Car guys....Air filter question

[CQBgopher]

Is a "cold air" intake really beneficial to a computer controlled engine?

[toys in the toybox]

You are a master. Biater......

That's my point. Doesn't matter old or new for mileage and obviously benefits both on hp numbers

[STED9R]

Is a "cold air" intake really beneficial to a computer controlled engine?

Ah, but at what point will the pcm see the maf numbers outside designed parameters in relation to rpm, ambient temp, baro, whl speed and torque to nullify a percentage of gains that may be had by the addition of a cold air intake?
Yet, it sounds good, much like when the tennis ball sized secondaries on a quadrajet opened up, so if it sounds bad ass it runs bad ass theory?

[TechnoWeenie]

K&N air filters are known to cause MAF fouling, because you're supposed to oil them and the oil gets on the MAF sensor.

In a given size of filter, filter capability is inversely proportional to air flow. The denser the material to catch more crap, the lower the flow. You have to REMOVE filtering capability to increase flow. The reason K&N uses oil is because it uses it to catch contaminants.

[toys in the toybox]

Pcm is adaptive as they are closed loop systems. Never seen external hang ons that exceeded parameters of system

[RENCORP]

I like Ike.

Quadrajets were cool carbs.

Cold air is dense, more oxygen for a cleaner hotter burn compared to hot air from the engine bay.

If some one pisses you off, wire a can of sardines to their muffler, top side, so it can't be seen easily.

Punch a couple small holes in it prior to tie down. That car - is gonna stink for weeks to come.

Or, ram a potato up the exhaust pipe. Car won't start, or will backfire the potato out at 600 mph.

Or, pull the coil wire, put a balled up piece of paper towel in there made wet and squeezed damp dry.

Car runs until the paper dries out, then, no conductor, no spark.

We had fun when I was a kid.

[STED9R]

Pcm is adaptive as they are closed loop systems. Never seen external hang ons that exceeded parameters of system

So, the relationship of the O2 sensor in exhaust is for????? Yep, reads and adjusts fuel curve (big stoichiometry word again) accordingly. Hence, you can stuff pure medical 02 down its throat and the pcm is going to adjust according to load requirements based upon anywhere from a small to large number of preset parameters built in by the manufacturer. So, you succeed in flushing your wallet to slap on a bolt on kit, that sounds cool yet, your adaptive strategy still adjust the way it sees fit.
Cold air helps in a very small and extremely narrow window is computer controlled engines. Gains to cold air is significant and large in any standard fare non electronically controlled fuel curve engine. Hell, even early feed back carbs could self regulate IF it was equipped with the hardware to receive signals, awful lot of those cars didn't utilize down stream feedback so irrelevant to this. But, always a but, certain cold air intakes, whether home made or production, can cause a ram air effect, that in itself is a whole other thick book and mind twisting headache to understand the hundred variables within itself.

[STED9R]

I like Ike.

Quadrajets were cool carbs.

Cold air is dense, more oxygen for a cleaner hotter burn compared to hot air from the engine bay.

If some one pisses you off, wire a can of sardines to their muffler, top side, so it can't be seen easily.

Punch a couple small holes in it prior to tie down. That car - is gonna stink for weeks to come.

Or, ram a potato up the exhaust pipe. Car won't start, or will backfire the potato out at 600 mph.

Or, pull the coil wire, put a balled up piece of paper towel in there made wet and squeezed damp dry.

Car runs until the paper dries out, then, no conductor, no spark.

We had fun when I was a kid.

I liked drawing lines with a pencil inside the distributor cap.
We had ether in these little rubber like balls to cold start diesels, toss one inside the cap and blow the cap off, an start a bay fire....
Before the days of unleaded and the small tank holes, stuff a tennis ball down the filling neck about 8", fill up was impossible...
Just move a couple plug wires around.
Had about 1/2 gallon of that stinky ass oil used for propane, pour it around heater intake.
Good one was running a jumper wire from brake switch to horn relay. Dude was mechanically deficient and 100% pissed. Come to think of it, seeing as he always had a shotgun in his truck at school, he didn't shoot anyone. Wonder why?

[Old Jim]

I like Ike.

Quadrajets were cool carbs.

Cold air is dense, more oxygen for a cleaner hotter burn compared to hot air from the engine bay.

If some one pisses you off, wire a can of sardines to their muffler, top side, so it can't be seen easily.

Punch a couple small holes in it prior to tie down. That car - is gonna stink for weeks to come.

Or, ram a potato up the exhaust pipe. Car won't start, or will backfire the potato out at 600 mph.

Or, pull the coil wire, put a balled up piece of paper towel in there made wet and squeezed damp dry.

Car runs until the paper dries out, then, no conductor, no spark.

We had fun when I was a kid.

Our high school auto mech class (1957) held a contest for diagnostics. The problem, find out why he car will not start. Nobody found the scotch tape on the points.

[Mr. Q]

Theoretical and practical is why this post exists. Most of us understand cold air kits so it would be easier if you told us your theory rather than starting in on 10,000 other possibilities.

So what word or theory did you mean to use in place of hydro locking or were you referencing or did you mean Hydro locking from the ingestion of h20 due to water above the bumper??

Either way mileage will be the same. Ram air , cold air, hot air. None of this matters for mileage.....horsepower yes


Not sure ram air is a valid theory but I'll go with it for our purposes here

I meant hydrolocking from the cold air kits placing the filter inside the bumper. There was at least one car I know of in the past using one of those cold air kits with a hydrolocked motor.
I tend to disagree with claims from any manufacturer of improved fuel efficiency. There is theoretical improvement in fuel efficiencies due to the less restrictive nature of cold air intakes versus the air boxes manufactured use, however, if the vehicles pcm is not optimized to take advantage of that theoretical gain in efficiency, fuel consumption stays the same or even increase; mostly fuel will increase if the pcm recognizes decreased/increased pressure/air flow in the map/maf sensor. I think I got that right, lol.

[toys in the toybox]

Still clear as mud.....hydro locked due to water ingestion?? Or a simple filter location problem??

Most engines will seek stoichiometric regardless of intake or exhaust changes. This is optimal mileage for the engine. All the changes we make are for horsepower (read....crappier mileage)

[Mr. Q]

I'm agreeing with you regarding hp.
Hydrolocked due to filter location creating water ingestion. lol
Most car guys regard filter location in the engine bay as not a "cold air intake", true cold air intakes would be located outside the engine bay.

[CQBgopher]

What about a high flow MAF sensor? I see those in Jeg's and Summit Racing all the time. Would those work better with an aftermarket intake than the stock MAF sensor?

[Jonathan Brown]

K&N's are a big waste of money. And they filter like shit. Hold one up to a light and look through all the holes.

[STED9R]

I'm agreeing with you regarding hp.
Hydrolocked due to filter location creating water ingestion. lol
Most car guys regard filter location in the engine bay as not a "cold air intake", true cold air intakes would be located outside the engine bay.

Sadly, best spot for a presumed cold air intake WITHOUT creating much of a ram effect, is at the base of the windshield.
Those engineers in the sixties an seventies had it figured out!