Why is it that nobody considers the stock intake to be a "CAI"?? The intake air enters through the grill, (as cool as you can get, plus at speed there is ram recovery) then the scoop, directly to the air filter housing etc. Far superior than taking engine compartment air with the associated fuel cutback and less spark advance. If you think the scoop looks too small then add a second one in behind a chin scoop/slot of the bumper facia and duct air to the "Y" of the scoop at the water seperator/silencer connection, and throw in a K & N filter in the stock filter housing. A lot of engineering goes into these cars, but I ain't so sure about some of the after market stuff I see.

 

Yeah, but a lot of engineering also goes towards achieving a balance between power and noise/comfort levels for the target audience... which isn't most of us here on the org.

I've actually thought the same thing about the stock being a psuedo-CAI. Eh, I like the roar of my intake. Plus there are dynos out there showing gains with them... although I don't know if I've ever seen a comparison of the popular intakes vs a K&N drop-in.

Also, the whole "hot air" thing is a bit overrated, as once you get moving the engine compartment is flooded with that same cold air that the CAIs are drawing from. Yeah, it might be about 5 or 10 degrees warmer but that's not going to make THAT much difference. Although one of these days I'm hoping to throw together some sort of heat shield, as if the "loss of low end" is actually true, that would probably help recover some of it since the temp difference is MUCH higher when you're just starting.

 

loss of low end is very apparent on the 3.5L motors in the summer, it sucks. the factory intake does get Cold air, its just restrictive with the resonators and junk.

 

Heck yea! Summers suck! It is 110 here in Phoenix, and my 3.5 feels like a friggin slug.

 

I was looking at the drain on the stock airbox the other day. It's round with a small drian hole in the center, and it sticks straight down off the bottom of the silencer. It's almost as if you could simply cut the bottom of if off, and connect a piece of flex tubing to it, and run it to the splash shield. combined with a K&N panel filter, this should take care of any restrictions and keep the cold air design working at the same time.

As far as ram air effect, I really don't believe there is enough square surface area in the opening of the stock scoop to make it happen. You'd need something about twice that size collecting air and funneling it into the airbox to have much of an effect.

Speaking of that, has anyone tried removing the stock fog lights, and using them with duct lines to act as air intakes for an airbox?

 

I thought about that, but it would make the car look so ghetto with just 1 foglight and 2 HID's at night. Another thing with that is, you are going to be sucking in a lot of BUGS on your filter after a night drive on a country road during summer. Unless you put a screen in in front of the "RAM air tubing".


BTW, it was 94 Degrees in the afternoon, and my engine response sucks very much. I can hear the Intake sucking air real hard, but not producing the same power as it should...... Cold air rocks!

 

Mustang guys do this with 87 to 93 GT's all the time. I agree it would look a little goofy. I'd say "redneckish" looking rather than ghetto but.... even with both foglights removed and only one of them feeding the airbox, it looks kinda gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that......

I'm starting a new thread regarding panel filters.