Cold air intakes, does the brand really matter?

[TheDeeJoseph]

Investing in a CAI tomorrow for my 2.0L monster of a Mazda 3, headed towards an AEM cold air intake. What I would like to know, is there any benefit to buying an K&N CAI over an AEM CAI or a less prestigious of cold air intake brand over the "mainstream" brands? They all seem to claim the same things (horsepower gains, fuel efficiency improvements, etc.) but one can be up to $100 more expensive or cheaper than the other. So does paying the extra $60 or whatever it is, change the performance gains so drastically that it influences the price? I mean, a cold air intake only does so much on its own in terms of performance. If anyone can give me some insight into this, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Canadianbacon]

Both do the same job, if you want any gains from a intake you need to increase your maf with MazdaEdit. But it does sound nice if your exhaust is stock

[TheDeeJoseph]

Both do the same job, if you want any gains from a intake you need to increase your maf with MazdaEdit. But it does sound nice if your exhaust is stock

You got all the answers to my questions. Thanks!

[MAZDArati]

doesnt matter really no difference. however make sure there is not oil what so ever on your cone cuz i didnt and there went my maf. Btw they are pricy lol

[Daylindafung]

tbh, I feel like having a cold air intake is pretty useless.... I felt ZERO power gain and only a little sound difference when it is in the higher revs. After I got an exhaust system, the sounds just over powered it. I have a corksport one and spent more than $200 on it.

[ricola]

Don't mod a 2.0. It's a waste of money

[ricola]

I've fully bolted a 2.3 and it doesn't make a huge difference

[Hofu87]

I added the K&N CAI to my 2.5 and honestly haven't noticed much of a gain. It does sound a little more throaty at higher revs and I have seen a bit of an increase in fuel mileage, but overall I don't think it's truly worth the money unless you're thinking about more performance based mods in the future. Mazda's MAF are touchy so you do need to be careful when reinstalling them into the new kit. I think I over payed for the kit to be totally honest. The Corksport kit was a lot cheaper and in the end would have probably produced the same results. Lesson learned I guess lol. If I had known all this before hand I would have bought a K&N filter to replace the stock one and been done with it.

[r4BBiT]

Both do the same job, if you want any gains from a intake you need to increase your maf with MazdaEdit. But it does sound nice if your exhaust is stock

Increasing your MAF scaling will only affect the open loop since the learned fuel trim values are not used and you will end up running little leaner. In the closed loop it does not matter much as the ECU will be using LTFT to correctly add more fuel.

In my opinion the intake itself only gains little bit (1HP) in the middle to high revs, but when you combine it with the less restrictive exhaust the gains are decent. I have 2.0l with CorkSport SRI and CBE with racepipe and my LTFT where in about 10% range with the mods. Now calibrating MAF with some minor changes to VVTI and ignition timing and the power difference is noticeable.

Also please note that you are no increasing the MAF, the mass of air coming into an engine is based on the voltage the sensor sends + lookup MAF map, so changing values there changes your MAF readings but that does not mean they are correct values.

[Kiyomi]

^^ agreed, adding just an intake doesnt do much without a tune, i would say you might even lose some power because the car is constantly adjusting closed loop and has the wrong scale in the maf map for open. either way, the stock target maps are ridiculously rich and that is where you can get better performance, by leaning out the fuel maps. stock 2.5l map targets 12.1 full load at 3k rpm- 10.0 at 7k rpm for open loop, closed loop target is around 14.6 which sucks for performance. doesnt really matter cause the car always stayed around 12.0-11.5 afr because of the stock scaling. getting a cai vs sri, a cai will move the torque to the higher rpms because of the longer tubing/ air velocity, not because its "colder" air. plus, brand doesnt really matter, as long as its properly sized and has a well designed air straightener.

The open closed loop dilemma without tuning really restricts our cars. only until 4700rpm on a 2.5 does it switch over to run more vvti timing, ignition timing, and more fuel pressure. you can remove that and make open loop available at full throttle with tuning fairly easily.

Also, fully bolting the mz's is less effective than getting a good tuning solution for our cars. thats why, i dont get why so many members spend $1000+ for intake/exhaust combo and wont spend the money on mazdaedit, which is the most viable tuning solution for our cars atm.

[Hofu87]

^^ agreed, adding just an intake doesnt do much without a tune, i would say you might even lose some power because the car is constantly adjusting closed loop and has the wrong scale in the maf map for open. either way, the stock target maps are ridiculously rich and that is where you can get better performance, by leaning out the fuel maps. stock 2.5l map targets 12.1 full load at 3k rpm- 10.0 at 7k rpm for open loop, closed loop target is around 14.6 which sucks for performance. doesnt really matter cause the car always stayed around 12.0-11.5 afr because of the stock scaling. getting a cai vs sri, a cai will move the torque to the higher rpms because of the longer tubing/ air velocity, not because its "colder" air. plus, brand doesnt really matter, as long as its properly sized and has a well designed air straightener.

The open closed loop dilemma without tuning really restricts our cars. only until 4700rpm on a 2.5 does it switch over to run more vvti timing, ignition timing, and more fuel pressure. you can remove that and make open loop available at full throttle with tuning fairly easily.

Also, fully bolting the mz's is less effective than getting a good tuning solution for our cars. thats why, i dont get why so many members spend $1000+ for intake/exhaust combo and wont spend the money on mazdaedit, which is the most viable tuning solution for our cars atm.

Asking since you seem to know a lot about Mazdaedit. Do they not make a version currently that supports the 14+ 2.5's?

[Kiyomi]

Asking since you seem to know a lot about Mazdaedit. Do they not make a version currently that supports the 14+ 2.5's?

yeah, im pretty sure they do. ov announced that a few months ago. you just need to contact the developer.
http://www.epifansoft.com/mazdaEdit.html

or, you can ask ov to see if you can get it from him. get on the fb tuning group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/535363713253123/

i would suggest getting the personal version, so you can learn more about it, or get a local tuner to play with it.

[Hofu87]

yeah, im pretty sure they do. ov announced that a few months ago. you just need to contact the developer.
http://www.epifansoft.com/mazdaEdit.html

or, you can ask ov to see if you can get it from him. get on the fb tuning group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/535363713253123/

i would suggest getting the personal version, so you can learn more about it, or get a local tuner to play with it.

Thanks man...greatly appreciated! Only asked because it doesn't seem to be advertised as being available atm.

[Kiyomi]

Thanks man...greatly appreciated! Only asked because it doesn't seem to be advertised as being available atm.

yeah, def contact ov or the developer to make sure its supported before purchasing.

[SKYMP3]

Intake is just for the sound, near no performance gain, especially on a N/A car.

[Hofu87]

Intake is just for the sound, near no performance gain, especially on a N/A car.

On a factory tuned car yes....

[Cab0oze]

On a factory tuned car yes....

Changing one filtered pipe that sucks air for another filtered pipe that sucks air isn't going to net you anything worth mentioning. If you get a tune, you're getting gains because of the tune, not really because of the intake.

Also, SRI >>> CAI all day every day. Especially for sound. Why is the OP set on a CAI?

[Kiyomi]

Changing one filtered pipe that sucks air for another filtered pipe that sucks air isn't going to net you anything worth mentioning. If you get a tune, you're getting gains because of the tune, not really because of the intake.

Also, SRI >>> CAI all day every day. Especially for sound. Why is the OP set on a CAI?

:pop

[Hofu87]

Changing one filtered pipe that sucks air for another filtered pipe that sucks air isn't going to net you anything worth mentioning. If you get a tune, you're getting gains because of the tune, not really because of the intake.

Also, SRI >>> CAI all day every day. Especially for sound. Why is the OP set on a CAI?

Maybe the opinion could very possibly be set on CAI because the main topic of discussion in this particular thread just so happens to be called "Cold air intakes, does the brand really matter?". Also, I know that you will see benchmark gains with a CAI OR SRI on a tuned car compared to a tuned car without either option using a factory box and s*** factory filter and restrictions galore. You can't tell me you wouldn't be robbing yourself of that tune if you decided to not go with either option because you truly believe it won't make a difference.

[Cab0oze]

Maybe the opinion could very possibly be set on CAI because the main topic of discussion in this particular thread just so happens to be called "Cold air intakes, does the brand really matter?". Also, I know that you will see benchmark gains with a CAI OR SRI on a tuned car compared to a tuned car without either option using a factory box and s*** factory filter and restrictions galore. You can't tell me you wouldn't be robbing yourself of that tune if you decided to not go with either option because you truly believe it won't make a difference.
Well personally I do think an intake (SRI) is one of the essential mods to do, but not because of mad power gains. Does it help? Maybe... a tiny little bit. Is the v6 minivan you're trying to race going to care if you have 3 extra HPs over stock stashed in the 5-6k RPM range? No.

[Hofu87]

Well personally I do think an intake (SRI) is one of the essential mods to do, but not because of mad power gains. Does it help? Maybe... a tiny little bit. Is the v6 minivan you're trying to race going to care if you have 3 extra HPs over stock stashed in the 5-6k RPM range? No.

Never mentioned anything about mad power gains. Also said it won't do much of anything to a factory tuned car. Also didn't mention anything about it being an essential mod.