What kind of gains will a cold air kit give a stock engine?I would like to get a comparison between a stock style k/n and a cai kit.bottom line is i want to know if its worth the money.

 

I'd say most guys claim about 10HP with a filter kit alone. More importantly, it opens up the door for more boost and airflow in the future. The stock airbox seems to become a restriction once you add a pulley or ported blower.

It was worth it alone for me to hear the blower whine increase by probably 100%.

 

theres been ALOT of research on this, if you do a search you can find some posts of guys who have datalogged everything associated with this.

Some say youll get 10hp, 10tq, or even 1-2 psi of extra boost...

either way its definately worth the money, i would suggest getting a fas air/ram air kit along with the cold air kit...if not its just a hot engine air kit

 

I have never seen a documented gain with any aftermarket filter on a stock engine. To the contrary, I have seen reliable data showing a loss of power. Think about it -- why would Ford choke off its (then-) highest-power engine with a poor air filter with no fuel economy or reliability payoff?

Most of these filter kits are not "cold" at all -- unlike the factory intake, they just suck in hot engine compartment air. But, as has been discussed here, a fair comparison is difficult to simulate on a dyno. On the road, there would be air swirling around in the engine compartment.

I got about 1-1.5 pounds of increased indicated boost with the JLP filter. But don't think for one minute that this is real boost. If so, it would provide a noticeable power increase, which it did not.

On a stock engine, don't buy an air filter kit for power -- buy it for the cool blower whine.

Now, once you start putting down north of 400 rwHP, the filter can become a bottleneck. At 500 rwHP, one well-documented test found the filter to be causing vacuum in the intake tract.

 

I agree with everything you stated, especially the first 3. The last I'm still not sure if it true. I am running upwards of 425 hp at 15# of boost on a non-ram air, modded stock airbox. I just put an enclosed aftermarket CAI in, lost 1-1.5# of boost and noticed ZERO seat of the pants difference. Maybe I'll test both at the track shortly...

 

How do you expect anyone to sell CAI kits with comments like this

 

Tim is correct.. I saw no noticeable gain, only noise, which is kool

PEacE.............
Jim

 

I have been running the wire tie setup for well over a year (bottom of stock box and wire tie k&n to the top). I ran consistent low 8's (a best of 8.12) in the 1\8th last season.

I tend to agree with Tim S. also and usahooters has been saying this for years and proving it at the track.

However, I finally broke down and got the J\L air setup last week. The other setup was looking a littel rough. I also had the blower ported and I'm anticipating my H\P to get into the 400+ range.

I will say this. The J\L air setup is first rate. Very nice and very solid. A nice bling and hopefully louder whine. It's not installed yet and wont be untill I get a run with the ported blower. I'm keeping everything just like it was last season so the only difference will be the ported blower.

-0light1

 

When I was bone stock I did a at the track comparison of the stock intake to a K&N panel w/holes in the box bott.

I gained a solid 1psi, 1/10th, and 1.5 mph with multiple runs in each configuration.

My conclusion is that yes it did give improvement on a stock truck and I'd *guess* even more so on a modded one.

Rich

 

I want to agree with you on this. On my 99 I ran a PSP filter set-up. I did not care for the noise. On the 03 I'm still running the stock box with K & N with two 2.5" hoses bringing in cool air from opening in the bumper. I was at 407 H/P before the porting of the supercharger. I bet I'm around 440 H/P now. As I reported in an earlier post, K & N said I would need double the airflow than the K & N that fits the stock box will flow. He did not say anything other than that to have no restriction (or at least as little as any filter would cause) I would need a filter twice the stock size. He got that from motor size, RPM and boost. He did not say how much this would hurt performance! At some point the stock size filter has got to hurt performance..........I don't know that point but just to be safe I bought a used Fast Air from the classifieds. After I do my testing it may be back on the market!


Jerry