exactly how much does the air temp drop when a CAI is being used? or does it basically just use the air from the outside rather than the air from the engine compartment?

 

I'm guessing it's not that cold as it is only taking in whatever air is around. But I assume that it will be cooler than that of the air from inside the engine bay.

 

The stock airbox does not take air from the engine bay. It takes it from the fender well. The CAI takes it from further forward and a bit lower than the stock airbox does, so it will be a little cooler I think, but not as much difference as when swapping out an airbox that takes all of its air directly from the engine bay

 

I went a step further in providing more air for my CAI, and removed the grill cover on the drivers side. I supose it would give it somewhat of a Ram Air effect, but thats debatable. Lets just say less retrictive air. ;)

 

as cold as you want it to be.

 

it will never be colder than the outside air temp.
it is drawing air from out of the engine bay area (including fenders or behind the radiator) so you will not be drawing in hot- engine- temp air.

 

You can sometimes tell the difference in Air Temp by the performance of the car. Cooler mornings I can tell its a little more peppy.

 

Keep in mind it will be a little more peppy on cold mornings with or without a cai.. it is pulling in cooler air. The stock airbox literally pulls the air in about 1 foot further back in the fender well and about 6 - 8 inches higher up.. that is it. I have run this car without a CAI.. then with the K&N until it broke the bracket due to its not so great mounting design.. then without the CAI again.. I can honestly say you can tell ZERO difference in performance. The noise may fool the butt dyno.. but that is about it. The only noticeable difference I ever saw was a slight decrease in gas mileage (which was expected).. but that was so small that it cant be confirmed due to normal fluctuations in system performance.

I will put it back on most likely once I create a better mounting setup than they designed. They do dress up the engine bay, and sound nice.. and I am sure they provide some gain if you put it on a dyno.. but dont expect to really "feel" the difference.

 

I put my intake in a bucket of ice I fill up every morning. I pretty much gained 50 whp. I heard dry ice gives you 115 whp. Of course there's liquid nitrogen, which gives you at least 200 ponies to the wheels.

 

It's really a: "Not so much cold as it is cooler than engine bay air" air intake.

 

Still, I think I saw someone here is SL who had a temp sensor inside the his CAI, but I don't remember where.

 

^^ I remember that too.. but cant remember who it was.. I do seem to remember that they found it made much less difference than many seem to think though

 

Well Intake and Axle back have done my tC some good. All I have is the Injen CAI and HKS Hi-Power Axle Back and in the 1/8th I break 9's. It was also my first time out, and im sure I could improve by a couple tenths, putting me close to mid 9's with just the two mods...but soon I will have a MMW Header also.

 

Everyone has a temp sensor on there intake, its part of the MAF that reads the air flow and the tempurature in order to adjust the proper amount of fuel.

I have a dataloger that can read all that stuff and with the stock airbox it is getting the SAME reading as the outside temp sensor on the car. If you sit idle for a bit it can go up to 100deg, but as soon as te car starts moving it quickly goes back to outside temp.

This is with florida weather. it might be different in colder climates, im not sure.

So, a CAI is not getting colder air than stock, but it will get colder air than a short ram.

 

An intake that collected from the inside would be a true CAI...funny lookin tho.

Wonder if there are any air charge coolers made for NA...

 

That would be cool, considering that when I thouch my intake after a little spirited driving the intake gets too HOT...imaging the air entering the chamber.

 

Hey we have basically the same setup. Did you know? Once I get the MMW headers and s-pipe that is.

 

Well the engine orientation helps...insulate the short pipe between the intake manifold and firewall to isolate engine bay heat...it might actually work if it did'nt add too much noise inside the car.

It'd be a pretty cool race advantage on really hot days...

 

I don't think it will add engine noise inside the cabin. Also here lies if yor car is for show or for real. If you added insulation to the pipe then I don't think it would look nice for Auto shows and such, but if you did it, it may help in performance at least a little. I would definitly do it.

 

There is actually a difference in temp, but not much at all... the real difference is in airflow and filtering, getting more air easier...

I read air temps on my OBD-II reader before and after my box and when the car was hot, the stock box was only a few degrees hotter than the CAI... not enough to make a huge difference I'm sure... and the heat soak is nothing on the CAI when the car is moving... the outside temperature to what the intake Temp sensor reads is identical when moving... when sitting, it goes up a bit on the CAI, but only a few degrees as well...

www.obddiagnostics.com is a good/relatively cheap solution if you want to see more info about your car and reset CELs easy...