Dodge Nitro Forum banner
161 - 167 of 167 Posts
Dodge Nitro straight pipe interior sound

 
Cold Air Intakes: Everything You Need to Know

Cold Air Intakes: Everything You Need to Know

Aug 09, 2018




A cold air intake is often one of the first modifications many owners make to their car or truck.

While the performance gains provided by a cold air intake are minimal, it’s an inexpensive and easy way to make your vehicle a little bit more fun to drive. Stock air intake systems typically feature a number of bends and kinks that are designed to ensure the intake noise isn’t too loud. By comparison, cold air intakes feature a straightened intake pipe with a wider diameter, allowing more air to make its way into your engine’s combustion chamber. Aftermarket intake kits also move the air filter close to the edge of the engine bay, usually near a wheel well where there is more air flow, further increasing the amount of air that reaches the engine. This increased airflow can help your engine make a bit more power and can also sharpen throttle response. Additionally, intake noise can also increase, giving your car a burbly intake noise that compliments the exhaust sound.

Injen





Founded in 1991, American air intake specialist Injen makes a large variety of cold air intakes and ram air intakes for different models.

In addition to making a high-quality product, Injen also owns a patent to something it calls MR Technology. Described as the ‘world’s first tuned intake’ uses the mass fuel flow sensor to ensure your engine gets an optimal air mixture. This is present on some of the company’s more expensive products.

Injen also offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty to the buyer against defects in the material and workmanship on all of its intake systems.

There are several very popular name brands making cold air intakes including AEM, Injen and K&N. Because there are so many brands producing these intake systems, it can sometimes be hard and confusing to shop for them. We’re going to go over some of the best brands for cold air intakes so you know where to start with your research and purchasing process. We’ll also go over the differences between cold air intakes and short ram air intakes so you know which type of intake is ideal for your car.



How do Cold Air Intakes Work?


A cold air intake relocates the engine air filter outside of the engine compartment, ensuring that colder air is able to enter the engine. Cold air is denser, so it has more oxygen. More oxygen means you’re able to burn more fuel, giving you more power. The piping of a cold air intake typically has less bends and is a wider diameter as well, increasing the overall airflow into the engine.

Of course, this isn’t true for all cars and all cold air intakes. Some are aftermarket intakes designed better than others and some cars will respond better to such upgrades. Additionally, because you will be changing the air flow into your engine and the air density, you may want to recalibrate your vehicle’s engine computer for optimum results.


What About a Ram Air Intake?



A ram air intake and cold air intake both work to try and increase your vehicle’s horsepower and intake noise, but they go about it in different ways. Whereas a cold air intake will increase the amount of cold air that reaches your engine, along with the overall flow of the air, a ram air simply tries to provide the shortest possible route for the air to travel. This will, in theory, increase power and throttle response.

Ram air style intakes are typically much shorter than cold air intakes. They are also lighter than cold air intakes, although the weight difference between the two is typically very minimal.

Will an Aftermarket Cold Air Intake Increase my Vehicle's Power?



It depends. As we mentioned above, because these systems typically change the temperature, density, and overall flow of the air that reaches your engine, you may need to recalibrate your vehicle’s computer to get the optimal results, or pair the intake with an aftermarket ECU or tuned ECU. Pairing an aftermarket intake with an aftermarket, high-flow exhaust can also produce performance gains in otherwise stock vehicles.

The biggest benefit of many cold air intakes and ram air intakes for regular, road-going production cars with minimal to no modifications is that they make the intake noise a little bit louder and they look pretty cool when your hood is popped. They may sharpen throttle response, so you could possibly feel a slight difference in the way your car accelerates, but again, this will be a fairly small change.

In short, some cold air intakes for certain cars will provide a small increase in horsepower, although the 12-15 hp that most companies usually cite is a bit generous. For a big performance increase, the upgrade is best paired with a retuned or aftermarket computer and a high-flow exhaust.

It should also be noted that some cold air intakes also may make your vehicle’s check engine light go on, as you’ve adjusted the air/fuel mixture in the engine and thrown the stock engine management software off.


Reputable Brands


There are lots of cheap, knock-off cold air intakes out there that we don’t suggest you put on your vehicle – especially if it’s new. If you’re going to purchase aftermarket upgrades for your vehicle, we suggest you stick with a well-known, reputable brand name.

There are a handful of well-known manufacturers of aftermarket cold air intakes that have a better chance of providing you with good intake induction noise and performance gains than a lesser known brand name or a knock-off brand. Here are a few of the best manufacturers around today.

K&N




You’ve probably seen a K&N sticker on someone else’s car while driving in traffic, which is usually a sign that they’ve purchased one of the well-known company’s cold air intakes.

K&N makes cold air intakes for a wide variety of makes and models. They typically use an oil impregnated cotton filter, which is thinner and thus flows a bit better than the thicker, more dense filters many production cars come with. The oil impregnated filter helps to draw dirt out of the filter and ensures it doesn’t get too dirty. Thanks to this design, you’ll have to service a K&N filter less than the stock filter.
 
Spectre Performance



Spectre Performance is another well-known cold air intake manufacturer, also from the United States.

Spectre Performance air intakes can undercut those from other manufacturers in price but are still of good quality and will perform as advertised. The company specializes in cold air and ram air intakes for Chevrolet Small Block engines, but also makes them for Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Toyota, Ford and many others.

Spectre also has many cold air intakes many different trucks including the Dodge Ram, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra.

Spectre also offers a 90-day product warranty on its cold air intake kits. If you’re in the market for a cold air intake, especially if it’s for a V8 vehicle or a truck, Spectre is a reputable brand to consider.

Volant




Volant is a cold air intake company that sticks to making cold air intakes that come with a fully enclosed intake box.

The closed intake box ensures that your air intake doesn’t take in the heat from your engine and actually sucks in cold air.

Volant’s air intakes are high quality with a very sturdy design and thus a bit more expensive than those from K&N or Spectre, for example, but have an attractive look and should ensure more cold air reaches your engine’s combustion chamber.

They make cold air intakes for a large variety of manufacturers, including many for trucks and American cars.


AEM




AEM is a highly reputable manufacturer of vehicle performance parts including but not limited to cold air intakes and ram air intakes.

AEM is also known for its vehicle electronics systems like programmable engine management systems. If you are looking for to truly give your vehicle a performance upgrade, you could pair an AEM cold air intake and properly tuned engine management software together, which should ensure your vehicle performs better and runs well after installing your cold air intake.

The company makes cold air intakes for many different makes and models and also has a dedicated line of intakes for trucks. They also have a dedicated line of products designed for engine swaps for Hondas and Acuras.


AutoGuide.com
 
How to Clean Your K&N Air Filter



Mar 19, 2018
K&N air filter cleaning kits come with a filter cleaner and filter oil, which is designed to clean any K&N oiled cotton air filter, restoring air flow efficiency so that it looks and operates virtually like new again. When the dirt on your filter meets or exceeds the wire mesh, it's time to clean it. Learn how easy it is to service your K&N air filter and visit knfilters.com to find the cleaning products needed for your air filter.
 
Dodge Nitro Thrush Welded Muffler


Oct 6, 2019
 
Dodge\Chrysler 3.7 V6 Custom Exhaust



Dec 20, 2019

2007 Dodge Nitro with a 3.7 liter V6. Thrush Turbo Welded Muffler. Original catalytic converter. No check engine light for 02 sensors.
 
161 - 167 of 167 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top