Dallas Fort Worth 5.0 Mustang Club - View Single Post

**46Tbird** · 04-03-2013, 06:57 PM

The only thing I find concerning about "CAIs" is that they don't do a good enough job of isolating hot underhood air from the intake stream. Some of them have no shield at all, or a cheezy plastic barrier and piece of weatherstrip. A few of them use a fully shielded box and I like that. Another concern is some CAIs produce noisy MAF signals, hurting driveability and power.

I don't think they're all bad. The smooth intake tube with a larger diameter and all that surface area on the conical filter is a no-brainer for making good power. Plus they just look great, especially the Steeda (IMO).

I like that the stock airbox is sealed and feeds from the grille opening, behind the fog light where inlet temps are ambient. Several cars are going deep 11s with this piece so I think I'll stick with the stock airbox for now.

I'm very interested in a back-to-back-to-back comparo of all these brands on one car on the same day. I know dyno time is hard to get at TS and you'd rather have a paying customer on it than some useless dyno flog, but it would be good info for all of us.

04-03-2013, 06:57 PM	#10
46Tbird Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 697	The only thing I find concerning about "CAIs" is that they don't do a good enough job of isolating hot underhood air from the intake stream. Some of them have no shield at all, or a cheezy plastic barrier and piece of weatherstrip. A few of them use a fully shielded box and I like that. Another concern is some CAIs produce noisy MAF signals, hurting driveability and power. I don't think they're all bad. The smooth intake tube with a larger diameter and all that surface area on the conical filter is a no-brainer for making good power. Plus they just look great, especially the Steeda (IMO). I like that the stock airbox is sealed and feeds from the grille opening, behind the fog light where inlet temps are ambient. Several cars are going deep 11s with this piece so I think I'll stick with the stock airbox for now. I'm very interested in a back-to-back-to-back comparo of all these brands on one car on the same day. I know dyno time is hard to get at TS and you'd rather have a paying customer on it than some useless dyno flog, but it would be good info for all of us. __________________ "If this was like, a thousand years ago, I'd be a Picasso. I'd be one of those dudes that cut his damned ear off."