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If you’ve had your current weekend sports car for a while, you’re probably starting to play with the thought of making it look better or perhaps a little faster. There are many ways you can get extra horsepower out of your engine and a very promising option lies in the upgrade of the stock air intake.
An air intake takes care of supplying the engine with air, which is necessary for combustion. However, in a standard car, the air intake often doesn’t work ideally, as it feeds hot air from under the bonnet into the engine. Ideally, though, you want the air to be cold. Why is that? At lower temperatures, the air is denser. This means that one cubic foot of air at 50 F contains more oxygen than a cubic foot at 80 F. So the colder the air, the more oxygen is available for combustion.
If there’s more oxygen in the combustion chamber, it means you’re able to burn more fuel. This is precisely what the cold air intake helps with. However, it doesn’t do that just by being able to feed colder air into the engine thanks to the heat shield around the intake. The second contributing factor ensuring that the engine gets more air is the width of the tubes feeding the air, and also the size of the air filter on the intake.
There are quite a few differences between stock air intakes and their upgraded aftermarket counterparts. It's almost certain you’ve heard about the extra horsepower that an upgraded intake gives but there’s quite a bit more to like.
One of the main reasons why you’ll want to upgrade to a better cold air intake is the increase in power. You’ve already read above about how the aftermarket intake achieves this, and the theory behind it but what are the actual gains to be had? This will heavily depend on the engine of your car. If you have a 5.0L V8 already generating 400 horsepower, you can likely expect about 15 to 20 hp more. On the other side, if you have a 1.8L I4 with 130 hp, the gains will be in single digits, around 2 to 5 hp. In general, expect anywhere between 2 and 5 percent in terms of horsepower gains. Additionally, you’ll also gain some torque, which is a nice bonus.
It doesn’t give you any practical advantage but isn’t it nice when your car sounds aggressive? The upgraded intake will also help you with that. Manufacturers produce the stock intakes with the exact opposite intention that we car enthusiasts would have. While they engineer them to be as silent as possible, we’d like to achieve the opposite - the more you can hear the engine breathe, the bigger your smile gets. Pair it with a nice-sounding burbly exhaust system, and you reach nirvana!
Aftermarket intakes are typically quite sturdy and high quality. Just take a look, for example, at the Corsa Performance intake with a MaxFlow filter for the Dodge Charger. It makes any car look twice as nice under the hood. On most cars, the intake is made of cheap plastic, while here you get carbon fiber. Even the air filter looks premium with the subtle blue color. This is why we also say that aftermarket intakes are long-lasting - they use more expensive and sturdier materials, which are unlikely to break or otherwise deteriorate but even more important in this aspect is that upgraded air filters are reusable. You have to clean and lubricate them every 20,000 miles or so, but you don’t have to replace them, unlike with stock systems.
As the intake tube is wider and feeds more air into the engine in a shorter time, you’ll notice the throttle response to improve. A normal intake will take more time to “inhale” the air and pass it to the combustion chamber than a performance intake. The aftermarket intake is far more efficient and gets your engine going faster.
So, ready to boost your car and make it a tad faster? Get an upgraded aftermarket cold air intake for your ride. We’ll be happy to provide you with guidance and help you choose the right option given your requirements. Of course, this applies to any of the products we offer, not just cold air intakes, so even if you’re after a different upgrade, feel free to take a look or contact our sales techs.
