Hot Air Intake?

streethorse

15 Year Member
Oct 8, 2005
1,042
6
58
Dallas Texas
With all this talk about CAI's, I want to know does a CAI actually reduce
the air temp as it enters the combustion chamber. Does your car have more
hp if it is 20 degrees or 100 degrees outside. While at idle I felt my chrome
CAI and it is hot, then I felt my C&L plenum and it is too hot to touch for
more than a few seconds. If the air does enter the filter cold it must be much
hotter by the time it gets to the cylinders after passing through a hot.
How could the air be " cold " ?
 
streethorse said:
With all this talk about CAI's, I want to know does a CAI actually reduce
the air temp as it enters the combustion chamber. Does your car have more
hp if it is 20 degrees or 100 degrees outside. While at idle I felt my chrome
CAI and it is hot, then I felt my C&L plenum and it is too hot to touch for
more than a few seconds. If the air does enter the filter cold it must be much
hotter by the time it gets to the cylinders after passing through a hot.
How could the air be " cold " ?
I went the same route as you...first i had a BBK chrome CAI and it was pretty but hot. Then i switched to the C&L system and that was nice but was hot also. Now i'm going with the plastic Demolet CAI and i doubt it will retain the same amount of heat as my previous units.
 
Yeah it would heat up the air just a bit, but the air is going through fast enough that it wouldn't make too much of a difference. I would personally go with a plastic CAI as the metal ones get hot.
 
DTNODYA said:
What if you wrapped the metal pipe with that high temp exhaust wrap? Would that keep the pipe cooler? Or would it lock in the heat?

That would defeat the pourpose of getting a CAI, scince it's mostly for looks anyways. Exhaust wrap would just look strange.
 
loosescrew79 said:
Your car will perform better b/c cooler air is more dense therefore flows faster and combust at a fast rate.

actually colder air is denser so more fuel can be mixed in for a greater bang.

I would think it moves slower, since the molecules are less active.
 
Stang|ess said:
actually colder air is denser so more fuel can be mixed in for a greater bang.

I would think it moves slower, since the molecules are less active.

Yeah something like that.

What if you reroute your a/c to flow right into the cia tube?????:rlaugh:
 
gtstangau said:
That would defeat the pourpose of getting a CAI, scince it's mostly for looks anyways. Exhaust wrap would just look strange.

how so? header wrap is just an insulator.... it keeps heat from escaping, in this case getting into, whatever it is wrapped around...

my JLT is never more than warm :-)