Best performing cold air intake?

[shiner61]

Why do these guys never post their actual performance gains? Any thoughts on who makes the best intake for the 3.0 dsl?

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[Terpsmandan]

Because there aren't any?

 

[GATORB8]

There may be some differences with the diesel, and my experience was with gas turbos (BMWs), so take this with a grain of salt. Basically the only real performance gains were by minimizing the intake run to the turbo and sticking an open filter on it. Cold air doesn't matter, you are superheating it with the turbo anyway, only restriction did.

Obviously sticking a straw on the turbo is a bad idea if you're ever going to risk mainlining water.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

The only gains I get with my CAI is sound.

 

[C.Sco]

Cold air intakes are largely useless. Most of the time they actually suck hotter air than the factory intake box does. And those so-called "cleanable" filters are a waste of money - who wants to have to go through the effort of washing and drying and oiling their $150 air filter when they can just replace the $10 factory filter in 2 minutes, like 15 times, for the same cost.

And like Gatorb8 mentions above, in a turbocharged vehicle the intake temperature is irrelevant anyways because no matter what temp the air at the filter is at, it gets heated to like 300 degrees anyways as soon as it goes through the turbo. If you want colder air going into your engine in a turbo vehicle the only solution is intercooler upgrades.

In normally-aspirated vehicles there's potential for a marginal performance increase when you make the intake pipe routing less restrictive, but in turbocharged vehicles the boost pressure is regulated so even if you increase airflow, all it means is the turbo works less hard to achieve the same boost, but the net boost at the intake manifold is the same regardless because the wastegate is just purging any extra pressure you gained.

 

[grimmjeeper]

Cold air intakes are largely useless. Most of the time they actually suck hotter air than the factory intake box does. And those so-called "cleanable" filters are a waste of money - who wants to have to go through the effort of washing and drying and oiling their $150 air filter when they can just replace the $10 factory filter in 2 minutes, like 15 times, for the same cost.

Not only that but those washable filters actually let in fine dust that the paper filters catch. And that dust isn't good for the engine. Granted, it's not going to kill the engine super fast but you may have problems at 250K miles that wouldn't show up until 300K or more using paper filters.

 

[ALeeL]

I have had aftermarket intakes on many of my vehicles which have mostly been diesel. The longest I ran an intake on one of my diesels was over 350k miles on my old 03 Cummins that I sold at 375k. I generally keep cars for a lllooooonnngg time and never had issues on excessive oil consumption or too much silicon or dirt in my oil analysis.

Where the intakes have helped the most is sustained power. I was able to sustain higher power levels for longer periods of time without my EGT's getting to high after installing most performance intakes. This helped out a lot when pulling long grades while towing by allowing me to keep my foot into it all the way up the hill without the need to back off to a slower speed or lower power levels because EGT's would get too high with the stock intake.

One thing about EGT's is that they are largely affected by intake temps and volume/mass of air going into the engine Even though the air gets hot after the turbo, it gets cooled again by the intercooler. The higher the temps going into the turbo, the harder the intercooler has to work to try and cool them which in turn increases EGT's. One degree difference in air going in is multiplied in the temp of the air going out.

Same goes for the volume/mass of air. The more air going in and out of the the engines, the cooler the EGT's will be. If there is restriction in the process or there is not enough air moving through the system to keep up with the combustion temps, then EGT's while rise quickly.

Another area where I noticed a difference is more power at lower rpms both on dyno and on the street. Peak power don't really change that much from what I have seen, but power under the curve will generally increase especially with a diesel that does not have a throttle like gasoline engine do. Unlike gasoline engine that are regulated by air, diesels are regulated by fuel and just use any available are to burn the fuel and make more power and run more efficiently.

Some vehicles, like my BMW diesel, the performance intake didn't make a difference. These vehicles already had a pretty good intake in them from the factory. I can't say the same about the stock intake filter on my Jeep. It is way smaller than even the stock filter on my 2.0L BMW diesel that made almost 100 less hp stock. That thing is tiny when you set them side by side.

I fully understand that not everyone likes performance intakes, but I have had good experience with them and have seen their advantages versus a restrictive factory unit both on the dyno and in the real world.

 

[ChuckQue]

I have had aftermarket intakes on many of my vehicles which have mostly been diesel. The longest I ran an intake on one of my diesels was over 350k miles on my old 03 Cummins that I sold at 375k. I generally keep cars for a lllooooonnngg time and never had issues on excessive oil consumption or too much silicon or dirt in my oil analysis.

Where the intakes have helped the most is sustained power. I was able to sustain higher power levels for longer periods of time without my EGT's getting to high after installing most performance intakes. This helped out a lot when pulling long grades while towing by allowing me to keep my foot into it all the way up the hill without the need to back off to a slower speed or lower power levels because EGT's would get too high with the stock intake.

One thing about EGT's is that they are largely affected by intake temps and volume/mass of air going into the engine Even though the air gets hot after the turbo, it gets cooled again by the intercooler. The higher the temps going into the turbo, the harder the intercooler has to work to try and cool them which in turn increases EGT's. One degree difference in air going in is multiplied in the temp of the air going out.

Same goes for the volume/mass of air. The more air going in and out of the the engines, the cooler the EGT's will be. If there is restriction in the process or there is not enough air moving through the system to keep up with the combustion temps, then EGT's while rise quickly.

Another area where I noticed a difference is more power at lower rpms both on dyno and on the street. Peak power don't really change that much from what I have seen, but power under the curve will generally increase especially with a diesel that does not have a throttle like gasoline engine do. Unlike gasoline engine that are regulated by air, diesels are regulated by fuel and just use any available are to burn the fuel and make more power and run more efficiently.

Some vehicles, like my BMW diesel, the performance intake didn't make a difference. These vehicles already had a pretty good intake in them from the factory. I can't say the same about the stock intake filter on my Jeep. It is way smaller than even the stock filter on my 2.0L BMW diesel that made almost 100 less hp stock. That thing is tiny when you set them side by side.

I fully understand that not everyone likes performance intakes, but I have had good experience with them and have seen their advantages versus a restrictive factory unit both on the dyno and in the real world.

This is the correct answer. The performance gained isn’t what most folks think of when referring to a CAI. As also stated by others is the risk of lesser filtration. The only CAI I’ve seen that claims better than OEM filtration is AFE. I also wouldn’t run an oiled filter on this engine.

 

[Terrymo]

 

[AC77]

an open filter , like K&N and others , make a nice difference in overall air flow, of course if its site behind the radiator or where there is hot air coming in, then it doesn't make much of a difference
and specially if its a focused air channeling through to the large air intake/filter, like an enclosure or snorkel , the aFE intake is a nice and one can do more research and keep the hot air away by using heat wraps around the air box and the pipes , its excellent on turbo applications , and not much on NA's

 

[PatriotX]

Anyone with CAI wish to post up their oil analysis reports? I am genuinely curious.

 

[ALeeL]

Call me crazy, but think it is a bit ironic that many are concerned that carbon dirt going through aftermarket air filters when this carbon is going into your engine after the air filter.

 

[Bill_BCNtoNY]

Call me crazy, but think it is a bit ironic that many are concerned that carbon dirt going through aftermarket air filters when this carbon is going into your engine after the air filter.

What is this?! is that from a JL diesel?!

 

[ALeeL]

Anyone with CAI wish to post up their oil analysis reports? I am genuinely curious.

It will be a while for me to do this since I just had the oil changed and I put very few miles on it, but I will if I remember.

Although, it is not the CAI that may cause more dirt, it is the filter and driving conditions. Not all filters are the same between brands just like where everyone drives is the same. For example, AFE has several types of filters. The 5R, Pro guard 7, dry S and now a 10R. They recommend the pro-guard 7 for diesels in dusty conditions and the 5R and 10R for mainly on highway conditions. Other intake manufactures may have different filters and recommendations as well.

I have a Pro-Guard 7 on my truck and Jeep since both see a lot of dusty roads at the farm and deer lease. Others may use the 5R or 10R because their car doesn't see that much dust. Even if you had a factory filter, you will likely see more dust(silicon) in my UOA than one who hardly ever drives on dusty roads.

 

[ALeeL]

What is this?! is that from a JL diesel?!

That is the EGR pipe that introduces dirty exhaust gas filled with soot and carbon back into the intake system. The Gen 3 in the jeeps has two EGR systems, a low pressure and high pressure. The high pressure pulls in dirty pre-DPF exhaust and the low pressure pulls in cleaner pre-DPF exhaust. Your diesel uses them interchangeably depending on conditions.

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