Cold Air Intakes are a waste

[DanW]

You could probably say all the same things about a performance muffler. But that sure doesn’t stop people.

I am certain that my axle back exhaust did not increase power. But it DID increase my enjoyment by magnifying the song this sweet little V6 produces as I go through the gears. AND it holds up to a beating from off-roading far, far better than the stock exhaust. My stock exhaust would have been toast a long time ago on any one of the dozens of big hits the Magnaflow tips have taken. That was a pleasant surprise. It hought it might be a liability in that regard.

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[calipoontappa]

If you want horsepower get a supercharger, gas mileage get a prius. Intakes make little to no difference in either category but it sounds bad ass when you hit the throttle. period. the end. fin.

 

[mazeppa]

I won't run a high flow cotton or cloth air filter. Only high filtering efficiency paper filters for mine. Its an off-road vehicle, so it will serve in dusty areas that will be problematic for these kinds of filters, even overwhelming them.

Totally agree!

 

[Caraholic]

Cold Air Intakes (CAI) deliver acronyms:

* Seat of the pants (SOTP) power increase ("feels more powerful")
* Sounds more powerful (SMP)
* A reduction in your funds (RIF)
* An increased risk of Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor issues = Check Engine Light (CEL)

Putting these things on off road vehicles is likely a worse idea than putting them into on-road vehicles due to water / dirt / dust, etc. And oiling a CAI filter can cause the dreaded CEL.

I learned years ago that CAIs are a waste of funds (WOF)

Acronyms:

I thought RIF was from “reading is fundamental” and maybe associated with the sweet pickles thing???

 

[Gatorac]

Bought my CAI for the sound. Yup. That's it. When I romp on the gas it sounds like that old 4 barrel carb on my 78 Chrysler going up the hill leaving the the high school parking lot. If JT had a V8 in it, I'd have put an exhaust on it instead. I'm confident it adds 0 horsepower. Maybe even -5 HP. Don't care.

Enjoy your Gladiator however you want to.

 

[Gren71]

A friend of mine is one of the Pentastar's original design engineers. He said they don't leave any horsepower on the table when they engineer these things. They want everything they can get in terms of power and efficiency. He said these companies engineering these things don't have even a tiny fraction of the R&D budget the design team had. They got every hp they could get out of that stock intake while making it nice, smooth, and quiet. It is absolutely optimized for this engine and application.

I believe CAIs are to please the ear. Nothing more. I'm still waiting to hear from a couple vendors I asked to send me one to try and I would publish the results. My nephew owns a drag racing engine building company and offered me his dyno for before/after data. I'm not shocked there were no takers. I told them that if it even gained just 2hp, I'd pay for it. Crickets.

Funny, too....Banks claims the best air flow, but they make no specific claims for power increase, like some do. They only show how they beat the competition in air flow and that it "increases power and efficiency." They give no numbers and don't even hint at them. I think that says something.

if this is true why did jeep come out with their own MPP CAI? Not being a smart ass im legitimately curious since ive been beating around the bush on getting one.

 

[WhatExit?]

if this is true why did jeep come out with their own MPP CAI? Not being a smart ass im legitimately curious since ive been beating around the bush on getting one.

Follow the ? and when Mopar sells it ? owners know it’s “OK to buy ? and run it”

Mopar doesn’t care if it adds power as long as it adds ?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

if this is true why did jeep come out with their own MPP CAI? Not being a smart ass im legitimately curious since ive been beating around the bush on getting one.

Because of the golly-gee-whiz that's mondo-cool factor. Cool sells, sex sells. There's a lot of stuff people put on Jeeps not because it actually fixes or improves, but because it looks cool and impresses.
These are pulling fairly cool air as it is....... and in the winter the last thing you want is COLD air. Cool, yes.
These aren't carbureted engines and they don't suffer the heat that some other modern vehicles suffer under the hood.
A friend works for Mercedes as a top tech in the GermanTown area near DC.
A perk is super-cheap leases on Mercedes cars. He's also an AMC person and used to attend our fall meets at the track for racing and swap meet and show. He'd take his leased Mercedes down the track for kicks. After a couple of runs when he got back to the staging lanes he'd open the hood and let it cool down - and he'd shave tenths off his time. But that car got hot under the hood and the intake wasn't up front near cooler air like these JTs are.

Several other threads here cover the CAI thing as well as hashing out the air filter type. I don't take my truck through the dunes or crawl over 2' rocks every weekend so I'm hardly an expert on Jeeps but have spent my life, all but about 13 years of it, with cars and trucks and around performance builders.
Save your money. And your OEM type air filters aren't going to restrict anything unless dirty or you plan on running over 6,000 RPM under full load.

 

[DanW]

if this is true why did jeep come out with their own MPP CAI? Not being a smart ass im legitimately curious since ive been beating around the bush on getting one.

Money to be made. They make no horsepower claim. I have heard it does sound good and you can also run a standard paper filter for dusty environments.

 

[RedRaptorJT]

Topic has been beaten to death yet will do nothing to change anyone's mind on Team Intake vs. Team Waste of Money.

Yes there are close to zero performance gains to be had with a CAI in general. Trucks like the Gladiator and Tacoma have raised intake box designs that draw air from a higher location near the passenger hood or wheel well.

There are better uses of $350 to $500.

But you know what? Live and let live. Owners will spend and customize their Gladiator the way they want. $500 is a drop in the bucket on a $60K truck. Its okay if they want the bling sexy factor or the aggressive sound that accompanies a CAI. How many of us (let's be honest), will put a $1500 Mopar Lift kit for example to full use on the trial? Most lifted Jeeps don't even hit the trials.

I have no engine modifications to my truck right now. That part of my life has been played out on my Mazda3 (AEM Intake, Borla Exhaust, blah blah blah).

But I certainly would consider a CAI (most likely Mopar or Mishimoto due to their similar stock intake designs) in the coming years of ownership.

 

[Jason Oliver]

I get it. You bought a CAI and it didn't deliver the results you wanted.

Are we done?

 

[Jeeperjamie]

You want to get horsepower out of the engine the only real way to do it is by adding a supercharger. Getting horsepower cost money and you not going to achieve it by just throwing $200 or $300 at it, if you could FCA would have it on the Jeep. If it saved you in MPGs, it would be on the jeep as well. Does anyone really think that 2 or 3 hundred dollars would make a difference, If they were more efficient they would be on the jeep from the factory. These things aren't race cars, they build them to be efficient for what they are going to be used for. I can't believe people still put trust in these things. I lived and learned years back on my JKU, never again will one be on any truck or jeep I drive.

 

[Blade1668]

I installed a Bank's Cat back exhaust on my LJ and just like a CAI a useless purchase for performance Otherwise, I got it not for performance gains but I lived by Savannah, GA at the time.... Rust. Otherwise both are snake oil for most Jeep driving IMHO.

 

[WaterDR]

I get it. You bought a CAI and it didn't deliver the results you wanted.

Are we done?

Ah no. Not a single one.

 

[KHam]

It's snake oil... don't waste your money on a CAI. I always get a kick out of people adding up the numbers the aftermarket mfd's give you. New exhaust, +20 hp, high-flow cats, +10 hp, new CAI, +15... woot! That's 45 more hp right there! I've seen so many people crushed at the dyno after spending thousands on these things only to loose horsepower or have zero gains in the end.

I've modified a lot of cars over the years for more horsepower and I raced cars for many years. Everything you do is relative. You want more power from your stock motor? You need more timing... these engines are considerably retarded for safety and low octane fuel. That's what the guy talking about tuning was referring to. Tuning the engine involves adding more timing and more fuel along the map curve for each cell. Then you'll need to run higher octane fuel. There's probably +20 hp gain just for the tuning alone. But the ECUs are encrypted on these so you would need to replace it to open it up and that will of course void your engine and drive train warranty.

In my opinion leave it stock. (Except exhaust... I do like to hear the engine.) If you seriously want more horsepower just step up to the Magnusson blower and take their 3 year engine/drivetrain warranty that goes with it.

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