Cold Air Intake hogwash

[azjl#3]

That said, I did replace the bulky stock muffler on my JL with an MBRP straight pipe the second day I owned it. Not for better sound, but only to get some ground clearance and auditory/exhaust feedback in the cab. It's not overkill, but it does allow me to pick shift points much easier. I'm sure it sounds like shit to everyone else, but I don't care. It works for my needs.

I add my 24 3.6 has a pretty nice growl if the back windows are open. Otherwise, I never really noticed an exhaust note in my 18, 23, 15. What changed?

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[CorvZ061]

I did a CAI on my Jeep, catback too for that matter, but I went into the CAI for the Donaldson Powercore filter rather than any gains from the CAI itself. To my surprise there was a noticeable difference. Anyone that’s driven a manual JLUR with stock gearing on 35’s knows that 6th gear is worthless. After the CAI I can actually cruise at 55+ and even slowly accelerate in 6th gear again. I’ll be regearing soon, regardless, but it was a difference.

 

[Dyolfknip74]

I am not too worried what other people do to their own rigs but I am telling you, the Rugged Ridge snorkel in "no snorkel mode" is awesome for not having to fully listen to 1986 Lada diesel engine the 2.0 is at start up.

 

[LSJKU]

I add my 24 3.6 has a pretty nice growl if the back windows are open. Otherwise, I never really noticed an exhaust note in my 18, 23, 15. What changed?

Scott, it didn't really change much with the sound, just made it a bit louder, more noticeable in the cab for me (I couldn't hear a thing with the stock muffler). My hearing is severely degraded from working around Detroit Diesels w/o proper hearing protection early on. Since about 2013 I have not been able to pass a hearing test/work physical w/o the use of a hearing aid in my left ear. My right ear hearing is passable, but not good.

its still a pleasant growl, but I don't have any back-door windows. Really, the exhaust note on a 3.6L Jeep is not formed by the muffler, or even the resonators for that matter. As an experiment, I ran open-pipes from the cat back on my 2018 3.6L. It was a little louder but not at all obnoxious or overwhelming. I put the resonators and muffler back on to be legal, but it was a waste of a $1,000. So when I got the delivery date for my 2025, I pre-ordered a $125 MBRP straight pipe and haven't looked back.

The upside to all this is that no matter what I buy for the Jeep now, and my wife inevitably starts in, I don't hear a thing! (no, she doesn't really do that-she knows its my passion).

 

[LSJKU]

I did a CAI on my Jeep, catback too for that matter, but I went into the CAI for the Donaldson Powercore filter rather than any gains from the CAI itself. To my surprise there was a noticeable difference. Anyone that’s driven a manual JLUR with stock gearing on 35’s knows that 6th gear is worthless. After the CAI I can actually cruise at 55+ and even slowly accelerate in 6th gear again. I’ll be regearing soon, regardless, but it was a difference.

Ahhhh, that right there is my problem: I've never owned a Jeep and driven it long enough on stock gears. 4.88s have been my gears of choice, even for the manual. I run 38s on my 2025 JL 6-spd and have no problems accelerating in 6th gear, even above 70. But I did bitch a lot about losing the effective use of 1st gear with 35s and 4.88s. Most the time I just started off in 2nd gear until I got the 38s. I'm happy to have 1st gear back in a somewhat usable way.

I did run my 2018 for a while with 35s and 4.10 gears, but I never noted slow acceleration. I thought it was passable with 4.10s. Except for the mountain passes.

 

[Traveller128]

The Mishimoto drops a much larger filter area filter into the OEM lower with a new lid that seals the filter at the filter outlet. It's using the OEM inlets. It has a nice, silenced tube for the inlet that mounts at the factory locations but has a better turn into the throttle without the accordion pleated boot that disrupts airflow. Is it worth it? It's a nice filter and good layout, if you can get it on a good sale, I see nothing wrong with it. Could a drop in dry filter work well? If it gives just a bit more flow than stock it will probably pick up those few HP on the top end and you'll be happy.

Much, much more important is the tune. Night and day for overall pleasure of driving and crawling around. The ability to crawl at low RPM in 2nd near idle, then apply a little throttle to smoothly speed up a little, then let off to slow down for more rocks WITHOUT SHIFTING BACK AND FORTH makes a HUGE difference when we're poking around offroad. The resistance to stalling cannot be overemphasized and the ability to poke around like you're driving an old 4.0 is worth it. Not to mention fuel mileage gain.

Spend the money on a tune, drop in a filter, then go run around offroad for a weekend. You will notice a difference. If you have the manual, this is a major improvement. Having been through this process I would do the tune before anything else. Drop in a dry flow filter in the stock box, try that out afterwards.

 

[2nd 392]

The upside of the catback on the JL is clearance rather than engine performance.

Yep- the Switchpath 9Hp peak wasn’t worth $2400 (BF sale, now $3K) without tucking up so well. Gains above ~3680 RPM, with a flat spot around 4800+-.

 

[Ratbert]

Yep- the Switchpath 9Hp peak wasn’t worth $2400 (BF sale, now $3K) without tucking up so well. Gains above ~3680 RPM, with a flat spot around 4800+-.

Come on now. Who here wouldn't shell out $3K for an awe-inspiring 2% gain? 392 owners are loaded, right?

 

[2nd 392]

Come on now. Who here wouldn't shell out $3K for an awe-inspiring 2% gain? 392 owners are loaded, right?

Well, the big ugly can and the tips hanging down can no longer get damaged and no longer set off my OCD. Yeah, loaded, also over $800 for MMX 88 mm TB and ported intake manifold for 14 Hp. …. The $300 TB alone is good for 12 on an otherwise stock engine… with a tune. These types of upgrades require a tune for max increase, but not CARB approved, so it’s not cost effective for invisible to smog check “no tune required” small upgrades without one.

 

[Dusty Dude]

I buy Wix filters cause they are the same as factory except for the Mopar logo. It saves me around $10.

 

[yokramer]

Yep- the Switchpath 9Hp peak wasn’t worth $2400 (BF sale, now $3K) without tucking up so well. Gains above ~3680 RPM, with a flat spot around 4800+-.

Shit those are just run to run variance there is nothing on that chart that I would think the exhaust gained you anything lol

 

[2nd 392]

Shit those are just run to run variance there is nothing on that chart that I would think the exhaust gained you anything lol

I didn’t get it for the small performance gain in higher RPM’s. It was for the fitment, even the tips aren’t below the receiver as adjusted. Sounds better too, at first I missed not having a true quiet mode, it’s about 1/2 way between stock quiet and loud. But I quickly got over it, “quiet” sounds good without being a too loud cop magnet and “loud” only occasionally used…
to annoy Broncos

 

[Christian/AWE]

Shit those are just run to run variance there is nothing on that chart that I would think the exhaust gained you anything lol

When designing a system like this, HP is an added bonus, not the goal. We aim to create a killer soundtrack, improve flow, and bring some added benefits where we can. In this situation, improved clearance over factory was a non-negotiable for our customer base.

We share HP numbers via our dyno sheets for transparency so owners know what to expect following the bolt-on addition of our system.

It would be crazy to think a bolt-on part would make a bunch of power on modern vehicles by itself, but it can add to power gains as a supporting mod to a tune. By providing better flow than factory, it becomes a future proof modification for your build.

 

[Guv]

My old supervisor drag races a 2014 Mustang GT with a NA Coyote. His car ran high 10’s with the stock airbox and filter. A friend of his let him use (I think he was trying to sell it to him) his aftermarket air filter setup (not sure what brand) and the car ran absolutely the same. Boss cams, long tubes turning close to 8,000. Point is, that 5.0 was moving some air.
I honestly think there was a time when some vehicles could see a performance gain with after market air cleaners. K&N style filters though have never given adequate protection for engines.

 

[UrbanCowboyAZ]

Depends on what you mean by make sense. I have 4 vehicles and 3 of them have aftermarket intakes. None of them are because I expect them to eek out any more power than stock. If that’s the goal, then they make no sense, but there are other reasons that they can make sense.

My JL diesel, I put in the S&B intake for sound purposes only. And it sounds amazing (to me; I could see how some might find it to be too much).

On my TJ, I have massive inner fenders to clear 37‘s, so I lost the part of my engine bay where the stock box would sit.

I have a Lotus Evora S and put in an aftermarket intake, once again, specifically for sound. In stock form, you can’t really hear the supercharger at all. Now it screams and compliments the volume of my straight pipe exhaust. The combo sounds nuts.

My only vehicle with stock intake is my daily driver TRX. The supercharger is already loud stock and I wouldn’t want it any louder on my daily thatI take clients in sometimes. Same for the exhaust, but they do sound insane with aftermarket intake and exhaust, just not for my use case.

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