herecomestony
Observer
Will installing a cold air intake on my 2009 Ford Ranger XLT really improve its fuel efficiency and horsepower?
Cold Air Intake
- Thread starter herecomestony
- Start date
Buddha.
Finally in expo white.
Adding a aftermarket cold air intake is a waste of money and is done by people with no real skills who still want to mod their ride. They're on par with those fake stick on chrome vents and fake hood scoops sold at auto parts stores.
Factory air intakes already draw cold air from the inner fender. An aftermarket air intake might be less restrictive but unless you are adding forced induction there won't be any big advantage to an aftermarket unit.
Adding colder air to the engine won't yield better fuel economy. Doing the opposite, adding a hot air intake might improve fuel economy. It's something that's covered over on ecomodder.com
Factory air intakes already draw cold air from the inner fender. An aftermarket air intake might be less restrictive but unless you are adding forced induction there won't be any big advantage to an aftermarket unit.
Adding colder air to the engine won't yield better fuel economy. Doing the opposite, adding a hot air intake might improve fuel economy. It's something that's covered over on ecomodder.com
Ducky's Dad
Explorer
Depends on the specific vehicle and the specific CAI. And if you get more air into the engine, you also need to get it out, so may need to improve exhaust to improve air flow. An engine is just a big air pump, and the more air you can cram in and out, the more power you can make. Cold air is denser than warm air and can burn more fuel, but the "cold" part of CAI is pretty much a misnomer because at any reasonable speed it is sucking ambient temp air, same as the stock intake. Generally, a CAI will not improve fuel economy unless you are a very careful driver. It may develop marginally more horsepower and torque, and it will definitely make your intake louder. Some CAIs can be used to pull air from areas where the stock intake can suck water during crossings. A good CAI will improve performance, but only by a little. The improvements are usually related more to smoother air flow than to getting cooler air. You will not get a payback through improved fuel economy. With a CAI and exhaust improvements, a tuner begins to make sense to enhance power or economy, but still no economic payback.
SilicaRich
Wandering Inverted
Unless the filter has access to outside air, it's not a real cold air intake. Changing the filter by itself (DON'T buy K&N) might make a little improvement but otherwise OEM equipment will be the best for your truck, otherwise most aftermarket intakes compromise the safety of your engine.
Stumpalump
Expedition Leader
Yes if you have a little money to play. They help the most at WOT. You will feel a little more pull if you are sensitive enough to feel it. The extra sound let's you know you are mashing the gas too hard so you let off and save gas. Milage is typically 1/4-3/4 mpg better. If money is a factor check over the entire factory intake and clean up casting errors where parts fit together with a razor. Look at the very end where the air enters and open it up if you can. Sometimes plastic grill work can be filed open to let a little more air get to the opening. Some intake tracks have a restrictive sound muffler in them or a big flap blocking the opening. If you see somthing that looks like it's blocking air for no reason then remove it. It's more fun and free to soup up your stock intake. You may have tubes or canisters in the intake track that seem to go nowhere and do nothing. If they are not blocking air flow then leave them in place. They reduce turbulence and even out pulses to increase flow. I mod or replace them on everthing including company cars because even if it only helps 1/4% you had some fun freeing up the flow and you have some feedback sound for when your driving it hard.
ExplorerTom
Explorer
They help only in open loop ECU operation. An easy way to gain some power is to lean out the air/fuel mixture. In closed loop ECU operation, the sensors are all talking to each other and constantly adjusting for as close to a stoichiometric burn as possible. In closed loop, you add more air, the ECU adds more fuel and the result is you don't open the throttle as much to yield the same rate of acceleration prior to the cold air intake. In open loop, the ECU defaults to a pre-programmed fuel trim table and doesn't listen to those sensors- stoichiometry by damned! This fuel trim table is on the rich side for engine safety. Leaning it out with a freer flowing intake can yield some power increase. The same is true for mileage.
But how often do you drive around at or near full throttle? For me, not much.
And if let's say you did get a whopping 1 mpg improvement that you determined was directly related to the CAI and not statistical noise, how long would it take you to recoup the cost of the intake in fuel savings? 300 miles driven at 15 mpg is 20 gallons. 300 miles driven at 16 mpg is 18.75 gallons. That's a savings of 1.25 gallons and at today's price of $2.03 is $2.53 in savings. If the CAI cost $250, it would take you 98 tanks, or about 30,000 miles, to break even.
And cold air requires more fuel to burn stoichiometric- but modern factory intakes already are "cold air". If you do get any mileage improvement, it's due to increased pumping efficiency and not "cold air". Stock intakes have baffles and resonance chambers to quiet them down which also restricts them slightly. An aftermarket intake smooths all that out and opens up the intake sound.
But if the filter is placed really low to the ground (I had a Protege with an intake like this) and you go offroad and go through any water.... Could be problematic. I added a snorkel to mine purely for dust reasons. Prior to the snorkel my filter got super dirty very quickly. With the snorkel, it gets dirty at about the same rate as my street driven vehicles.
And I have yet to see conclusive evidence that high flow filters actually filter better than a quality paper filter.
comptiger5000
Adventurer
In most cases, there's not enough benefit to justify the cost. Unless you can determine that the stock intake is restricting flow or have some other need to re-locate the intake setup, I wouldn't spend the money.
dustyrusty
New member
My truck came with one via the previous owner and I am looking to go back to stock because I am not a fan of the overly expensive filters.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Modern vehicles aka fuel injected variety typically have pretty good external intake systems to start with. I always suggest that money is better spent on recovery gear, tire upgrades etc. Hot intakes can reduce power 10-20% and most aftermarket silly intake mods pull air from under the hood. Which is always pretty funny to see. I call those failed HS science car mods.
If any of you are curious about power differences between cold vs hot intakes. Find a friend with a cessna or take a intro flying lesson. We have cold and hot intakes on aircraft. It allows us to avoid icing up throttle bodies, and gives us a secondary source if the external intake gets blocked. When you switch to hot intake power loss is very very noticable.
If any of you are curious about power differences between cold vs hot intakes. Find a friend with a cessna or take a intro flying lesson. We have cold and hot intakes on aircraft. It allows us to avoid icing up throttle bodies, and gives us a secondary source if the external intake gets blocked. When you switch to hot intake power loss is very very noticable.