Installed CAI, not sure I like it yet.

Bayou-AllTerrain · October 14, 2016

Installed an AFE Stage 2 CAI this week. Power is noticeable but damn this thing is loud!! Sounds great at WOT but at part throttle it makes some strange noises. Maybe I'm just too old. LOL

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Silvern Sentry · October 14, 2016

Power is noticeable

There is no such thing as bolt on horsepower any power you notice is a placebo. But do not take my word for it thousands of videos out there about CAI testing.

Bayou-AllTerrain · October 14, 2016

There is no such thing as bolt on horsepower any power you notice is a placebo. But do not take my word for it thousands of videos out there about CAI testing.

LOL. I'll call total BS on that. I've been in the performance and racing industry for 20 years. I've built drag cars front the ground up, chassis, suspension and engines. I've drag raced all over the country and have thousands of passes under my belt, or should I say butt. I promise you my buttometer is calibrated enough to feel 20hp. Thanks for the laugh though. [emoji1303]

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Silvern Sentry · October 14, 2016

LOL. I'll call total BS on that. I've been in the performance and racing industry for 20 years. I've built drag cars front the ground up, chassis, suspension and engines. I've drag raced all over the country and have thousands of passes under my belt, or should I say butt. I promise you my buttometer is calibrated enough to feel 20hp. Thanks for the laugh though. [emoji1303]

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You think you got 20HP from a CAI. Oh man. If you have the experience you say you should know there is no such thing as bolt on HP. Any pro knows this and I am not even a pro. Just smart enough to look into the facts and listen to the pros.

Even Blackbears own testing proved this and the airaid AFE which is NOT a CAI shows the biggest gains. Though those tests are hardly definitive so why not check out all the mythbuster style vids about CAIS that bust them. I mean you are already online not like it is hard to go to YouTube right.

Rawyzf · October 14, 2016

I don't want to get in the middle, but yet I do.

There are gains, no gains, and loses. It all depends.

If you don't tune for the airflow change, you're not getting your bang for for the buck.

Without a tune update, you might gain up top, but most likely lose down low. But they do sound good.

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Bayou-AllTerrain · October 14, 2016

You think you got 20HP from a CAI. Oh man. If you have the experience you say you should know there is no such thing as bolt on HP. Any pro knows this and I am not even a pro. Just smart enough to look into the facts and listen to the pros.

Even Blackbears own testing proved this and the airaid AFE which is NOT a CAI shows the biggest gains. Though those tests are hardly definitive so why not check out all the mythbuster style vids about CAIS that bust them. I mean you are already online not like it is hard to go to YouTube right.

Sorry their buddy I didn't get my expertise from watching youtube and TV. Seems like that's where you're quoting your knowledge from. How funny. Where my knowledge comes from is years and years of dyno and track testing. Have you ever owned your own speed shop and DynoJet dynometer? Well I did for 10 years. Bolt on horsepower is as real and any other horsepower. Freeing up air restrictions in this case absolutely makes horsepower. Is it 12, 15 or 20? Couldn't tell you unless I strapped it down but they make horsepower for sure. Seen it many times FIRST HAND, not on YouTube. If I install any part and it picks up 20hp at the wheels and 2 tenths at the track, I call that proof. I promise you, you are way out of your league here. LOL

As far as this being a true Cold Air, no you are right on that. It's just easier to call it a CAI, because that's what everyone else does. To be a true CAI it would need to take in true Cold Air from outside the engine compartment. What this, and most all other systems do, is free up restrictions by eliminating the factory air box, tube, silencer and use larger freer flowing filters.

I can bolt a supercharger on right? I guess those are placebos too??

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Bayou-AllTerrain · October 14, 2016

I don't want to get in the middle, but yet I do.

There are gains, no gains, and loses. It all depends.

If you don't tune for the airflow change, you're not getting your bang for for the buck.

Without a tune update, you might gain up top, but most likely lose down low. But they do sound good.

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You're 100% right there. Besides the restriction gains, I've seen a lot of times using the wide band O2 meter with the dyno, that they tend to lean out the air/fuel ratio. Most factory tunes are set up pretty rich from the factory so this help out as well. Although without custom tuning the computer we'll relearn and richen the mixture back up over time. Even cooling the air intake temps coming over MAF a few degrees will trick the computer into leaning out A/F. On the other hand sucking up hot air from heat soak coming from the engine compartment can do just the opposite, causing power losses.

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Silvern Sentry · October 14, 2016

Sorry their buddy I didn't get my expertise from watching youtube and TV. Seems like that's where you're quoting your knowledge from. How funny. Where my knowledge comes from is years and years of dyno and track testing. Have you ever owned your own speed shop and DynoJet dynometer? Well I did for 10 years. Bolt on horsepower is as real and any other horsepower. Freeing up air restrictions in this case absolutely makes horsepower. Is it 12, 15 or 20? Couldn't tell you unless I strapped it down but they make horsepower for sure. Seen it many times FIRST HAND, not on YouTube. If I install any part and it picks up 20hp at the wheels and 2 tenths at the track, I call that proof. I promise you, you are way out of your league here. LOL

As far as this being a true Cold Air, no you are right on that. It's just easier to call it a CAI, because that's what everyone else does. To be a true CAI it would need to take in true Cold Air from outside the engine compartment. What this, and most all other systems do, is free up restrictions by eliminating the factory air box, tube, silencer and use larger freer flowing filters.

I can bolt a supercharger on right? I guess those are placebos too??

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Super charger is not bolt on, you are altering the system. Unlike a CAI which does not. As you stated opening up the intake is good, however a CAI does not do this what so ever as the stock intake provides more air then the engine can possible suck as it is a vacuum after all as you should know Mr Speedshop. Its simple physics to get any gain you need to deliver more o2 than is in the surrounding air, this can be done by turbo or supercharge both of which compress the air so more o2 per cubic mm or chemically with NOS which is just no2 and has roughly twice the oxygen molecules in a cubic mm than air. It is not rocket science in fact it is more like grade 10 science.

Even saying all of that I would not say I would never ever install a CAI. I would simply do the headers and exhaust first or at same time so I was altering the system not just slapping one piece on and doing nothing about the bottleneck which is the entire throughput.

Bayou-AllTerrain · October 14, 2016

Super charger is not bolt on, you are altering the system. Unlike a CAI which does not. As you stated opening up the intake is good, however a CAI does not do this what so ever as the stock intake provides more air then the engine can possible suck as it is a vacuum after all as you should know Mr Speedshop. Its simple physics to get any gain you need to deliver more o2 than is in the surrounding air, this can be done by turbo or supercharge both of which compress the air so more o2 per cubic mm or chemically with NOS which is just no2 and has roughly twice the oxygen molecules in a cubic mm than air. It is not rocket science in fact it is more like grade 10 science.

I agree with you on the power adders forcing more air in and NO2 injecting more O2 make great power number. I was just sarcastically saying you physically bolt those on. Thanks for the 10 grade physics lesson though.

Gotcha on the vacuum part but anything you do to lower that vacuum by reducing restrictions will make power. Same with exhaust and lowering the back pressure, although this can come with a loss of torque in some cases.

So what you are telling me is that intakes and exhaust mods don't make any real HP? So the dyno and track test lie? Sorry but I live in the real world where proof on paper and track times rule.

Please head on back over to YouTube and blow my mind with more of your knowledge. Oh may I suggest you check out Wikipedia too. If it's on the internet it must be true right?? [emoji33]

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huntr1117 · October 14, 2016

I love threads like this. Everyone has their own opinion and everyone is an expert from reading other people's posts. The OP has real word experience and has seen dyno results from CAI installs. On the other hand Blackbear did testing on several CAIs and the results were minimal if any. Personally I'll get a CAI for mainly being able to wash and reuse the air filter. I've put them on every vehicle I've owned. The sound, looks, and hp gains (primarily from a tune) are worth it to me. Yes these trucks might not get huge gains but some vehicles do. As far as there being no such thing as bolt on hp that's funny. Headers and exhaust are bolt ons and they definitely add hp. Superchargers are considered bolt ons as well.

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TJay74 · October 14, 2016

Bayou, don't bother. The Lemmings in here all buy into what the web, Youtube and what some vendors posted up. The Vette forum was the same way that a CAi wouldn't add any power. I put my 2008 C6 on the dyno with the stock airbox, the Z06 airbox and a Airaid CAI kit. The Z06 setup made 6rwhp more than the stock and the Airaid made another 5rwhp over the Z06 setup.

I did this all same day with in 1 hour of each run and Vette owners said I was lying as well.

I put the Airaid on my 2014 and 2016 6.2 trucks and both times the improvement was noticeable and very apparent. All of the CAI kits have the same issue with part throttle input and the gargle the intake makes. That is what the heimoltz resonator takes care of on the stock setup.

TJay74 · October 14, 2016

Super charger is not bolt on, you are altering the system. Unlike a CAI which does not. As you stated opening up the intake is good, however a CAI does not do this what so ever as the stock intake provides more air then the engine can possible suck as it is a vacuum after all as you should know Mr Speedshop. Its simple physics to get any gain you need to deliver more o2 than is in the surrounding air, this can be done by turbo or supercharge both of which compress the air so more o2 per cubic mm or chemically with NOS which is just no2 and has roughly twice the oxygen molecules in a cubic mm than air. It is not rocket science in fact it is more like grade 10 science.

Even saying all of that I would not say I would never ever install a CAI. I would simply do the headers and exhaust first or at same time so I was altering the system not just slapping one piece on and doing nothing about the bottleneck which is the entire throughput.

Man, every time you post on these forums you say things that make me wonder if you ever made it out of elementary education.

So you are saying if a stock airbox is using a 2" pipe to feed air into the engine that when we swap over to a 3" pipe the engine wont make anymore power because the 2" pipe already provided the engine with plenty of air??? That is so far off base it isn't even funny. There is a lot more to airflow dynamics than just airflow. If that wasn't the case then there would have been no reason ever to port and polish the heads, or use media porting on the intakes to open them up and smooth them out for airflow.

It has been proven many times over, the easier it is for the engine (which is nothing more than a pump) to pump air into the cylinders the more power it will make. The stock filter is restrictive, the openings are small (to meet NVH requirements from the DOT and EPA) and the entire system is dumbed down because end users are notorious for not taking care of their vehicles.

So put a less restrictive filter in the airbox, open up the pick up tube, put a larger intake tube to the throttle body and you will see HP gains as the engine is able to take in more air at a less restrictive rate. You don't even need to re-tune either to counter what someone said, UNLESS you are able to exceed the MAF tables which is not possible on a stock motor with just a CAI and full exhaust. Once you mod the engine (heads ported and polished, cam, pistons) then it is possible to exceed the MAF tables, but still not likely. Exceeding the capabilities of the stock MAF doesn't usually happen until you go F/I on most GM vehicles. When that happens you either re-calibrate the MAF tables or convert the tune over to a Speed Density tune and use just the MAP sensors. Most GM F/I cars (C6 ZR1 or C7 Z06) still use MAF systems so GM does have MAF sensors that can handle F/I setups.

We own a 2016 Audi SQ5, it has a 3.0l supercharged V6 that is rated at 354hp. The stock intake is pretty restrictive, but Audi has to make it for the masses. Luckily Audi uses the same engine setup in a lot of their cars, so we were able to copy the airbox from one of the higher performance models, change out the baffled and muffled stock intake tube to the throttle body with a smooth one and change out the filter. Those mods alone net an additional 1psi of boost from the supercharger while under WOT. Those were gains that were measures by a member using gauges and sensors, those gains also showed up on the dyno and on the road. That 1psi gain is worth around 25rwhp while under boost.

So as Bayou stated and suggested, he is correct. But heck, what does he know since he was only in that industry for 2 decades from what he posted. I am probably an idiot as well, I only went to school to get an engineering degree related towards high voltage distribution and transmission voltage systems. So I doubt I understand the theories or anything at all as well. {insert sarcasm}.

Silvern Sentry · October 14, 2016

Man, every time you post on these forums you say things that make me wonder if you ever made it out of elementary education.

So you are saying if a stock airbox is using a 2" pipe to feed air into the engine that when we swap over to a 3" pipe the engine wont make anymore power because the 2" pipe already provided the engine with plenty of air???

Absolutely because I took high school science and understand how a vacuum works. No more air makes it the the cylinders because the displacement of the pistons only suck in so much. Archemedes Mutha Fuka!

Any noise volume difference you notice is because all you did was go from a closed and flattened airbox to an open one. More sound waves are escaping that is all. Only a fool would think the engine is actually making any more noise inside.

Everything I said was 100% accurate and if you disagree there is a line of about 10,000 people who have already that disproved this that would like to speak with you. Do you really think GM or any manufacturer spends millions on research and just haphazardly decides 'well shit you know what lets leave 10-20 HP on the table and design a shit intake because what the hell right'. Give your head a shake bro.

Now you can kindly piss off and ignore me if you like. Welcome to the internet, the Audi forums are that way ---- >

Jon A · October 14, 2016

Good Lord. Mr. High School Science, please read this chart of a WOT run for the class:

What does your imagined inner Archemedes have to say about that?

Silvern Sentry · October 14, 2016

Good Lord. Mr. High School Science, please read this chart of a WOT run for the class:

What does your imagined inner Archemedes have to say about that?

Means about as much as a picture of Madonnas bewbs with zero context and documentation. Archemedes would call you a fool.

You can dyno all day long they all have a margin of error, its pretty easy to do 100 runs and say hey look at this one I made where the margains are at their greatest apart.