cold air intake increase performance?

[oz16us]

my mechanic said if I installed a $40 cold air intake, it would make my sport trac perform better. Anyone have any experience with these?

I did some research on youtube and i came across this. What are your thoughts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi2yo4UqPI

 

[OffTrac]

The stock air box is a cold air intake. Save your money unless you want the sound effects.

 

[oz16us]

thanks

 

[mustang6878]

I may be old school, but if you want it to perform better, let the engine breath better. Save your money for bigger injectors, a bigger camshaft, better heads and a free-er flowing exhaust ( meaning headers and a cat- back big bore exhaust)

Look here for cams & heads... http://www.supersixmotorsports.com/

 

[01DeepBlue]

The stock air box is a cold air intake. Save your money unless you want the sound effects.

I agree 100%.
Most "cold" air intakes do nothing or actually hurt performance anyway. Only some limited applications benefit and only from certain intake kits. I've seen dyno videos that compared stock vs aftermarket and saw a decrease in performance with a CAI. Having said that I've also seen dyno videos that supposedly increase performance but these are also usually on newer high RPM/high revving engines.
You will not benefit in your application since most or all of your driving is done at the low to mid RPM range. It's a truck, not a Mustang. Also, many CAI kits are poorly designed and/or pull in air from the engine compartment with a "shield". They are gimmicks. Even the ones that replace your stock air tube and use the same inlet location as the stock airbox(most times in the fender) usually do nothing at all. It's a waste of money.
Use that money on a computer programmer(tuner) to squeeze out a few more HP. A CAI will cost around $150-$500(for most cars) give or take and a tuner will cost about $325. The tuner will let you realize actual power gains and even if it is only 5 HP it's more than the CAI will give you(or take away).
Or do what mustang6878 said and buy some fuel, air, and exhaust parts and that will help make some power at higher RPMs on your 4.0L in the right combinations. You will need a tuner after doing any of that however.
Take note that the 4.0L isn't by any means a performance oriented engine and none of it's previous incarnations ever were either(other than maybe the European Cosworth). Any power that you will make on this 1960's era v6 engine(when it was first designed) will tend to be very minor unless you go all out and do the aftermarket or modified heads and full header exhaust with bigger cams. Even then any power increase will only come on at higher RPMs that you typically won't ever use and your low and midrange power will suffer. This will lead to a truck that gets atrocious MPG(not good to begin with) and is not streetable anymore for regular driving.

 

[JohnnyO]

The stock air box is a cold air intake. Save your money unless you want the sound effects.

Most aftermarket cold air intakes are really hot air intakes. Yank out the silencer and drop $60 on a K&N replacement filter and that's as good or better than anything else. Also it won't make much difference. I know this. :roll:

 

[marked man]

Cold Air Intakes and the similar stuff are not created equal.

While cooler air is denser and gives more power, engine efficiency is really what intake improvements are about.

The engine is a pump and is hurt by pumping losses. Air pressure and air flow are lossy.
As the atmoshere tries to rush into the void created by your intake manifold due to engine cycle it sees resistance. Filters, turns, resonators, bumps and turns. These resistances reduce pump efficiency.

The suggesting that CAI is needed is more about removing resistance than adding cooler air. So the suggestion should really be, freer flowing intake.

An air filter that has minimal air resistance, an air tube that is smooth and a removal of all bumps to get rid of turbulence will improve power efficiency.
The problem is that doing this but adding air temperature via poor intake isolation nets you little improvement.

Most intakes from the factory are designed to use helmholz chambers as ways to reduce noise and worry about packaging under hood more than anything.

Large filters on large MAF with a subtle reduction in size as you approach the throttle will improve throttle air response and high rpm flows.
Done right with air temps kept in mind you will always see improvements, the more modern the car the lower the payback due to fine engineering, but do not be fooled by naysayers.

The optimal distance between the MAF and the TB is just over a foot. This leads to NOISE. But open up the exhaust and you will hear even more noise. REason. The pump has overlap in its intake and exhaust cycles and you can hear it.

Summary, Cold Air intakes do help. But they must be done correctly which most kits can do. Heat shields, proper tubing and internal geometry will help.
But don't think your truck will jump ahead of all teh Stangs now. CAI is a small part of a package you must optimize for the full potential of your engine.

 

[OffTrac]

Considering he mentioned a $40 intake on a 4.0L pushing a 3 ton truck, that discussion hardly applies.

 

[marked man]

The discussion was to point out that nothing is as easy as a CAI to improve performance.

He asked for opinions and that's mine.

 

[OffTrac]

Oh, I agree and reading my post now I can see that it could be read in a tone I didn't intend. Getting significant results in these trucks would definitely require more than it's worth.

 

[01DeepBlue]

The discussion was to point out that nothing is as easy as a CAI to improve performance.

He asked for opinions and that's mine.

Unfortunately unless you can provide a link to a dyno video that shows an actual gain in HP or torque on a 4.0L in a Sport Trac than it's all hypothetical. Like I said before many older applications like ours show decreases or NO gains whatsoever on the dyno when comparing a stock intake with a K&N filter to an aftermarket CAI. There are videos you can view on Youtube and car and truck websites that demonstrate this. There are no absolutes when talking about airflow in or out of an engine. There are many, many variables that can alter whatever you think may be a result of any mod.
CAI kits in general are gimmicks and are a waste of money that's better spent elsewhere. Unless you have a newer engineered engine or a high RPM offroad or track vehicle than it's not worth considering. A simple K&N in the stock airbox will be ideal for most applications.

 

[marked man]

Dyno is a poor measure of the real world. Track testing is the only thing I've trusted. Vehicle dynamics cannot be accounted for in a static dyno setup. specifically, airflow in and around your vehicle.
I've proven it on other vehicles for myself and I'm talking hundreds of passes, not some random day at the track.
Caveat, doing it leads to more mods and desire for more.
For this specific application you could be right, even forgetting to change oil can rob you if the gain is very small. Tire pressure alone can eat 10 hp on a heavy vehicle during acceleration and cruise.
So is it worth it? Gear heads my say yes. But the average commuter who's looking for magic bullets, not so much.

 

[ncyrider]

I recently put in a K&N filter, removed the air box vent tube, and cleaned the MAF at the same time and the engine responds better. There is definitely more intake sound.
I agree that a cold air intake kit wont help a stock ST engine.

 

[01DeepBlue]

Dyno is a poor measure of the real world. Track testing is the only thing I've trusted. Vehicle dynamics cannot be accounted for in a static dyno setup. specifically, airflow in and around your vehicle.
I've proven it on other vehicles for myself and I'm talking hundreds of passes, not some random day at the track.
Caveat, doing it leads to more mods and desire for more.
For this specific application you could be right, even forgetting to change oil can rob you if the gain is very small. Tire pressure alone can eat 10 hp on a heavy vehicle during acceleration and cruise.
So is it worth it? Gear heads my say yes. But the average commuter who's looking for magic bullets, not so much.

Just because something sounds like it should or advertises that it makes more power definitely doesn't make it so. You can buy a magical fuel line magnet that makes 5% more HP and saves you 10% MPG if you think that. They said so on those TV commercials after all.
Dyno comparison tests on the same machine, on the same vehicle, on the same day, under the same conditions with the only difference being two different parts will show you EXACTLY which one part makes more power without making any other mod to a vehicle and will give you as absolute definitive specific results as you can ever hope to get. That's why engine builders, parts manufacturers, and car makers all use dynos: to get exacting results. Unless conditions, equipment, or parts change then you have indisputable proof of test results on a dyno since it is a static unchanged environment from test to test.
Tire pressure, resistance or friction from engine oil, airflow, etc, would all be the same on the dyno since none of that changes when testing different parts unless you consciously change it which of course would nullify the validity of any comparison test.
At the drag strip any change in humidity, drag strip conditions, temperature, and how quick you get on the gas after the light changes will all make a change in the test process which makes comparison testing engine parts much less reliable on the track.
Dyno comparison tests help make sure all variables are the same when testing each part and gives you much more control over the conditions and environment and gives you much more consistency than track runs do. Track testing always has it's usefulness to show how a whole package actually performs hooking up, launching out of the hole, etc but when testing engine parts to see which one part makes more power than the other it's pretty simple to realize that a dyno is the most precise method.
We're not talking about testing different tires or seeing which axle ratio gives the best times here. We're talking about which engine part makes more power than the other when changing them out.

 

[marked man]

I will agree that dyno testing has a huge place in testing things.

But unless you put the dyno in a wind tunnel and keep the hood closed while you accelerate the airflow the intake air dynamics cannot be representative of real world. All you are testing in a static test stand are flow changes of the tube, nothing to do with the "cool air" effect.

Also, it costs me 20 bucks to test all day at the track, but the dyno starts at $250/hr without any tuning.

Too bad there isnt a good computer model to do this for us but meantime we have to do what we can to prove it works.
Thanks for keeping me honest!
r