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Cold Air

TallassJonG

TallassJonG

New member
I am trying to clear up an argument with my fiancee' about a cold air intake on my 06 GXP. She "heard" that if i put a CAI on my car and only the CAI it will do more hurt than good. She said she heard that I have to modify the exhaust and "somthing else" before this part would benefit me in HP and gas mileage. I really want to purchase this but she is saying it is going to have to wait until we have the cash to make sure I am not hurting the car by just putting in a K&N CAI. I appreciate any info on this and hopefully one of us will be informed by any responses.
 


There are only two things I can think of that she might have heard about. First, if you over-oil your K&N when you clean it some of that oil can get on the MAF sensor, and your engine will run a little rough. It's easy to fix with a (at most) $5 can of MAF cleaner. Second, you'll be getting more air into the engine and the air will flow past the MAF differently, so that can cause you to run very slightly richer or leaner, but not in any way unsafe. I've never heard of any issues that MAF cleaner won't fix and most guys see a little better fuel economy. Also, the computer will adjust the fueling over time.
 
Holy crap. This is why women shouldn't work on cars! Lol just kiddin. Now come on, u can NEVER hurt your engine with a cai kit. I mean hell its just an upgraded version of what u already have. Most people report better fuel mileage. I will say that if u wanna see decent seat of the pants difference u might look into some other mods to "complimant" the cai like a dp or headers.
 
there's potential that an intake could be worse than stock, but that's unlikely because if it was worse how could companies sell it? no doubt, there's more good to be had in a custom intake, but a K&N won't hurt you
 


swiss chesse or cut a larger opening in the stock airbox at the fender to get better breathing out of it.

you could even cut out the middle of the box and put a cone filter in there. improving flow would net you a nice gain.
 
Bio248 said:
most cars with JUST an intake and no tuning behind it will lose gas mileage.
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That is a pretty open and blanket statement....do you have examples to back it up?

Every car I have owned has had a K&N or similar type of intake on it and I have yet to see a loss of gas mileage. Some of them I did just and intake, some I did other things also.

Here are my examples:

1997 Chevy 1500 w/K&N intake and custom exhaust - improved mileage

1985 Nissan 300ZX turbo w/"custom intake" and K&N filter and waaayy overboosted - about the same depending on where my foot was.

2000 Nissan Maxima - K&N intake - a little better

2001 Chevy Duramax - Full Banks kit (dynoed at 520HP and 735Lbft) had some intake tuning and exhaust - a lot better gas mileage, if I drove it like a normal human being and wasn't blowing rice off the road.

2003 Nissan 350Z - K&N intake, SSV intake manifold and full exhaust - better gas mileage

2006 VW Jetta GLI - Lots of mods 32MPG when not pushing it hard.

2006 GXP - K&N intake - looking to be about 2-3 better, but the jury is still out for now...had a bit of snow and I want to make sure my driving habits are not effecting the results.

With all this being said, I did have a friend of mine that bought an intake for a Mustang and he stated that he lost gas mileage. I think that it was a Ford Racing intake, but I cannot be sure. While I am sure that it is possible to lose gas mileage, in my expierence it has pretty much always been the opposite. A well designed intake should enhance the performance and efficiency of an engine.
 
when i had a cone filter on the end of the stock tubing and it hung down near the cross over, i did lose some milage. the car felt real bogish and well there is a simple explination for this. the IAT's were crazy hot because of the crossover so it started to pull timing. pulled timing left me with less power thus the car feeling boggy, plus i dont think it really liked all the heat. (this was also done on my N/A 3.8)

thats why i recemend just moding the stock air box, its cheap, its still in the box so you dont have to worry about an open cone heat soaking from the heat in the engine bay and it can pass you over till you get an intake, or hell it might even be better than one you buy.
 
I put an intake on my car. I got better gas mileage. It didn't hurt my car 1%.

Since new pipe and a filter really don't "Function" but rather just serve a purpose, I don't see how they can hurt a car. The engine is what's sucking the air it needs, it just passes through filter as it would the stock filter. I don't know, I never heard of it hurting an engine.
 


if you have a poorly designed intake that sucks in alot of the hot engine bay air (which can be more than 140*) it will be a disadvantage. sometimes diffrent intake set ups will change things alot from stock and the car will be slower till you get a maf tune to acomidate for it.

there is alot of factors here.
 
It is a win lose situation. You get more MPG's when your not in it normal driving IMO, but when you've got your foot into it...since there is more air the PCM commands more fuel and thus worse mileage then stock...if you want to go fast and get good MPG's...buy a Honda and boost the f**k out of it.
 
ZR1Vette09 said:
here's an example for ya, i've dropped a full 1.5-2 mpg with just an intake.
Click to expand...

Sure you weren't just trying out the new intake? :D

Apparently cold air = more fuel for the incoming air because its denser. Its common sense really.

More air and more dense air = more fuel. Less air and less dense air (hot air) = less fuel.
 
well i wouldent really say colder denser air. the only way i could see it being cold are is if the intake were outside of the car to get away from the engine heat, but then what if its hot outside??

increased airflow. yea, but i wouldent nececerly say colder air.
 


When I swapped the LS6 intake on I had to change the angle of the elbow slightly. That in turn changed how the air was flowing past the MAF, and it started to read incorrectly (it was about 5% off). The LTFTs (Long Term Fuel Trims) were correcting by 8-10%, so it was really rich. It cost me about 2mpg and the pedal felt like there was a bigger spring under it (I have drive by wire) until I had the MAF curve retuned. A CAI can do the same thing. But when tuned, you should get better mileage unless you have a bad setup and end up with a Hot Air Intake, as was pointed out above. The out of the box K&Ns usually don't mess with the MAF reading too much, but I've heard a few tuners report having to lean things out after a CAI was installed.
 
nmp0098 said:
When I swapped the LS6 intake on I had to change the angle of the elbow slightly. That in turn changed how the air was flowing past the MAF, and it started to read incorrectly (it was about 5% off). The LTFTs (Long Term Fuel Trims) were correcting by 8-10%, so it was really rich. It cost me about 2mpg and the pedal felt like there was a bigger spring under it (I have drive by wire) until I had the MAF curve retuned. A CAI can do the same thing. But when tuned, you should get better mileage unless you have a bad setup and end up with a Hot Air Intake, as was pointed out above. The out of the box K&Ns usually don't mess with the MAF reading too much, but I've heard a few tuners report having to lean things out after a CAI was installed.
Click to expand...


this.
 
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