What do CAI's REALLY do?

[daddy]

They are good for messing up your mass air flow sensor.. went through 3 of them

Oiled filter?

Nope Roush CAI oil free. Just had a lemon truck . Everything messed up on it. I have a AFM CAI on the GMC now and it's fine. And nah they deff weren't cheap ones. I never buy cheap stuff for my truck. I believe in the you get what you pay for.

Gotcha, I sure thought you said the CAI was what caused your MAF to go bad.

 

[buckshot85]

haha yea now that I read that again it does look that way.

 

[Longshot270]

They add noise and looks and society has grown to the fact that if you pop someones hood and they have a nice looking CAI on the vehicle then everyone automatically thinks it is cool and can perform.

It is a huge selling aftermarket item because people want to believe all the hype they are getting the gains from adding one.

Now about K&N. From all the UOA's I have seen with individuals running K&N filters their results always had a higher silicon count, meaning it was letting in more dirt than your average filter. Not all but according to Terry Dyson who I work with, on average running a K&N isn't a good thing if you plan on keeping your vehicle for along time. Just an FYI.

x2

I stopped using my K&N when it got dusty because if you hold it up you can look through it and make out objects pretty easily so filtration is not their best factor. I opened up the intake to clean out the leaves and saw dust all the way down to the throttle body. I run it occasionally when it is rainy because it sounds better and does have slightly better throttle response.

 

[slims]

Cold air equals power. Hot air equals efficiency.

Some applications do better with an aftermarket intake. I wouldnt buy cheap crap and believe that i'm getting more horsepower and that its better for my engine

 

[Longshot270]

Cold air equals power. Hot air equals efficiency.

Where'd ya hear that second part? And, have you actually put it to the test?

 

[slims]

You dont need a cai to test it and it has long been proven by old farts before the 60's

 

[Zembonez]

It is a huge selling aftermarket item because people want to believe all the hype they are getting the gains from adding one.

We have a winner.

 

[thunderstruck]

Chicken dinner!

 

[Texas1911]

The only benefit is that they remove the resonators so the flow is a little smoother and louder. The cooler, denser air is BS though. How is it cooler and denser when it's pulling it in from the exact same hole in the fender that the stock air box was? In some cases they can even increase IATs as a lot of aftermarket intakes are metal because it looks cool but metal will conduct more heat off the engine than plastic thereby heating up the air going through it on it's way to the engine.

Resonators will increase the power over specific points in the curve. Removing them causes resonance in the intake at certain node points (RPM wise) and that causes improper MAF resolution and other small issues.

The name of the game in an intake is reducing flow loss. OEM intakes incorporate alot of devices like air horns and grills to enhance laminar flow to the MAF, and generally have very large amounts of airspace in them, pull from cool and pressure tested areas, and are resonance tuned.

The predominance of tuning parts these days for N/A engines aren't much better than OEM due to OEMs getting more and more conscious with flow losses and efficiency and the total computational testing power they have to model small parts prior to testing and prototyping.

 

[mr_bots]

On most newer cars I've thought most OEM systems are probably the best all-around. Generally anything that increases power also increases efficiency so something relatively simple like an intake or exhaust they're going to spend tons of money finding the best balance. It's no longer arbitrarily routing some thin hdpe to get it from the intake box to the TB. I'm sure they take all of the fluid dynamics into consideration from the intake to the exhaust exit to try to maintain (or as close as possible) a smooth, laminar flow from idle to WOT. Though there is almost always some audio tuning as well to help the intake meet the characteristic of the vehicle. A Challenger can and should make more noise than a Caravan.