you are looking for, especially since you mentioned you wanted to stay NA. I hope this helps.
thanks for that response Justin I just have more questions to you if you dont mind,just wanna get my head straight on this one before buying,so there will be minimal gain if ever for a SRI especially during the summer where heatstoke happens a lot.but would it be better during the cold season ?and I've seen the aem v2 SRI it looks better than the injen sri because the tube curves away from the engine,what's your opinion on that?I've also seen custom ones where there is just a straight pipe going to the location of the battery,is that any good ?If I were to stick on my stock intake,will a good filter provides any difference at all?Im gonna go for a reflash too if that is what you meant by the software upgrade, again I'll appreciate your response.
Well done. Finally some one knows what he talkin about. U forgotta mention about those aftermaerket filter if u gonna look at it under d sun youll see this big holes which can be penetrated easily buy dust particles. And also about the stock tube. The reason why its not smooth is because it acts as a resonator to keep the air flow quiet. Not every buyer wants a loud noise coming from the engine. Respect!!
thanks actually luckily as a military mechanic it helped me understand alot of what you where saying and i learned alot from this defiantly saving the money on a cai definatly subscribing amd learning more
All I have to say is MCM just made you a liar. On a NA engine a CAI it will make some power. Btw thats not a CAI. That is a short ram intake. CAI puts the filter outside the engine bay.
So, your point is.. it's inefficient to put a Cold Air intake unless you're running a forced induction(turbo/supercharger) setup by tuning it? Or simply by just tuning it - changing how the engine takes in air vs fuel ratio?
I developed an actual cold air intake (not a short ram shown in video) for the 350Z back when it first came to the states. This required A LOT of dyno time testing and trying different pipe diameters and lengths. It was a challenge working with the Z because I would see good gains (5 to 10 HP) with a certain design, but within 3 or so dyno pulls it would revert back to its original power level by automatically adjusting timing and fuel trims. We attributed this to an overly-sensitive knock sensor. We could replicate the gains by resetting the ECU after every run, but that is not practical for the consumer market. We eventually released a cold air intake (filter down behind bumper) and licensed it to NISMO. But thanks to the ECU, the gains were not what they could have been. The one plus is that the engine inductions sound was AWESOME on that engine and totally worth running the intake. On the other hand, I also developed a CAI for the 2003 Nissan Xterra Supercharged. That thing made an extra 17HP (!) all day long with the intake on the Dynojet. The supercharger intake was very restrictive because Nissan OEM did their best to hide the supercharger whine. This required lots of sound chambers and baffling and such. Pull all of it off and it really woke up the engine, however you could now clearly hear the SC whine with the CAI installed. We would constantly monitor AFR with a wideband during testing to make sure dangerous lean conditions were never an issue. So my points are: 1. Do not generalize that all CAI or short rams dont make power, it really depends on the car. Consult a reputable company for real results or view 3rd party test results. 2. REAL aftermarket intake developers do A LOT of testing! Dyno, engine tune monitoring, thermal mapping of engine bay, IAT monitoring, etc. There is a lot to it and I did it for several years. (Then the knock-off companies steal your design). 3. Use editing software to remove parts of videos that may undermine the message you are trying to make! 4. Possibly look somewhat respectable if you want anyone to take you seriously. 5. Please don't take a wyotech class then claim to have expertise on any subject. There is way more to it than you will ever learn at wyo. Have a good day.
I'm debating if I should get a CAI. The short ram air intake in this video (it isn't even a CAI, could this guy just not find a friend with one or is he just not as smart as he thinks he is?) clearly isn't made for this car. It's too big, has no shield, and has a metal tube, this setup is basically a disaster. The one that I'm looking at is made specifically for my vehicle (2013 Mustang 3.7), has a high quality shield, is placed in the same position as the original intake, and has same diameter tube made with heat resistant plastic. It's only about $200, and I already have an upgraded exhaust and 3.73 gears with a tune. Any opinions or advice on if I should get it? I'm not getting it for the hp increase, which is negligible or the looks of it. I'm getting it for the slight mpg increase, the much better exhaust sound, but most importantly the better throttle and early acceleration response times (mine is almost on point, but there is still a very small lag).
excellent video . i would love for you to do a step by step video that will increase horse power so that the idiots who think pretty engine bling makes their car faster than my stock z. i keep telling them what you said in the beginning increased air flow requires more fuel so adjustments to your fuel delivery is required. example loud pipes on motorcycles and no power commander installed just louder not faster.
but, if you heatshield wrap the intake pipe and put a heatshield box around the air filter, would it be worth it afterwards. and also, with the airflow sensor, shouldn't it update the engine's way of running (more air comming in, more gas injected, but to a certain limit, it obviously won't reach what a turbo could do). because,i want to install a cold air intake so it's easier to change the air filter, and if i can gain a few horses, good. but if i'm gonna lose power, i might aswell give up on the idea.
Hey man love your video, very informative and logical! I was thibking about putting a K&N Typhoon on my 2003 Ford Focus 2.3 PZEV. The reason is because the car has a "lifetime air filter" that you cant remove and clean so I'm thinking although its a lifetime, it's probably really dirty after 160k miles and restrictive. I was gonna put on the CAI just so it will have a regular intake with a replacable filter like every other car
K&N air filters have been proven to flow better than "most" stock filters, they also filter the air coming in more efficiently than stock filters. Being reusable is also a plus! Wouldn't be a bad way to spend $40 or so
KandN Filters are great i bought one for my 2013 honda civic and notice some quicker pickup (Acceleration) and i was also thinking about getting a CAI but after a few reviews on them especially this one it took me away from them plus CAI voiss your new car engine warranty for some reason
How I made my intake was I took three tall cans of Budweiser and I cut the tops off connect them all together and got a filter from autozone and I have a Budweiser intake
why does most of cold air intake manufacturers use stainless pipes it only amplifies the heat from inside your hood, so is it better to use plastic piping? like PVC?
to actually get power out of any engine you have to build it up. can it, new heads, stroke it, bore it out, add headers, remove catalytic converters, etc
this is why i opted in to keep my factory intake on my 2013 Honda civic and go with the high air flow element that KN sells, i did notice more low end pick up but thats all, can anyone else verify this!!
Hello, i buyed my cone filter some time ago, and now i want to install it in my BMW , but when i read more and more about it, i confront with a many opinions , so i'm hesitating.... i know it won't increase horsepower for sure, maybe for a little that's i can't notice it... but teh important question is... could this cone filter damage my engine somehow if it isn't separated from the engine?my original filter is at left side so if i install cone filter at original pipe it will be directed to the left reflector or left corner. My mechanic says it will not affect engien of my car, but filter will be only louder.
I have a question. What about keeping a stock intake and installing a high flow cat, and an upgrade exhaust. I'm only wanting efficiency and a slight performance increase. Is this possible with a set up like that?
One more, I do have an OBD one on my 94 Z28 and would like to tune it can you recommend any quality reliable- free tuning programs? - especially for someone with basic if not slightly advanced knowledge of internal combustion motors.
This is im confused correct my if im wrong why they always cold air intake? Because the engine is hot and the under your hood is hot specially on summer where did u get an cold air? The stock air intake u had on your cars arent they cold air ? Im just confused...
My cold air intake has a box around it with a seal just like a factory air box and mine is made of looks like hard plastic instead of metal. Your friends car seems to be missing the box and seal that completes this setup his setup is wrong. the way he has it setup you are right but with a box witch houses the filter attached this set up is better
+William Zimmer but it still does the same job as an oem intake. The only benefit it has is it's an intake resonator delete which is where some people get like a 3hp increase. which is negligible unless you have a 50hp motor.
+Troll True Exactly! I live in a place that gets cold. Cars waste gas when it's cold and my short ram gets my engine up to temperature faster and keeps it from the robbing power of too cold of air! It can be taken too far. You so get it!
I had my car wrapped with a NISMO graphic and had my calipers painted. I was told by the guy who did the work that it added 400bhp by negating negative Gs. Is that true? Secondly, what is bhp?
The concept of a short ram according to Engineering Explained is to get the most air in possible. He found it to work best at higher RPM, which would work best on the track, not in street driving. Cold as possible isn't always better, I added some cold air pipes to connect to my short ram and except the hottest of summers it gets the air cold enough for decent power. As soon as it turns fall through spring, I now put rags over those cold air inlets because the air is so cold that I'm losing power and efficiency too. I made a video about it too if you'd like to check it out "KnowYourCar". :) Edit years later: Be sure to search my videos. I now have a few short ram videos where it works and where it doesnt.
Sorry dear video maker, I'll have to disagree. The oxygen sensor will catch that it was lean and get the air fuel/mix the same regardless. I get so much air from my short ram when I'm really stepping on it that my car will even run a good stoichemetric at WOT! So yeah, a good tune would get WAY more power out of my setup, but that said, it was never ran lean, except perhaps in the first days of install when the PCM hadn't set the fuel trims for all the conditions yet. (commenting as I watch and pause to have a comprehensive response to your good work).
Again, I'll disagree if it's cool out. It does depend on the car, but you have a jacket on, that's cool enough for my car that I have to stop up the cold air flow and take full advantage of my short ram "hot air intake". If you aren't at the minimum temperature the engine will waste fuel to heat up. This won't turn into power and more wHP, it'll just be an inefficient mess with less power.
Sorry that I'm disagreeing again, it's for our mutual education, I'm kind and only sharing that we all learn. Sure, my experience for intake mods are on only 1 car, but my stock intake at maximum read 33 g/s. Now, I can get 70 g/s past the MAF. Trust me, at the higher revs, I have gained a lot of power...and though I need bigger injectors to even keep up, in the meantime when I try to drive fast, at least it's efficient, lol.
+DE Nichols I would like to put some air pipes in my 350z 08 hr from front of the car and connect this two holes front of the short ram intake. So i think when I drive I will get more cold air from outside but now you said that is not good?
I think the best way (and cheapest as well) is to put cotton/sponge sport filter in the stock airbox. I've got one and it works very well. CAI looks cool when you open the hood but without hermetic airbox and some tubes supplying cold air to the airbox, it's a crap.
bottom line is CAI will decrease horse power and increase throttle response by forcing the air into the TB and allowing the mixture to lean out a bit which in case gets you better gas mileage.
I agree with everything you are saying here and the same with the MCM guys but I put a CAI on my Nissan V35 (Infiniti G35) The same VQ35DE engine as the 350Z. I decided to purchase the Stillen package which comes with K&N filter. The power gain is noticeable on top end and I gained 8hp on the Dyno (they did claim 15hp but thats also with their headers and a tune up). The thing is with the Stillen package cancels everything you have mentioned and is a massive upgrade compared to OEM. The OEM intake has a hotbox which heat soaks in the engine bay to stop throttle body freezing (Nissan clearly thought this engine wasn't going to be exported from Japan and kept their extremely cold winters in mind even adding a coolant line through the throttle body to heat soak and supply warm fluid to the throttle body). Now I live in Perth, Australia so I have no problem with cold weather here so the Stillen package is perfect. It comes with a roto-molded plastic tube so it doesn't get as hot as metal, it removes the hot box and the K&N filter has a complete plastic heat shield around it to separate it from the surrounding hot components of the engine bay. Keeping all that in mind and agreeing with what you were saying this package kills the OEM intake if your confident your in a climate that the throttle body wont freeze up. My engine will be sucking in the same volume of air agreed but it will be way more dense in oxygen with removing the hot box and keeping the pipe plastic. So like I said before I agree with all your points this package obviously does the opposite of all those points so you cant just go ruling out CAI and saying OEM is always best because the VQ35DE was designed for cold winters in mind. Sorry for the novel just another passionate car guy. Have a good one cheers for the video and cheers for educating people on a bad package ie the one your mates got. Keep safe on the road and have fun mate. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention the engine note sounds way sexier then the OEM.
That makes a lot of sense. I've bought a K&N Cold Air Intake Typhoon model for my 2007 Audi A3 2.0 Fsi turbo and I had a remap of my ECU, the car was running 257 hp (Dyno run) with this set up, but after awhile the noise of the CAI sucking air started to annoying me and I've noticed that the so call cold air intake tube was soo hot after 1 hour of traffic that it didn't make any sense to imagine that "that" was sending cold air to my engine. So, I tooked it all off and returned to stock but with my ECU still remaped and for my surprise my car feels to me a little bit quicker, specially on low revs when my turbo kicks in. Now I'm using an K&N inbox filter but with the OEM airbox and engine cover (wich looks way much better than when I had the CAI) and I'm looking foward to a next Dyno run to check if the car has either lost or won horsepower.
you need to get the cai away from the motor as much as possible or get those plastic things to put around the cai so it doesnt pull the heat from the motor
Thanks for this video, dude. Very good and straightforward explanation, and you even delved into some other controversial topics that you debunked. Excellent.
don't hot air intakes help increase mpg? and alot of the few HP gains came from was the less restrictive removing the tons of baffles on stock set ups. and leaning out your car?.? isn't that what the mass air flow and map correct by air temp and air flow?
Hi, I want to know could, K&N filter, or any other type, make harm to engine. Could it make influence on it's life time. I have Mini Cooper 2003, 1.6, 66kW. Could you recommend me any special type of filter?
What about a CAI system with a heat shield? Will that help any? Or what about switching the factory paper filter out with a k&n filter? Will any of that increase hp?
i think running lean means putting in extra air in with fuel, yielding a fuel ration higher than ideal say 16:1, probably better for fuel economy but not for power
hey I have a question? I have that same car, what if I get a NISMO intake that was designed for that car? will that be still considered efficient and OEM? thanks
The real answer is it depends. Depends on how well the CAI is designed to fit your car (some engine compartments have more space therefore allowing for better CAI placement), how well the car's ECU can use and compensates for the CAI.
ok I know this is an older video so i hope you reply. with that said I am a NON-mod 1999 Trans am WS6, and I want to be able to take it back to stock easily if I ever wanted to. I am looking at adding a 98-02 LS1 Trans Am Volant Cold Air Induction or SLP Performance LS1 air box lid. With that said would this be a waste of money? Would i need to get it "tuned"? Side note I know next to nothing about cars, I'm man enough to say that lol
I did a cheap cold are on my crown vic by cutting the same size hole out of the bottom of the stock airflow tube and capping the original off. this was bigger than original. Then I ran a pipe down yo s vent in the bumper the same size fully getting cold air. this added a little hp.. 5 maybe because the box was restrictive. it also helps in summer in traffic. other vic hesitates in a hot day in traffic. this one doesn't.
imdarrellkthx sofa king low is right, but in reality, a CAI is really the best way to get the sound you're looking for, you'll spend some money but skip the nonsense of trying to modify your stock intake or rig something up. This way you can also save your stock air intake in good condition for later reinstallation if desired
KnowYourCar I installed K&N air filters to my stock intakes, but I took aluminum foil tape and put it on both the intake box and the pipes to keep the intake colder. I tested it after normal runs and before the tape it was super hot to the touch and after I could touch it without going "Ouch!". It was warm to the touch at most.
+Verisimilitude Dude Aluminum foil tape really works. They do something similar around sensitive components on modern cars to protect electronics. With how I'm always replacing electronics on my 99, I should get wrapping! :)
Good Video in Reguards to sucking hot air in some cold air intake kits come with a box which shields the filter from the heat of the engine those ones to increase power a mate got one and dynoed it before and after increased it about about kw but i can understand what you are saying
Justin Walker Nice information. I knew most of what was mentioned, but was unaware the ECU would auto adjust injector spray without using a tuner.. and assumed the engine would suck in the same amount of air as a stock setup. Even still, I installed an aFe CAI, myself, if for nothing else the throttle response from deleting the baffled throttle resonator and rigid intake tract for the unrestricted air flow. What I'm confused about are throttle body spacers as CAI support mods. Adding an inch or less for extra HP is garbage, but the majority actually promote air turbulence rather than vortex.. which contradicts the whole point of removing the baffled resonators. It's starting to seem like other countries are just having contests seeing who can sell us more junk molded from their recycled bottles and coke cans.
You are right that most often the oem design works better than just adding a cold air intake though for the sake of the hunt for more power: usually the exhaust system and air inlet are big areas that the manufacturers use for quieting down the noise from the motor. The way they quiet it is usually restrictive. Then for the little gains, there is always the mission to reduce pumping losses. I got quite a bit of extra power from a sentra in just making a homemade short ram design intake and porting the exhaust ports a bit bigger and a cheap 150 dollar header. Easy stuff that makes a big dif. Those 1.6's have an econo exhaust intake flow ratio. I got 12 mpg but it was much more fun to drive. Before hand it could barely make it up a hill without revving like mad. Now I drive a car that doesnt get any gains from any sold intakes. It's an 04 CVPI. K&N don't even have a kit for that year and the oem setup is pretty good. I will prolly do at least a drop in , my restriction is at the filter. Pumping losses. Then there are the freaks that go for every spacer sold to let trubulence straighten looking for that tenth of a pound of torque lost in pumping losses. well some ppl are like that
Add air scoops....one on each fender and three or four bigger scoops arranged systematically in a arrowhead configuration will actually make that CAI a winning combo.... school is great but never better than years of building high performance rides!
Hi, I just got a Suzuki jimny AT which is fun off road and extremely slow on road, is there a way I can increase the performance without cost me a load of money? Thx
I'm watching your video on "cold air intake". Im ~ 4 min. In. You're making sense ... You have a new subscriber ... Q: i have a 1994 Z28 LT1 (80,000 mi.) "unmolested". It had a paper air cleaner when i purchased it, I Immediately replaced with a K&N air cleaner. There is a baffle on the end of the air cleaner box which has two (seemingly smaller, i havent measured) but has two "holes" for breathing. With it removed it really (visually) opens up the area for air intake. I do my best to keep my foot out of the pedal, but seems to inhale more with out it. IDK how this is effecting my AFM or "power". ** also, a dumb decision: i removed the screen from my MAF. How does that effect drivability or AFM. (Air Fuel Mixture).
I think it depends on a number of factors like the design of the engine. CAI, not short rams in some cars have the heat shield and extend out. For example, I have a Gen 7 Maxima. The CAI reaches out to the factory air port, so it's sucking in air that is coming directly from the front of the car without heating up...and if it is at all when under hot conditions, maybe a degree or two. I live the stock life, and am more about cosmetic mods, but I've ran against the same exact Maxima as me, but with a CAI, and Y pipe being the only mods and it beat me. Not by a whole lot, but significant enough to make a difference. In the case of this Z, it does appear to be choked off some from the fresh air source...and no heat shield.
I own a 2004 Chevy blazer LTE (4door)..I bought a spectre cold air intake for $140. I wasn't accepting much, but I've gotten insane numbers from it. It has a heat shield so it's a legitimate CAI. It's half metal and half plastic split at the O2. I drive from STL to Indianapolis regularly. It's about 250 miles. Before I had the CAI I averaged 1 1/4 tanks getting there(15 gallon). With the CAI I always get there in 3/4 of a tank. I save 1/2 a tank which is stout. I do get a bit of performance and a nicer growl from my rig. It has already paid for itself with how gas prices are, so for everyone saying how dumb it is to buy one. Take everything into consideration. A CAI has a heat shield, a CAI does benefit 99% of vehicles, and most importantly, don't expect 10% hp. It helps ur car breath, but it's not a turbo.
It works for me. I have a 06 Tiburon 2.0. My stock airbox was in the same position as a short ram intake, my Injen CAi is down by the bumper. It doesnt get you a whole lot of hp, but what it does give you is a noticable throaty sound and little oomph to your driving and acceleration. Thats why ppl say its the best thing to start with if youre not going turbo. Follow it up with exhaust & headers. Im not a racer. Y i have the GS rather than the GTV6. Its great for casual mods. Or even a stepping stone for serious non turbo setup. I will warn you your mpg will go.down at first because youll be pushing your car to feel the hp gain. When you get used to it, your mpg will go back to where it used to be.
A short ram intake does pull hot air which won't make power , however a cold air intake pulls in cool air which is dense which will add more fuel creating more power you will see a gain maybe not a huge gain but if your in the High rev range it will help better than a stock intake every little bit counts when your making more power
I'm pretty sure thats a short ram intake and not a cold air intake...
+Jamal Methlouthi You're right, he was talking about how it's not a cold air intake. Good thinking.
@loco tertils my short ram pulls colder air than a lot of them because it has 2 cold air sources flowing at it, but his only has 1 cold air source and it won't be enough. That engine bay will hot soak the intake and kill power to keep the engine in the right balance between rich and lean.
@loco tertils I should be more specific. My short ram worked in one vehicle and not in another. It's results were terrible. Be sure to watch both @DE Nichols to learn why.
@loco tertils I have a friend who has heavily modified, I believe that very Ford, which responds very well even without a tune. You're smart to tune it though. Whp went up quickly for him. We're friends in the Toyota Nation forum. I'm David Nichols there...he talked more about it on a Ford forum of course. My Toyota responds VERY well to mods with the wrong O2 sensor by Bosch but responds with maybe 10-20 less wHP with the correct Denso O2 sensor.
Video not explained properly. An actual cold air intake's purpose is to allow the gathering of colder air than the hot air in your engine compartment, because colder air is more dense, and therefore compresses more easily in the cylinder, which creates more power. Many cars these days actually possess a cold air intake from the factory, like the one you demonstrated. So he actually swapped out a cold air intake for a non-cold air intake. What you were pointing to and saying this is wrong, wasn't even a cold air intake. Using this for a demonstration is kind of backwards. The scion fr-s(gt86) has a cold air intake from the factory for instance, but you can buy more free flowing intake kits that are also a cold air intake, they're just bigger diameter and designed a bit different for better flow. Toyota's racing division(TRD) even has an upgrade kit you can order with your car from the factory, and it is much the same as an aftermarket one. If you swapped the standard factory or TRD factory cold air intake system for a short ram air intake, you'd be downgrading to a hot air intake.
Changing to a more free flowing filter, or an intake setup that flows better or is less restrictive, can also make it easier for the engine to draw in air. An engine has to use a portion of it's power generated to suck in more air and compress it, in order to create more power, which is a parasitic loss to power production, so the easier the engine can breath and push exhaust out, potentially the more power it can create. You are flat out wrong when you say the engine will pull in the same amount of air regardless for two reasons. First, there is only so much air that can move through a given space, at a given pressure. The engine creates a vacuum when the intake valve opens and the cylinder begins going down. Air moves from positive pressure to negative pressure at a limited rate, i'm not a physics expert, but unless you are pushing the air molecules, they basically decompress from atmospheric pressure at a set rate, no matter how much of a vacuum they are exposed to, and so the bigger the path leading to your combustion chamber, the more air can move through that space in the time that the cams have the valve open. That is why a more open flow head, and larger valves(and therefore valve seats) increases power, more air can come through, and therefore you can add more fuel. Almost all cars from the factor have a just slightly restrictive intake that allows for less air to pass through, than the cylinder is capable of drawing in. The second reason is that creating that vacuum is a drag on the reciprocating components of the engine, and therefore a parasitic loss of power. There is a set amount of power that can be created by an ideal mixture of air and gasoline, being ignited at a specific pressure. You can measure that explosive force and have a set number. For every bit of friction or resistance that goes on in a car, it translates less of that explosive force into forward movement. Have you ever operated a balloon pump? It's a piston creating a vacuum also. If you cover the opening that it pulls air in through, it gets harder to operate the pump, harder to create the vacuum. Any additional load or force on those moving parts wastes energy created by the exploding fuel. It's related to performance increase just as reducing friction and lowering mass of reciprocating parts also wastes less of that power output.
Also the mass airflow sensor may potentially be affected, but if you do a tune, this should be something that can be adjusted, so not really an issue.
Though it is true that gradual bends in piping and more volume of, generally allows for easier access to air when the engine needs it, just the layout of an intake setup isn't likely to produce huge results without additional modifications. As someone said in another comment, you really need things like a bigger throttle body(as well as tuning the fuel delivery, more fuel delivered by bigger injectors and a more powerful fuel pump, performance heads with better flow and bigger ports, more aggressive cams, etc) before you truly benefit from an upgraded intake. However because most cars are so conservatively tuned from the factory(obviously it's situational) you CAN potentially experience a modest performance bump(in power produced anyway) from a proper cold air intake, and an electronic tuner.
It should also be noted that upgrading intakes lowers your gas mileage. From the factory, they make the intake more restrictive to limit how much air, and therefore how much air and fuel go into the combustion chamber, because without certain other factors being adjusted, there is a peak of efficiency that is exceeded by too much air and fuel mixture. For instance a factory engine that is really set up for efficiency, if you change the airbox and tuning, might produce 2% more power, but using 5% more fuel, therefore lower miles per gallon. A really conservatively tuned factory engine might actually produce a bigger 5% power increase with that same level of intake modification, but 10% more fuel. Those are rough examples.
So in short, going from an engine compartment intake to a cold air intake, or just upgrading to a bigger more open intake in general can produce measurable increases in power, at the cost of fuel efficiency, but is more meant to accompany other upgrades, not stand on it's own.
Also, really lean and really rich are OBVIOUSLY less efficient, but just a hair on the lean side creates more power than a hair on the rich side. Most engines do not absolutely perfectly balance a/f, and if they can pick one or the other side favor, slightly lean does produce more power. You had things backwards, running lean is more air to fuel, air has oxygen, oxygen is needed for the fuel to burn. Rich means more fuel to air, and beyond the optimal ratio of air to fuel, that extra fuel does nothing, because there is no oxygen to allow it to burn properly.
TL;DR version: The guy in the video is sort of right and sort of wrong, do not buy an intake like the one in the video, save your money for other mods.
You should have written a book lmao
Now that is a good explanation.
Damn,very well put.Looks like these dodos need to go to an Auto tech school.
hzuiel thanks hzuiel, bad example by this guy!
hzuiel good explanation. But i've always thought as you're driving, say at 70mph, 90% of the hot air in the engine-bay will be dispersed by airflow around the engine anyway, so the temp delta effect will be minimal..no?
This guy is completely wrong. Just look up mighty car mods videos on cai setups. We have dyno tested several cars with stock and cold air intakes (before and after) and every car (except a suzuki suv) made 5hp or more power gains across the band. Some lost like 1hp down low, but mid to high rpm gained at least 4-5hp.
No... just no.
Before you come off with a response like that, I have a few questions for you. Have you ever tested stock air boxes vs CAIs? Have you seen the sheets to prove your claim that it doesn't add power? If not, then do not bother to respond. Opinions do not matter, facts do. This guy in the video shows no proof what so ever, and I personally have, so I will believe what I have seen tested personally over what some guy with "college credits", and by the way I also have a few college certificates for Automotive Technology.
By the way my keyboard is ucked up, that is why some of my words didn't get typed. Im not retarded or something lol!
MCM is legit stuff... Not joking. They take theories to the test unlike this guy that speaks out.
Great video. Finally someone who knows their way around an engine. For whatever reason, people buy a car and then automatically think they know more than the engineers who designed it. I recently bought a 2015 civic EX. I didnt buy it for power obviously, I bought it for fuel economy. But I wanted to get more power out of it while keeping its fuel efficiency and after learning more about engines in the past few weeks Iv discovered that to even get 20hp more out of it would take an insane amount of money and most likely drop fuel economy in every scenario. Which tells me that the engineers who designed my engine did an excellent job of balancing power and economy. Trust your car manufactures people!
That's a ram air bro not cold . Cold is boxed off so it doesn't get as much heat from the engine
True
you dont have to use the boxed off part -_-
3lem3ntZ wrong
antonio solorio Still the same shit its still cold facepalm.lol
SI RICKO no its not. Of the filter isn't insulated it will be taking the hot air from the engine. A cold air intake is insulated to keep it colder by sectioning it off from the heat of the engine.
that is a short ram intake not a cold air intake. cold air intakes are located way further from the engine.
Exactly. The short ram things are what he is talking about. A legit CAI has an airbox and is located in a way to pull in cold air. Like from behind a headlight or something. The one in this video is not a cold air intake.
+Taidana Kalashnikov that's what blew my mind about it considering he "went to school " for this stuff but I'm literally the biggest car noob and I can tell by one look it's not a CAI like he says it is..
+dnbsc1 he said it wasn't a cold air intake, Jesus lots of geniuses commenting on this
if you have a mass air flow sensor, then the diameter of the intake won't be taken into account, right? it uses a hot wire meter
I'd have to disagree with stock air intake being designed for efficiency on most cars it's made to have less intake noise and just be adequate on flow. Had a 1993 Z28 Lt1 car ran 9.15 in a 1/8th put a Slp cold air kit on it the responded to running a 8.90 with just this mod. I believe it's more vehicle specific than just saying cold air intakes don't work.
Maybe on an inefficient 25 year old car. But not today.
Maybe on an inefficient 25 year old car. But not today.
Yeah I know this was 5 years ago but I just put a cold air intake in my rendezvous and it doesn’t even feel like the same car. Filter was a box filter a week old super clean and as soon as I put the k&n cold air in it felt like a thousand pounds lighter.
As a Dawg I was always told never to trust a trust anyone in a gator hoodie
This video makes sense and to think that I was going to buy a short ram intake thinking I was going to gain 10 HP good video
Excellent video, I learned this along time ago. can't convince some of my friends that think they get more horse power by adding a C.A.I.. Installing a CAI is a big waste of money and like you said, in most cases you loose power. Good job explaining it.
The closed captions are hilarious.
+Guns Cars and Digits LOL, they really are. They're by TH-cam's software.
hahaha! yes, hilarious as hell.
***** lol. I wonder how many misunderstandings they've created? I usually leave captions off.
+DE “AutoBravado” Nichols Me too until I saw the comment about them. It made my day lol.
*****
LOL, I turned on captions over the comment too!
Volumetric efficiency have not heard that in a long time except when I went to aircraft mechanic school. Well explained. Cooling the air at the air box with a water mist injection system will increase volumetric efficiency. Great for real hot days.
im glad you know your stuff. I would say that on a normally Aspirated auto you need to be build on what it already has like you said, cars are designed to work efficiently the way they are build . simplest way turbos supercharges or heck Nitro.
@ 3:48 lessen your weed intake ;)
On my truck I freeze 2 liter bottles and put them in my cold air intake box to drop the temp for more densely packed air
Your dumb dude
Why I have a tuner in my truck. I experiment with stuff like that. I actually dropped my intake temp by about 7 degrees below outside air temperature
thats a short ram not a cai. short rams don't work all they do is add noise
Short rams work very well, just have to consider your application. I had a turbo car and short ram give me better throttle response. After the turbo and intercooler that little it of heat in the engine bay didn't matter at all.
CAI on the same car was actually not fun because it would suck in all sorts of dust and crap due to much more suction generated by the turbine.
Thumbs up to this guy for actually knowing what he's talking about. People don't realise that throwing on a cone filter and chopping off your stock muffler actually looses horse power. Even out of the box tuners don't do anything to N/A vehicles. The claims the company makes about horse power gain are from best case scenarios and custom tunes.
Ryan, I'll be nice and do the oreo effect.
Positive: Great video, lot's of very convincing knowledge.
Negative: Wrong information, and if you went to Florida, get your money back on your education unfortunately you may have wasted a fortune on bad instruction.
Positive: Nice little garage set-up.
I am an engineer, this means, I have devoted my life and education to the working of ENGINES. With that being said, you had one thing right. Hot air equals worse combustion. However, let me correct you on a couple of things. The term "Cold Air Intake" by design was purely a marketing scheme. While most companies call it this, the real term should have been "unrestricted air intake." This in fact WILL improve overall efficiency of most petrol engines, especially in those wild OEM intake set-ups that cause turbulent air. Mass air flow sensors in 99% of car manufacturers detect flow of ambient air and adjust fuel injection accordingly for the most efficient burn. Installing one of these intakes will not "lean" the car out. The vehicle will simply match the incoming air with a proportional fuel ratio that is equivalent to the output the ECU demands. With that being said, in 99% of cases, freeing restriction of airflow will cause an increase in CFM to the intake manifold for a more abundance and concentrated source of free oxygen molecules. More oxygen on a fire creates HOTTER and more EFFICIENT burn ratio's rendering more OUTPUT, and in lamens terms BHP.
Please, before you educate the masses on incorrect information, do some research.
I have to agree with you though, the intake set-up your buddy has is disgusting and full of "rice," and he would have been better off leaving the stock set-up on his vehicle.
Justin Walker since you sound like you know a bit more about these setups, I wanna ask your opinion on a 4G Eclipse CAI that Injen makes, idk if I can link in comments so I'll just say the model, its an Injen SP1870 (p or blk doesnt matter)
Injen says that the L4 Eclipse will get about a 15WHP boost out of it, but even 10 in this car is huge when it runs 135WHP stock. But also the intake runs into the side of the bumper (if you look it up there will be a manual where you can see the location they want you to put the filter in). But the concern is, the bumper is not exactly letting air through, but it is a much cooler location than a short ram setup like this guy.
The only way I see it makes sense is that the bottom grill on the 4G eclipse is completely open and that's probably where the air will come from to flow into the filter.
So whats your opinion on this?
Hey buddy, thanks for liking my response, and listening to educated reason. I have fully investigated the set-up that you are proposing, and after said research I have arrived at the conclusion that you should be good to go to get that set-up. I would not count on 15 horsepower from this set-up alone, mostly because it is a lower compression engine compared to more modern engines such as the 2.0TSI from VW/Audi, where smoother air in abundance reacts in substantially higher output. At a minimum, I would estimate around 10bhp, with increased throttle response, and possibly better gas mileage given you drive it conservatively. If you were to pair it with a decent turbocharger set-up later down the road, you would see substantial gains. As for now, there is nothing wrong with getting the intake set-up. I would also contact K&N to see what different intake models they offer for your model. Other than that, happy modding!
Hey justin very informative comment you have here so I decided to ask for your opinion too,I drive a stock 2002 rsx type s and trying to go for my first modification under the hood,Im going to stay N/A because it's my daily car.I just wanna hear your opinion about short ram intake,if it is any better than my stock intake or will it be bad because it is sitting right next to the engine.I live in Canada so 80% of the time it is cold here and half of the year it's snowing,I've heard people say SRI is better than stock and safer than cold air intake,what's your say on this matter.I'll appreciate your time and response for this.
Hi Brian, and thanks for the compliment. I am familiar with that engine ( I had a buddy that owned one, and we worked on it a lot). I regret to inform you that the short ram intake in that vehicle is not going to benefit you much horsepower wise. If it is a sportier sound you are looking for, you will DEFINITELY hear a difference. Unfortunately, how Honda/Acura designed that particular motor, the air intake is actually pulling air from the rear of the engine bay (pretty close to the driver's side firewall.) You will not have the added benefit of ram air effect, any colder air, and honestly, as short and as free flowing the stock set-up box is, no less restriction. Your benefits will be a cooler looking engine bay, and better sound. If that is what you are looking for, go for it by all means! If you are looking for added BHP, you won't see it. Now, there are multiple software upgrades available for that engine that will give you more what you are looking for, especially since you mentioned you wanted to stay NA. I hope this helps.
thanks for that response Justin I just have more questions to you if you dont mind,just wanna get my head straight on this one before buying,so there will be minimal gain if ever for a SRI especially during the summer where heatstoke happens a lot.but would it be better during the cold season ?and I've seen the aem v2 SRI it looks better than the injen sri because the tube curves away from the engine,what's your opinion on that?I've also seen custom ones where there is just a straight pipe going to the location of the battery,is that any good ?If I were to stick on my stock intake,will a good filter provides any difference at all?Im gonna go for a reflash too if that is what you meant by the software upgrade, again I'll appreciate your response.
Well done. Finally some one knows what he talkin about. U forgotta mention about those aftermaerket filter if u gonna look at it under d sun youll see this big holes which can be penetrated easily buy dust particles. And also about the stock tube. The reason why its not smooth is because it acts as a resonator to keep the air flow quiet. Not every buyer wants a loud noise coming from the engine. Respect!!
thanks actually luckily as a military mechanic it helped me understand alot of what you where saying and i learned alot from this defiantly saving the money on a cai definatly subscribing amd learning more
I agree.. this intake in question is NOT a CAI. A cold air intake will be either in the finder as HyVOLT said, or it will have a heat shield.
All I have to say is MCM just made you a liar. On a NA engine a CAI it will make some power. Btw thats not a CAI. That is a short ram intake. CAI puts the filter outside the engine bay.
So if I was to drop the cai into the fender where the cold air is, would that boost performance without a tune?
Man you are the best describer, and my thought is totally changed because of the mechanical explanations. I give you thumps up:)
How do you explain the Dyno charts and tunes? whp gain etc...
Thanks
So, your point is.. it's inefficient to put a Cold Air intake unless you're running a forced induction(turbo/supercharger) setup by tuning it? Or simply by just tuning it - changing how the engine takes in air vs fuel ratio?
I developed an actual cold air intake (not a short ram shown in video) for the 350Z back when it first came to the states. This required A LOT of dyno time testing and trying different pipe diameters and lengths. It was a challenge working with the Z because I would see good gains (5 to 10 HP) with a certain design, but within 3 or so dyno pulls it would revert back to its original power level by automatically adjusting timing and fuel trims. We attributed this to an overly-sensitive knock sensor. We could replicate the gains by resetting the ECU after every run, but that is not practical for the consumer market. We eventually released a cold air intake (filter down behind bumper) and licensed it to NISMO. But thanks to the ECU, the gains were not what they could have been. The one plus is that the engine inductions sound was AWESOME on that engine and totally worth running the intake.
On the other hand, I also developed a CAI for the 2003 Nissan Xterra Supercharged. That thing made an extra 17HP (!) all day long with the intake on the Dynojet. The supercharger intake was very restrictive because Nissan OEM did their best to hide the supercharger whine. This required lots of sound chambers and baffling and such. Pull all of it off and it really woke up the engine, however you could now clearly hear the SC whine with the CAI installed.
We would constantly monitor AFR with a wideband during testing to make sure dangerous lean conditions were never an issue.
So my points are:
1. Do not generalize that all CAI or short rams dont make power, it really depends on the car. Consult a reputable company for real results or view 3rd party test results.
2. REAL aftermarket intake developers do A LOT of testing! Dyno, engine tune monitoring, thermal mapping of engine bay, IAT monitoring, etc. There is a lot to it and I did it for several years. (Then the knock-off companies steal your design).
3. Use editing software to remove parts of videos that may undermine the message you are trying to make!
4. Possibly look somewhat respectable if you want anyone to take you seriously.
5. Please don't take a wyotech class then claim to have expertise on any subject. There is way more to it than you will ever learn at wyo.
Have a good day.
+Ryder Very intelligent comment. I really need a tune in addition to the work I've done.
very good inf , thanks!
I'm debating if I should get a CAI. The short ram air intake in this video (it isn't even a CAI, could this guy just not find a friend with one or is he just not as smart as he thinks he is?) clearly isn't made for this car. It's too big, has no shield, and has a metal tube, this setup is basically a disaster. The one that I'm looking at is made specifically for my vehicle (2013 Mustang 3.7), has a high quality shield, is placed in the same position as the original intake, and has same diameter tube made with heat resistant plastic. It's only about $200, and I already have an upgraded exhaust and 3.73 gears with a tune. Any opinions or advice on if I should get it? I'm not getting it for the hp increase, which is negligible or the looks of it. I'm getting it for the slight mpg increase, the much better exhaust sound, but most importantly the better throttle and early acceleration response times (mine is almost on point, but there is still a very small lag).
excellent video . i would love for you to do a step by step video that will increase horse power so that the idiots who think pretty engine bling makes their car faster than my stock z. i keep telling them what you said in the beginning increased air flow requires more fuel so adjustments to your fuel delivery is required. example loud pipes on motorcycles and no power commander installed just louder not faster.
but, if you heatshield wrap the intake pipe and put a heatshield box around the air filter, would it be worth it afterwards. and also, with the airflow sensor, shouldn't it update the engine's way of running (more air comming in, more gas injected, but to a certain limit, it obviously won't reach what a turbo could do). because,i want to install a cold air intake so it's easier to change the air filter, and if i can gain a few horses, good. but if i'm gonna lose power, i might aswell give up on the idea.
Hey man love your video, very informative and logical! I was thibking about putting a K&N Typhoon on my 2003 Ford Focus 2.3 PZEV. The reason is because the car has a "lifetime air filter" that you cant remove and clean so I'm thinking although its a lifetime, it's probably really dirty after 160k miles and restrictive. I was gonna put on the CAI just so it will have a regular intake with a replacable filter like every other car
What are your thoughts on just a k& N filter . on a 2015 stang? Or just leave stock??
K&N air filters have been proven to flow better than "most" stock filters, they also filter the air coming in more efficiently than stock filters. Being reusable is also a plus! Wouldn't be a bad way to spend $40 or so
KandN Filters are great i bought one for my 2013 honda civic and notice some quicker pickup (Acceleration) and i was also thinking about getting a CAI but after a few reviews on them especially this one it took me away from them plus CAI voiss your new car engine warranty for some reason
+rik1 KN filetrs have been proven in test over test to have worst filtration properties in the industry. I wouldnt take one for free.
do it
+rik1 no they suck they ruin motors. get a AEM dry flow air filter its sooo much better
I put a Vararam intake for my 2005 Pontiac GTO and it made a world of difference.
great video boss, where did you go to school tho? am interesting in going to an automotive school, keep up ur good works man.
How I made my intake was I took three tall cans of Budweiser and I cut the tops off connect them all together and got a filter from autozone and I have a Budweiser intake
why does most of cold air intake manufacturers use stainless pipes it only amplifies the heat from inside your hood, so is it better to use plastic piping? like PVC?
Looks. That's why they use stainless steel.
to actually get power out of any engine you have to build it up. can it, new heads, stroke it, bore it out, add headers, remove catalytic converters, etc
this is not a cai. the filter is still in engine bay . not in bumper.
this is why i opted in to keep my factory intake on my 2013 Honda civic and go with the high air flow element that KN sells, i did notice more low end pick up but thats all, can anyone else verify this!!
+Bryan AMDGuy
My boy friend did the same thing to my MS3 and I did notice the pick up on the low end.
Smart choice, money better spent as well
Hello, i buyed my cone filter some time ago, and now i want to install it in my BMW , but when i read more and more about it, i confront with a many opinions , so i'm hesitating.... i know it won't increase horsepower for sure, maybe for a little that's i can't notice it... but teh important question is... could this cone filter damage my engine somehow if it isn't separated from the engine?my original filter is at left side so if i install cone filter at original pipe it will be directed to the left reflector or left corner. My mechanic says it will not affect engien of my car, but filter will be only louder.
Does a Short ram air intake really work on a 2012 vw Jetta 2.5l sel ?
I have a question. What about keeping a stock intake and installing a high flow cat, and an upgrade exhaust. I'm only wanting efficiency and a slight performance increase. Is this possible with a set up like that?
what about a short ram and then getting a scoop?
Short ram intake doesn't make your car go faster, but what about if you put a chip on your car and it tuned the intake, would you think it works??
One more, I do have an OBD one on my 94 Z28 and would like to tune it can you recommend any quality reliable- free tuning programs?
- especially for someone with basic if not slightly advanced knowledge of internal combustion motors.
So doing an intake with tune would yield results?
This is im confused correct my if im wrong why they always cold air intake? Because the engine is hot and the under your hood is hot specially on summer where did u get an cold air? The stock air intake u had on your cars arent they cold air ? Im just confused...
My cold air intake has a box around it with a seal just like a factory air box and mine is made of looks like hard plastic instead of metal. Your friends car seems to be missing the box and seal that completes this setup his setup is wrong. the way he has it setup you are right but with a box witch houses the filter attached this set up is better
This is a short RAM not a cold air.. CAI is boxed off or in your fender well, so it's not pulling hot air.
+William Zimmer but it still does the same job as an oem intake. The only benefit it has is it's an intake resonator delete which is where some people get like a 3hp increase. which is negligible unless you have a 50hp motor.
+krauser979 If it was a 50hp motor, based on the common assumption, then it'd be only 1.5 hp. 1/2 a normal motor, half the benefit.
+Troll True Exactly! I live in a place that gets cold. Cars waste gas when it's cold and my short ram gets my engine up to temperature faster and keeps it from the robbing power of too cold of air! It can be taken too far. You so get it!
I had my car wrapped with a NISMO graphic and had my calipers painted. I was told by the guy who did the work that it added 400bhp by negating negative Gs. Is that true? Secondly, what is bhp?
The concept of a short ram according to Engineering Explained is to get the most air in possible. He found it to work best at higher RPM, which would work best on the track, not in street driving.
Cold as possible isn't always better, I added some cold air pipes to connect to my short ram and except the hottest of summers it gets the air cold enough for decent power. As soon as it turns fall through spring, I now put rags over those cold air inlets because the air is so cold that I'm losing power and efficiency too. I made a video about it too if you'd like to check it out "KnowYourCar". :)
Edit years later: Be sure to search my videos. I now have a few short ram videos where it works and where it doesnt.
Sorry dear video maker, I'll have to disagree. The oxygen sensor will catch that it was lean and get the air fuel/mix the same regardless. I get so much air from my short ram when I'm really stepping on it that my car will even run a good stoichemetric at WOT! So yeah, a good tune would get WAY more power out of my setup, but that said, it was never ran lean, except perhaps in the first days of install when the PCM hadn't set the fuel trims for all the conditions yet. (commenting as I watch and pause to have a comprehensive response to your good work).
Again, I'll disagree if it's cool out. It does depend on the car, but you have a jacket on, that's cool enough for my car that I have to stop up the cold air flow and take full advantage of my short ram "hot air intake". If you aren't at the minimum temperature the engine will waste fuel to heat up. This won't turn into power and more wHP, it'll just be an inefficient mess with less power.
Sorry that I'm disagreeing again, it's for our mutual education, I'm kind and only sharing that we all learn. Sure, my experience for intake mods are on only 1 car, but my stock intake at maximum read 33 g/s. Now, I can get 70 g/s past the MAF. Trust me, at the higher revs, I have gained a lot of power...and though I need bigger injectors to even keep up, in the meantime when I try to drive fast, at least it's efficient, lol.
LOL yes, noise does not mean horsepower, I agree! :)
+DE Nichols I would like to put some air pipes in my 350z 08 hr from front of the car and connect this two holes front of the short ram intake. So i think when I drive I will get more cold air from outside but now you said that is not good?
you just talked me out of getting a K&N Typhoon cold air intake for my car. Thanks.
I think the best way (and cheapest as well) is to put cotton/sponge sport filter in the stock airbox. I've got one and it works very well. CAI looks cool when you open the hood but without hermetic airbox and some tubes supplying cold air to the airbox, it's a crap.
bottom line is CAI will decrease horse power and increase throttle response by forcing the air into the TB and allowing the mixture to lean out a bit which in case gets you better gas mileage.
I agree with everything you are saying here and the same with the MCM guys but I put a CAI on my Nissan V35 (Infiniti G35) The same VQ35DE engine as the 350Z.
I decided to purchase the Stillen package which comes with K&N filter. The power gain is noticeable on top end and I gained 8hp on the Dyno (they did claim 15hp but thats also with their headers and a tune up). The thing is with the Stillen package cancels everything you have mentioned and is a massive upgrade compared to OEM. The OEM intake has a hotbox which heat soaks in the engine bay to stop throttle body freezing (Nissan clearly thought this engine wasn't going to be exported from Japan and kept their extremely cold winters in mind even adding a coolant line through the throttle body to heat soak and supply warm fluid to the throttle body).
Now I live in Perth, Australia so I have no problem with cold weather here so the Stillen package is perfect. It comes with a roto-molded plastic tube so it doesn't get as hot as metal, it removes the hot box and the K&N filter has a complete plastic heat shield around it to separate it from the surrounding hot components of the engine bay. Keeping all that in mind and agreeing with what you were saying this package kills the OEM intake if your confident your in a climate that the throttle body wont freeze up. My engine will be sucking in the same volume of air agreed but it will be way more dense in oxygen with removing the hot box and keeping the pipe plastic. So like I said before I agree with all your points this package obviously does the opposite of all those points so you cant just go ruling out CAI and saying OEM is always best because the VQ35DE was designed for cold winters in mind. Sorry for the novel just another passionate car guy. Have a good one cheers for the video and cheers for educating people on a bad package ie the one your mates got. Keep safe on the road and have fun mate. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention the engine note sounds way sexier then the OEM.
Should I buy a SRI for my car or just a K&N filter
That makes a lot of sense. I've bought a K&N Cold Air Intake Typhoon model for my 2007 Audi A3 2.0 Fsi turbo and I had a remap of my ECU, the car was running 257 hp (Dyno run) with this set up, but after awhile the noise of the CAI sucking air started to annoying me and I've noticed that the so call cold air intake tube was soo hot after 1 hour of traffic that it didn't make any sense to imagine that "that" was sending cold air to my engine. So, I tooked it all off and returned to stock but with my ECU still remaped and for my surprise my car feels to me a little bit quicker, specially on low revs when my turbo kicks in. Now I'm using an K&N inbox filter but with the OEM airbox and engine cover (wich looks way much better than when I had the CAI) and I'm looking foward to a next Dyno run to check if the car has either lost or won horsepower.
Some cars don't benefit from CAI's.
you need to get the cai away from the motor as much as possible or get those plastic things to put around the cai so it doesnt pull the heat from the motor
Thanks for this video, dude. Very good and straightforward explanation, and you even delved into some other controversial topics that you debunked. Excellent.
new subscriber here!! i now love my stock air intake system.... (was considering K&N CAI) cool video
Which is the best with the short or the long arm?
don't hot air intakes help increase mpg? and alot of the few HP gains came from was the less restrictive removing the tons of baffles on stock set ups. and leaning out your car?.? isn't that what the mass air flow and map correct by air temp and air flow?
Is this still true for 2000 v6 mustangs where the cold air intake goes into the fender well. its farther away from the engine than the stock intake.
Hi, I want to know could, K&N filter, or any other type, make harm to engine. Could it make influence on it's life time. I have Mini Cooper 2003, 1.6, 66kW. Could you recommend me any special type of filter?
What about a CAI system with a heat shield? Will that help any? Or what about switching the factory paper filter out with a k&n filter? Will any of that increase hp?
i think running lean means putting in extra air in with fuel, yielding a fuel ration higher than ideal say 16:1, probably better for fuel economy but not for power
what if you roll with no hood or a hood with a lot of air flow?
All these mods will affect emissions and down the road you will get a check engine light sooner or later
so if it's tuned they work?
hey I have a question? I have that same car, what if I get a NISMO intake that was designed for that car? will that be still considered efficient and OEM? thanks
Correct me if im wrong. But isnt this gentleman pointing at a short ram intake not a cold air intake?
I Have A Question. I Have A 2002 A4 Audi 1.8T & I Want To Know If I Should Get A Carbon Fiber Cold Intake? Please Let Me Know
The real answer is it depends. Depends on how well the CAI is designed to fit your car (some engine compartments have more space therefore allowing for better CAI placement), how well the car's ECU can use and compensates for the CAI.
I don't know much about cars, though I'm trying to learn. Which one do I add first to my car, Intake System or the Exhaust?
ok I know this is an older video so i hope you reply. with that said I am a NON-mod 1999 Trans am WS6, and I want to be able to take it back to stock easily if I ever wanted to. I am looking at adding a 98-02 LS1 Trans Am Volant Cold Air Induction or SLP Performance LS1 air box lid. With that said would this be a waste of money? Would i need to get it "tuned"? Side note I know next to nothing about cars, I'm man enough to say that lol
I did a cheap cold are on my crown vic by cutting the same size hole out of the bottom of the stock airflow tube and capping the original off. this was bigger than original. Then I ran a pipe down yo s vent in the bumper the same size fully getting cold air. this added a little hp.. 5 maybe because the box was restrictive. it also helps in summer in traffic. other vic hesitates in a hot day in traffic. this one doesn't.
Is there a way to get the sound increase that a CAI gives you without changing the stock system?
imdarrellkthx sofa king low is right, but in reality, a CAI is really the best way to get the sound you're looking for, you'll spend some money but skip the nonsense of trying to modify your stock intake or rig something up. This way you can also save your stock air intake in good condition for later reinstallation if desired
KnowYourCar I installed K&N air filters to my stock intakes, but I took aluminum foil tape and put it on both the intake box and the pipes to keep the intake colder. I tested it after normal runs and before the tape it was super hot to the touch and after I could touch it without going "Ouch!". It was warm to the touch at most.
+Verisimilitude Dude Aluminum foil tape really works. They do something similar around sensitive components on modern cars to protect electronics. With how I'm always replacing electronics on my 99, I should get wrapping! :)
Thank you for teaching me something new. Good job!
what do you think about installing mopar cold air intake on ram 1500 , 2015 ?
Good Video in Reguards to sucking hot air in some cold air intake kits come with a box which shields the filter from the heat of the engine those ones to increase power a mate got one and dynoed it before and after increased it about about kw but i can understand what you are saying
Justin Walker Nice information. I knew most of what was mentioned, but was unaware the ECU would auto adjust injector spray without using a tuner.. and assumed the engine would suck in the same amount of air as a stock setup.
Even still, I installed an aFe CAI, myself, if for nothing else the throttle response from deleting the baffled throttle resonator and rigid intake tract for the unrestricted air flow.
What I'm confused about are throttle body spacers as CAI support mods. Adding an inch or less for extra HP is garbage, but the majority actually promote air turbulence rather than vortex.. which contradicts the whole point of removing the baffled resonators.
It's starting to seem like other countries are just having contests seeing who can sell us more junk molded from their recycled bottles and coke cans.
Thanks bro for the video it made much and helped me make my decision on a purchase which I feel saved me money so again Thank You.
What about a drop in K&N filter in the stock air box. Better than a STP?
how much better mpg will I get on a van
You are right that most often the oem design works better than just adding a cold air intake though for the sake of the hunt for more power: usually the exhaust system and air inlet are big areas that the manufacturers use for quieting down the noise from the motor. The way they quiet it is usually restrictive. Then for the little gains, there is always the mission to reduce pumping losses. I got quite a bit of extra power from a sentra in just making a homemade short ram design intake and porting the exhaust ports a bit bigger and a cheap 150 dollar header. Easy stuff that makes a big dif. Those 1.6's have an econo exhaust intake flow ratio. I got 12 mpg but it was much more fun to drive. Before hand it could barely make it up a hill without revving like mad. Now I drive a car that doesnt get any gains from any sold intakes. It's an 04 CVPI. K&N don't even have a kit for that year and the oem setup is pretty good. I will prolly do at least a drop in , my restriction is at the filter. Pumping losses. Then there are the freaks that go for every spacer sold to let trubulence straighten looking for that tenth of a pound of torque lost in pumping losses. well some ppl are like that
I don't know anything about cars. But I'm sold with what he's saying.
Add air scoops....one on each fender and three or four bigger scoops arranged systematically in a arrowhead configuration will actually make that CAI a winning combo.... school is great but never better than years of building high performance rides!
Hi, I just got a Suzuki jimny AT which is fun off road and extremely slow on road, is there a way I can increase the performance without cost me a load of money? Thx
Yes, you explained well and it definitely make sense.
isnt that a short ram intake? and not a cold air intake?
senors like iat, map, and maf sensors are designed to adjust to prevent running lean or rich
I'm watching your video on "cold air intake".
Im ~ 4 min. In. You're making sense ... You have a new subscriber ...
Q: i have a 1994 Z28 LT1 (80,000 mi.) "unmolested".
It had a paper air cleaner when i purchased it, I
Immediately replaced with a K&N air cleaner.
There is a baffle on the end of the air cleaner box which has two (seemingly smaller, i havent measured) but has two "holes" for breathing. With it removed it really (visually) opens up the area for air intake. I do my best to keep my foot out of the pedal, but seems to inhale more with out it. IDK how this is effecting my AFM or "power". ** also, a dumb decision: i removed the screen from my MAF. How does that effect drivability or AFM. (Air Fuel Mixture).
I think it depends on a number of factors like the design of the engine. CAI, not short rams in some cars have the heat shield and extend out. For example, I have a Gen 7 Maxima. The CAI reaches out to the factory air port, so it's sucking in air that is coming directly from the front of the car without heating up...and if it is at all when under hot conditions, maybe a degree or two. I live the stock life, and am more about cosmetic mods, but I've ran against the same exact Maxima as me, but with a CAI, and Y pipe being the only mods and it beat me. Not by a whole lot, but significant enough to make a difference. In the case of this Z, it does appear to be choked off some from the fresh air source...and no heat shield.
I own a 2004 Chevy blazer LTE (4door)..I bought a spectre cold air intake for $140. I wasn't accepting much, but I've gotten insane numbers from it. It has a heat shield so it's a legitimate CAI. It's half metal and half plastic split at the O2. I drive from STL to Indianapolis regularly. It's about 250 miles. Before I had the CAI I averaged 1 1/4 tanks getting there(15 gallon). With the CAI I always get there in 3/4 of a tank. I save 1/2 a tank which is stout. I do get a bit of performance and a nicer growl from my rig. It has already paid for itself with how gas prices are, so for everyone saying how dumb it is to buy one. Take everything into consideration. A CAI has a heat shield, a CAI does benefit 99% of vehicles, and most importantly, don't expect 10% hp. It helps ur car breath, but it's not a turbo.
It works for me. I have a 06 Tiburon 2.0. My stock airbox was in the same position as a short ram intake, my Injen CAi is down by the bumper. It doesnt get you a whole lot of hp, but what it does give you is a noticable throaty sound and little oomph to your driving and acceleration. Thats why ppl say its the best thing to start with if youre not going turbo. Follow it up with exhaust & headers. Im not a racer. Y i have the GS rather than the GTV6. Its great for casual mods. Or even a stepping stone for serious non turbo setup.
I will warn you your mpg will go.down at first because youll be pushing your car to feel the hp gain. When you get used to it, your mpg will go back to where it used to be.
A short ram intake does pull hot air which won't make power , however a cold air intake pulls in cool air which is dense which will add more fuel creating more power you will see a gain maybe not a huge gain but if your in the High rev range it will help better than a stock intake every little bit counts when your making more power
Great video man, very informative and well explained in very simple logical language, thanks for uploading!
Capitions are soo funny. Ended up watching the video just for the Captions lol
i installed a CAI to get better low end power. stock paper filters tend to choke the engine in the lower rpm ranges