cold air intake is it worth the money?

Lv1G6He3V2 · February 29, 2012

So our trucks have factory CAI?

Most of the kits just look like exposed filters + "heat shield." Only the Banks and Volant kits have scoops available. The Banks "ram air" scoop apparently goes through the fender well, which is not supposed to get much airflow anyway. The Volant scoop appears to face forward, no word on whether it's forced into the air box or just sucking nearby air that would normally pass it by.

tommywilkerson · February 29, 2012

was think about putting in a cold air intake but not to sure if it is worth the money $200

I have a 2011 GMC Sierra 4x4 SLE I just put on my truck a volant cold air filter induction with the fresh air scoop. It made a noticeable diffrence in WOT. However i don't know how mutch yet if any that it helped with fuel economy. I placed a Fitch fuel system on it . It gained 1.6 MPG Then i placed a G Force chip, the thing has two wires that attaches to the MAP sensor. That thing helped out on fuel economy another 1.5 I am going to buy a reprogramer in the near furture and a QUIET cat back if ther is one. The truck has 3,095 miles on it. It's realy not broke in good. But it seems to run better every time i make these little changes. Some of these after market clames are over exaggerated.

scz71864 · February 29, 2012

im not saying i disagree with you about the open filters. thats why i dont have one. I dont know where the term "cold air " comes from but in most theorys at WOT the engine is sucking in as much air as it can. with an open filter you can get more air into the engine, but like you said it would seem that it also sucks hot engine air into the throttle body. this is why i have the stock air box and just changed the filter and intake tube. i do belive that the stock intake tube is restrictive compared to stock

Z45 · February 29, 2012

When I put the cai on my truck I believe I gained about 12hp. This was learned with a before and after dyno.

At what RPM did you gain the HP? Redline? Over 5,000 RPM. Below that is proably miniscule.

You are only going to be able to use the HP from a CAI in you plan the drive on the race track all the time, normal around town driving its not doing you any good.

http://www.ricksfree...2%80%99s-pocket

Carder09 · February 29, 2012

When I put the cai on my truck I believe I gained about 12hp. This was learned with a before and after dyno.

At what RPM did you gain the HP? Redline? Over 5,000 RPM. Below that is proably miniscule.

You are only going to be able to use the HP from a CAI in you plan the drive on the race track all the time, normal around town driving its not doing you any good.

http://www.ricksfree...2%80%99s-pocket

Not sure if it was this cai topic or another but I explained a little bit about how it peaked at 12hp which was well over 5k. I wasn't looking for mileage or a huge performance increase at low rpm cause that was apparent that it would do no good, truck is also tuned with the cai so whatever justin did to complement it seems to work fine for me.

scz71864 · February 29, 2012

^ second that. when i got my truck tuned justin did something to my truck where the tube would be more effective

redjewel2ss · February 29, 2012

CAI's are not worth it...all they are is for show and some sound. No performance gains

That is your opinion and you ane entitled to it, but here are the facts from testing : (fromCamaro5forum)

https://spreadsheets...d=1&output=html

I believe Black Bear Performance has also done similar CAI testing but can't find their information from the tests.

So according to that sheet, most CAIs have an average HP increase between 0-2 hp? Awesome!!! Everyone should run out and buy a CAI NOW!!!!!!!!

that average is the HP gain across the entire RPM range. notice the column that says peak HP and TQ... anyways i agree with some of y'all

intake kits are a good upgrade, but not worth it unless you get a tune to compliment it.

everyone, please quit calling them cold air intakes! there is nothing cold about the ones made for our trucks. a true cold air intake relocates the filter from the stock location outside of the engine bay so that ambient air can enter the system. just because your intake system has a heat shield, the filter is still located inside the engine bay in the stock location and will experience some heat soak... about the same as the stock intake would. so the intake temps should be about the same as stock. what your gaining from a cone air filter in the stock location surrounded by a heat shield and a straight through intake tube is increased air flow

Lv1G6He3V2 · February 29, 2012

everyone, please quit calling them cold air intakes! there is nothing cold about the ones made for our trucks. a true cold air intake relocates the filter from the stock location outside of the engine bay so that ambient air can enter the system. just because your intake system has a heat shield, the filter is still located inside the engine bay in the stock location and will experience some heat soak... about the same as the stock intake would. so the intake temps should be about the same as stock.

That's interesting; I thought all we needed was a direct flow path for outside air to the intake. You are saying the filter needs to be outside, too?

what your gaining from a cone air filter in the stock location surrounded by a heat shield and a straight through intake tube is increased air flow

So the problem is that many kits are mislabeled as CAI's, when they should be called "high flow intakes."

The next question would be, how much does a high flow intake kit improve things, with the stock throttle body and intake manifold? Mine's only ~75mm or so; other trucks obviously have bigger diameter throttle bodies. I suppose the benefits of a high-flow intake kit vary by vehicle.

redjewel2ss · March 1, 2012

everyone, please quit calling them cold air intakes! there is nothing cold about the ones made for our trucks. a true cold air intake relocates the filter from the stock location outside of the engine bay so that ambient air can enter the system. just because your intake system has a heat shield, the filter is still located inside the engine bay in the stock location and will experience some heat soak... about the same as the stock intake would. so the intake temps should be about the same as stock.

That's interesting; I thought all we needed was a direct flow path for outside air to the intake. You are saying the filter needs to be outside, too?

what your gaining from a cone air filter in the stock location surrounded by a heat shield and a straight through intake tube is increased air flow

So the problem is that many kits are mislabeled as CAI's, when they should be called "high flow intakes."

The next question would be, how much does a high flow intake kit improve things, with the stock throttle body and intake manifold? Mine's only ~75mm or so; other trucks obviously have bigger diameter throttle bodies. I suppose the benefits of a high-flow intake kit vary by vehicle.

not outside ouside, lol, but out of the hot engine bay, like behind the bumper. look at some of the intake kits made by ingen for other cars. they move the filter out of the engine bay and behind the front bumper. in some cases, this also helps "ram air" into the system because some vehicles' undercarriages are designed so that air flows up from under the bumper to flow passed the radiator to help cool the engine.

but the air in and around the filter's heat shield in the stock location still contributes some heat soak before it enters the system. to minimize this you could always add insulation to the walls of the heatshield to help keep the air flowing into the system as close to ambient as possible, much like it would be from a true cold air intake.

there is no need to add ported throttle bodies and intake manifolds unless your installing a higher lift cam. in some cases with LS motors, installing these on a stock engine can actually cause a loss in power. main improvement with an aftermarket intake is the straight through design of the intake tube and the higher flow capacity of the filter. more air, less turbulent flow. you can gain some high rpm power, but to gain it throughout the RPM range, a tune will help tremendously, because you have to adjust your MAF tables to compensate for the extra air flow.