Cold Air Intake Benefits?

[Bonanza]

CAI work great for letting more dust and debris into the engine. Projectfarm did a good video on that if I recall, the K&N let in a ton of fine dust. If you street your Jeep and want the sound, it'll probably be fine. But for the dusty, sandy stuff out here in SoCal... absolutely not.

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[Rozik169]

Get the banks ram air.

 

[Jeepin' John]

CAI work great for letting more dust and debris into the engine. Projectfarm did a good video on that if I recall, the K&N let in a ton of fine dust. If you street your Jeep and want the sound, it'll probably be fine. But for the dusty, sandy stuff out here in SoCal... absolutely not.

That's one of the nice parts about the mopar intake. You can run the mopar filter, a k&n filter, an afe filter of their three flavors, or the oem filter, depending on where you'll be - on the street or on the trail.

I'm running a k&n on the street here in NC and have the mopar filter for the trail (uwharrie access roads can get dusty). But that's one of the big reasons i picked the mopar intake. It's easily adjustable for flow vs filtration

 

[Courtsm3]

CAI work great for letting more dust and debris into the engine. Projectfarm did a good video on that if I recall, the K&N let in a ton of fine dust. If you street your Jeep and want the sound, it'll probably be fine. But for the dusty, sandy stuff out here in SoCal... absolutely not.

CAI work great for letting more dust and debris into the engine. Projectfarm did a good video on that if I recall, the K&N let in a ton of fine dust. If you street your Jeep and want the sound, it'll probably be fine. But for the dusty, sandy stuff out here in SoCal... absolutely not.

That was proven to be a flawed test. Milled flour dust is considerably smaller than sand dust or tailings. Yes the paper trapped more flour but it was not a realistic scenario. I personally run the afe dry filter but never had any perceived issues with my K&Ns in years past.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Go ahead and run your K&N.
Several years ago I spoke about filters with a Mercedes master tech in the Germantown area (near DC)
He won't use them, and mentioned some testing that was done on air and oil filters, and I've since found other resources that do more than just drop flour dust into the air intake................

https://www.project200.com.au/dm-iso5011/

The K&N is definitely the least restrictive of any filter - new, right out of the box, but it loads up must faster and becomes crazy restrictive very fast. This means you'd have to service is constantly to stay ahead of the others.
So it's less restrictive for a very short time and then becomes the most restrictive real fast.

If I can find it again, I have another test link where they had another filter upstream to show how much each filter let through. Not talking flour dust or anything like that, it was real dust like you find in the air normally - with the K&N the second filter had a noticeably darker color indicating it had let through more dust.
It's a more informal version of the testing done in the link above using multiple stages of filtering.

There's another test or two out there showing the HP gains on vehicles and the dyno testing shows there's no gain with the K&N until the engines reaches 3,000 RPM (then it's something like 3hp or so)
That makes sense - the stock filters are designed to handle engine RPMs up to and above redline.
So those claiming huge GP gains by swapping to the K&N filters must drive their rigs with the engine singing away over 3,000 RPM all day long as there's no gain, proven on dyno, at lower RPM.

the entire intake, that's a different animal because there size, shape, baffles, etc. matter. The factory has to balance vibrations and noise and so on with performance.

But taking the filter only into account, the element you replace - save your money (and your engine, IMO).
If I were ever to change the thing to a cold air intake, I'd run a stock type filter, NOT a K&N after all that I've seen over the years.

I LOVE the WAAAAAHHHH my 4.0 makes when I nail it with the air box I put on it (with the opening facing the headlight area to let cold air blow directly into the air box)

 

[Jeepin' John]

I've recently switched out my k&n for the mopar filter in the mopar intake. No issues with the k&n, just wanted to check out the dry filter. I'm getting similarly great mileage with both, so i think i'll just keep the mopar dry filter in there

 

[Jaxmax]

I also am running the Mopar dry filter that came with the CAI, I do like the sound , and "think" it makes a difference on high end, I like the cleaned up area with resonators gone, noise is very minimal. Like the Mopar over most of the others still draws air from outside at fender, still utilizes the air port in grill, and as said the filter size is same as factory. Liked it enough, got one here new unused for wife's JL.
Yup perhaps worthless, but makes me happy, like got red line tuning struts, no improvement in power, like removing the five or ten pound engine decorative piece with all the sensitive electronics underneath, nope just two vacum hoses.......Happy Jack

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I also am running the Mopar dry filter that came with the CAI, I do like the sound , and "think" it makes a difference on high end, I like the cleaned up area with resonators gone, noise is very minimal.

Was wondering that - how MUCH difference in sound is there........... just curious, that's all.

 

[Jaxmax]

Not really that much difference, the filter box is basically enclosed the same as original, just is bigger has no baffles, there is a nice sound but nothing annoying like an exhaust, and I ASSUME some of the other CAI with the filters exposed under the hood would be louder. The intaake is perhaps twice the size as orginal, and I would do it even if putting the orginal factory filter in, but liked the way the Mopar filter was deeper more surface area. I can't say I'm getting better gas mileage because I put it on at about 4,000 mles and gas mileage was going up almost every week, I'm running 18-18.5 around home in a hilly area seeing 5 MPG up the hills and 99 downhill, I don't do too many highway trips last one was 22-23 mpg.
Like I said I'm happy with the way engine bay is opened up, the sound, seat of pants feeling, and no matter how, but the mileage is five miles per gallon better then my Suburban got.

 

[Jaxmax]

I really don't understand the whole learning thing with the engine, but I look at the intake , like I do Quarry discharge water piping, larger pipe gives less head per foot, much better performance, sort of like milkshakes when they give you the oversized straws, much easier intake , less work! Everyone says the 3.6 engine sucks, well mine sucks less, Haha!.....Jack

 

[dcmdon]

Any benefits of a CAI or filter change are so minisculely (is that a word) incremental that its not worth even thinking about.

Pure PURE snake oil.

 

[dcmdon]

Looking at a High Alt online that has a factory installed CAI. What benefit does that provide, if any? I could see it maybe on a Mustang GT but a Gladiator? Thanks

The benefit it provides is huge. The dealer gets another few hundred gross profit on the vehicle.

 

[dcmdon]

I really don't understand the whole learning thing with the engine, but I look at the intake , like I do Quarry discharge water piping, larger pipe gives less head per foot, much better performance, sort of like milkshakes when they give you the oversized straws, much easier intake , less work! Everyone says the 3.6 engine sucks, well mine sucks less, Haha!.....Jack

Other than at full throttle, your engine is throttled by the . . . the throttle. There is quite literally a plate blocking most of the intake manifold. This is how engine power is controlled.

So the only time the CAI even makes a difference in a most minuscule way is when you are at wide open throttle. (WOT). At WOT a CAI might allow a slightly higher manifold absolute pressure (MAP) which would allow a bit more power.

In all other circumstances, its absolutely irrelevant.

So tell me. When was the last time you were at redline at full throttle? Because that's the only use case where it makes a difference. And even then, maybe 1 or 2%.

 

[Jaxmax]

Never redline, last time i was close was pulling the 5500lb. Whaler up a grade, still was under 5,000 and could pull more, but long, long hill. I know you have much more experiance with engines then I do, I think I've been pretty clear, cleaned up trhe engine bay, has a nice sound are the two proven things, my seat of pants when flooring it up to eighty is just that my feeling that it is better, cause it sounds good and I spent all that money. I know I've done all the wrong things... CAI, taking off engineered decorative engine cover, but I have never told someone that it makes even two percent improvement that you just did, they sound good and makes you think your going faster, good enough for me!
Guess I'm ducking outta this thread.....Jack

 

[Iamstubb]

I use a CAI on my old '12 3.6L Charger. I bought it for the looks and sound. But, after 250k miles on that car I realized that it paid for itself due to the washable filter. I clean it every 20k as recommended. If I changed it, at $15-$20 per filter, I'd have spent more than the $350.00 it cost me in the first place. So, looks, sound, and savings would be the reasons to add one. I also did used oil analysis on that car and it always showed lower than average silicone in the oil, which is a sign of low dirt intrusion, so the filter is effective as well. Lots of highway driving up and down the central valley in CA so there is plenty of dust in the air.

Edit: Bad math-I have saved about $250.00 on filters. So the setup cost me about $100. At least based on the 2012 cost of the CAI. Still, a cool CAI for $100 ain't bad.

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