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Any Real Performance Gain From Cold Air Intakes....

IM-32-FK

By IM-32-FK,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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IM-32-FK Mentor

IM-32-FK

Posted
Posted

Recently ive been very keen to put a cold air intake from my throttle all the way down to the k&n pod under the chassis. I got quoted $300 to get it done on my r32 gts. Before i go get it done, i need to know - do you get any performance gain out of it? ive been told otherwise...

i mean, ive been reading that the suction is based on the ECU, and not the material of the pipe and that cold air intakes can cause hydrolock

R34Liner Proficient

R34Liner

Posted
Posted
Recently ive been very keen to put a cold air intake from my throttle all the way down to the k&n pod under the chassis. I got quoted $300 to get it done on my r32 gts. Before i go get it done, i need to know - do you get any performance gain out of it? ive been told otherwise...

i mean, ive been reading that the suction is based on the ECU, and not the material of the pipe and that cold air intakes can cause hydrolock

+1 on the hydro-lock

If you put it in the wrong place and you hit a puddle or in my case your in a flooded car park you will root your engine

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/St...p;hl=hydro+lock

go to the last few posts to see all the damage, photos and everything.

Be Careful!! - in saying that i put mine in a very stupid spot, it was cold for sure but too exposed to water and to low too the ground - as far as performance, meh i didnt notice much, get someone who has done a dyno run before and after.

(OO)SKYLINE(OO) Grand Master

(OO)SKYLINE(OO)

Posted
Posted

IMO, if you put an air pod on, you will be sucking in hot air, unless you shield it off / box it off.

I would just upgrade the panel filter in your stock air box to a high flow K&N one.

At least most of the time, cold air will be going in.

Birds Grand Master

Birds

Posted
Posted

Short answer: yes, properly setup cold air intakes do give you performance gains.

Note that it is not a cold air intake simply because the kit says so or because you installed it / want it to be a cold air intake. It's a cold air intake if the intake temperature has actually decreased from what it was before, due to whatever you did to the intake.

A $300 K&N kit will do buggerall if it's still sucking in hot air from the engine bay - can actually be detrimental to performance / stall your engine in traffic on hot days. In contrast $20 worth of ducting and a properly positioned $50 filter setup the right way can do wonders.

If you're going for a pod style setup, heat shield it and have a ram pipe/ducting running up to it from a cool air source...rather than the filter located close to the ground/rain/water, where it can hydrolock as previously mentioned.

Mendoza Enthusiast

Mendoza

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was looking into these two things a while ago for if i make a cai. Im not sure how effective they are, I thought they would be really popular if they worked as claimed and didnt restrict the flow to much.

Bypass

http://www.modified.com/tech/0104scc_aem_a...alve/index.html

hydrashield filter

http://www.autoanything.com/air-filters/65A2582A0A0.aspx

Edited by Mendoza
mad082 Grand Master

mad082

Posted
Posted

also it should be said that the gains aren't that great. people go on about it being some massive performance mod and if they go up against a car without it they are going to leave it for dead. this is far from the truth. the fact that most cars these days come with some form of intake designed to suck air from a location that alloys cool air, in most cases a CAI setup will net you a gain of maybe 5kw in an extreme case, but more than likely only 1 or 2kw. where people often are misled is thay they will put a new highflow panel filter in at the same time as doing the CAI setup and think that all the gains were from the CAI.

as for the power loss from hot air, that is also made to be a bigger deal than it is. when i took my magna to the drags, my quickest ET and top speed was achieved with the snorkel to the airbox removed and it was sucking air from the engine bay. often people go a bit overboard trying to make a CAI and end up with no gain or even a loss because because they have added so much restriction that they have negated any gains from having a cooler intake air.

mad082 Grand Master

mad082

Posted
Posted

cara are you saying you got the tune done and the CAI, or just the CAI? cause if the tune was done at the same time then that probably has more to do with it than the CAI.

i used to have a magazine where they fitted a CAI and k&n panel filter to a car and did before and after dyno runs. don't remember too much about the article but i remember the key figure. on a car making around 125rwkw i think it was, the difference in max power with both the CAI and filter was 4kw of the stock snorkel and paper filter.

MissR34 Grand Master

MissR34

Posted
Posted

re done the piping for air intake, and had to get a tune done again cause she was running heaps rich with the new piping......

but comparing the old piping to the new one, the car has a lot more resposiveness that what it did, it wouldnt have changed anything kW was, but at least i got the resposiveness ;)

sonoramicommando Collaborator

sonoramicommando

Posted
Posted
ive got mine coming from the front of the bar going up to a pod, but what has made the main difference is the piping from the pod to the throttle body.

So you are saying that the silicon piping was the key difference maker? if so, what makes you think so?

Btw, you got more photos of your car - that's very nice looking car, love the paint scheme - not sure about asian-eye headlights tho ;-)

cheers

  • 8 months later...
Hybrid905 Collaborator

Hybrid905

Posted
Posted
re done the piping for air intake, and had to get a tune done again cause she was running heaps rich with the new piping......

but comparing the old piping to the new one, the car has a lot more resposiveness that what it did, it wouldnt have changed anything kW was, but at least i got the resposiveness :P

Hey Cara how did you do your CAI piping i see some silicone and some stainless etc can you give more detail.

now this may sound like a stupid question but what happens to all the tubes goin into the stock intake pipe when you change it are they unimportant or do you need to find a way to connect them back up.

sorry for my ignorance on this topic im still learning :-)

Cheers

GTS4WD Grand Master

GTS4WD

Posted
Posted (edited)

In my opinion,

gains are so minimal its not worth the money.

Save your money and spnd it on something more worth while.

There is very little increase in power or torque.

The only thing you'll gain is a deep growl under throttle.

If thats the only thing your looking for, just add a pod only.

CAI's have very little menefit unless your car is often working hard in hot conditions.

Edited by GTS4WD
WYTSKY Veteran

WYTSKY

Posted
Posted

ok, im going to go against what others are saying on here about it.

I have a full heatsheild and cai... if you want to do it yourself for about ~$50 each then it might be worth while looking in the tutorial section...

anyway. When I did it, I did notice a difference in torque and power, but very minimal... it did however increase throttle response.

It used to be with an unshielded pod as hot as the rest of the motor at the end of say a 30 minute drive. What I have noticed change the most is, you know when your car has just warmed up on a cold morning and you give it some beans and the throttle is nice and crispy... well you get that pretty much most of the drive...

I can drive the car for an hour, take the heatsheild off, which is just a little warm, and can touch the pod and it is still cold, so yes, it does make a difference.

Hot days are better for the car aswell, it still suffers from the heat, but no where near as bad...

The thing is, my car is turboed so with more power you can feel the difference more then an n/a...

If you were going to have a crack at it yourself for 100 bucks i'd say worth it, but 300, i think is a bit steep for very minimal gains on a ~100kw skyline, I would put the money to some good oil, plugs, etc or go to a workshop that tunes skylines and get them to advance your timing abit for 100 bucks, you'll gain 10kw out of that as oppose to 1-2kw

  • 4 months later...

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