ANOTHER slightly off-topic 1:1 question!!!

[Harry P.]

Guys, I'm looking into adding a cold air intake to my Mustang.

I don't want to go all out, so intakes that would need an engine computer retune are out... I want bolt-on and go. I'm leaning towards a BBK unit.

Anyone with any solid info, experience, recommendations, etc., please shoot me a PM or email me at harrypri@att.net. This is really off-topic and I don't want to clog up the forum with my personal topics, but I'm posting this here because I do know there are plenty of real gearheads here that would have good, solid info–so if you fall into that category, please give me your honest opinions. Thanks!

BTW... Agent 47 mirrors are installed, sequential taillights/turn signals/stoplight wiring harnesses came yesterday!

[GrandpaMcGurk]

Guys, I'm looking into adding a cold air intake to my Mustang.

I don't want to go all out, so intakes that would need an engine computer retune are out... I want bolt-on and go. I'm leaning towards a BBK unit.

Anyone with any solid info, experience, recommendations, etc., please shoot me a PM or email me at harrypri@att.net. This is really off-topic and I don't want to clog up the forum with my personal topics, but I'm posting this here because I do know there are plenty of real gearheads here that would have good, solid info–so if you fall into that category, please give me your honest opinions. Thanks!

BTW... Agent 47 mirrors are installed, sequential taillights/turn signals/stoplight wiring harnesses came yesterday!

Harry...you're going to need a good cat-back (if you don't already have one) to get the most from the intake change.

[Harry P.]

Harry...you're going to need a good cat-back (if you don't already have one) to get the most from the intake change.

Yeah, I figured. Open up the front end and you have to let it out the back end just as much...

[Greg Cullinan]

Harry I like your style BBK is cool or Steeda would be my recommendation.

And I'm with Gramps,an exhaust is the best bolt on available. Borla,Steeda,Pypes,Magnaflow,

you can't go wrong. It's whatever sound your after.

Then some headers...

[Guest promodmerc]

I don't know about their CAI's, but I have heard most of their stuff is junk.

Have you looked into a MAC cold air intake?

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/item/MAC-3505

I have a MAC on my '97 Cougar 4.6 and it did not require a tune.

[Eric Stone]

On a Mass Air car, you won't need a re-tune. You pull a little more air, the MAF senses it and the computer compensates. You'd have to go with big mods to really need to get a tune (intake manifold, heads, cams...). Dave is right, run it by your Ford dealer if your ride is still under warranty. A friend of mine had some mods done on his Lightning- a tune, blower pulley, and crank pulley to up the boost, and the Ford dealer did it while keeping it under warranty. You could possibly get a Ford Racing CAI through the parts department at the dealership. Otherwise, they should all be about the same- buy on what look you want. I hear JLT is nice, I *think* they make one for the S197 cars. I'm not sure what all is available for your car. Check American Muscle, CJ Pony Parts, Late Model Restoration, Jeg's, Summitt...

As far as exhaust, a cat-back will get you some sound, but the whole system will only flow as well as the most restrictive part, which I'd bet is the catalytic converters, or will be once a cat-back is installed. They are pretty restrictive on my car...

[diymirage]

just be careful Harry, dealers like using stuff like that as a reason not to honor any powertrain warranty issues.

if you want to stay "safe" use a stock type replacement filter from K&N. it flows better than stock and is usually dealer and warranty friendly.

Dave

he should be able to install (or have the dealer install) a roush CAI without any warranty issues

[camaroman]

he should be able to install (or have the dealer install) a roush CAI without any warranty issues

I'll second that Harry. I have been told by our dealer that any (Ford) upgrades done by the dealership are under warranty and do not affect your warranty. I can give you package part numbers if you want. Just need to know what engine you have.

[Chuck Most]

Flexible ducting and duct tape are all you need for a cold air intake!

If it were mine, I'd yank the V6 and drop in the mill from a wrecked GT500KR!

(Then immediately regret that action when I filled up the tank afterwards!)

[whale392]

Eric is pretty dead-on here. Ford themselves offers a 'Warranty-friendly' CAI in their 'Ford Racing' catalog and as long as it is dealer installed will not void the warranty.

As to my personal usage, I either went with the BBK unit, a C&L tube with it wrapped in heat blanket, or the Steeda unit. Anderson Ford Motorsports also makes a dang good unit (but the only experience I have is with the Fox chassis).

[sfhess]

Your car came from the factory with a cold-air intake. Most of the aftermarket "CAI" systems pull in hot/warm air from the engine compartment and make more noise. Bah!

[Rick Schmidt]

I was kinda thinking along the lines it already has one myself. Never figured the real point of pulling the tube out of the fender and leaving an open filter in the engine bay with all that nice hot air. I do see the point of the Smoother tubes and all allowing more airflow tho

[VW Dave]

Most of the aftermarket "CAI" systems pull in hot/warm air from the engine compartment and make more noise. Bah!

Before I step up onto my little soapbox, let me preface my POV by saying I've got about 16 years in the auto parts business; over half of that time was with a mail-order supplier of OE & performance parts for European vehicles.

Unless it's sealed off completely from the engine compartment, a 'cold air intake' is just a noisemaker that offers negligible performance gains. At speed and under load/acceleration, an open-element intake will draw in lots of hot air from the engine compartment as well as any cool air it can get. The systems that come with a simple heat shield are a joke, as the shield will only really protect the intake from ambient heat. The shield does offer a prime spot for a squirrel to put an APC decal, however.

[Harry P.]

Before I step up onto my little soapbox, let me preface my POV by saying I've got about 16 years in the auto parts business; over half of that time was with a mail-order supplier of OE & performance parts for European vehicles.

Unless it's sealed off completely from the engine compartment, a 'cold air intake' is just a noisemaker that offers negligible performance gains. At speed and under load/acceleration, an open-element intake will draw in lots of hot air from the engine compartment as well as any cool air it can get. The systems that come with a simple heat shield are a joke, as the shield will only really protect the intake from ambient heat. The shield does offer a prime spot for a squirrel to put an APC decal, however.

It's strange... I've talked to several real-life mechanics, as well as gotten lots of responses from you guys here...

and I've had answers all over the place! Some guys I talked to with years of experience as mechanics swear by an aftermarket CAI setup, and told me it's one of the best "bang for the buck" mods you can make (along with a pair of hi-flow mufflers). Other guys (like Dave here) with years of experience say the exact opposite... that they're basically a waste of time and have little to no effect.

A very wide range of opinions, for sure. I'm more confused now than before I asked the question!!!

[Eric Stone]

Some guys I talked to with years of experience as mechanics swear by an aftermarket CAI setup, ... Other guys ... with years of experience say the exact opposite... that they're basically a waste of time and have little to no effect.

It's all relative, and depends on how restrictive your stock setup is. If your car is breathing through a drinking straw, then of course a CAI will be a pretty good bang for the buck mod, but I'm thinking you're not likely to feel anything in the seat of the pants from putting one on your particular car (It's a GT, right?). If you want it for looks, then that's fine. If you're wanting a little more power, then a CAI's benefit is questionable, but a K&N filter will help a tad (you still won't feel it). If you're looking at a CAI that just places a cone filter in a little "box" with some weatherstripping to seal it to the hood, you might be better off with just a K&N in the stock airbox.

[VW Dave]

I wouldn't say they're all a waste of time and/or money, but many are...just do your homework.

I've used K&N 'drop in' filters in my last 4 watercooler VWs, and I've been happy with them; I made a Rube Goldberg CAI for one of them at first, with a duct under the front bumper and flexible hose running to the swiss-cheesed airbox. After a couple days of driving, I realized the added noise outweighed any gains I might have grabbed - I put the unmolested original airbox with a K&N back in.

[Wayne Buck]

For what its worth, I'll add a little experience that I had when I went to tech school...

After I graduated high school, I went away to UTI in Illinois for the automotive technology course. Part of the course was a 6 week course called "Hot Rod U".

We all broke up into groups of 3 and rebuilt a bunch of small block Chevys, dropped them into these fiberglass bodied T-buckets and dyno'ed them. After we got a baseline, we had a whole stockroom full of performance parts and we were allowed to pick some of them, install them onto the engine and dyno it again to see what kind of improvements they made. It was pretty cool! They had some pretty cool parts too. Aluminum heads, roller cams, etc.. Of course we all fought over who got the 4-71 blower.

Anyway, in the last part of the course, we had like 10 different regular street cars (Camaros, Mustangs, etc.) and we had an assortment of parts and did the same thing with them as the T-buckets. I think the cars were donated from an impound or something...

Our group had an LT-1 Camaro. We dyno'ed it stock and then installed a K&N cold air intake kit. When we ran it again (same day, no temperature changes or anything) with no changes but the K&N kit, believe it or not, the car LOST 12 horsepower!!

It just goes to show that cars are engineered to have everything working together in harmony, so to speak. I'm sure that if the car had some other upgrades and an ECU retune, the air filter would have helped it, but, in this case it actually hurt the performance.

[Eric Stone]

...I made a Rube Goldberg CAI for one of them at first, with a duct under the front bumper and flexible hose running to the swiss-cheesed airbox. After a couple days of driving, I realized the added noise outweighed any gains I might have grabbed - I put the unmolested original airbox with a K&N back in.

I'm not running a CAI on my car, but I am running the March Ram Air setup, which is essentially the same thing as VW Dave describes. I have a little scoop under the front valence, with some flexible duct like big diameter dryer vent hose going to the air box located where the stock flat panel air box was. The box houses the cone filter, and I've got an aluminum elbow between the MAF and throttle body to replace the stock rubber piece and all its associated turbulence... I think March might've made a setup like this for the 94-95 5.0s too, but I'm not sure. I've heard a few folks mention they wished this was available for a S197. I don't know if it helps much, but I can't see how it isn't feeding some cooler-than-underhood air to the engine.

[slant6]

I don't know to muck about the parts you're looking into, but I did see someone mention them affecting your warranty. If you are at all worried about that, you might want to familiarize yourself with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, its helped quite a few of my customers with scumbag dealership problems. It comes up a lot at work, since all I do it aftermarket parts.

[Kaleb]

CAI is great...but unless your going all out you can usually buy one for about a bill...I got one from mrbodykit. You can go to most sheet metal shops and they can buid a plenium to seperate your intake from the heat. Then get a good insulater to inside. If you want the plenium to be painted you wipe it down with vinager, prime, nd paint.

This info is if you dont care about warrenty

As far as exhaust H-Pipe(some say horsepower) X-Pipe(Noise) Straight(HP)

Might as well get long tube headers, High performance cats(away with factory)

Choices of mufflers Flowmaster(Raspy), Magnaflow(quiet) Borla(sounds excellent) Bassani(Excellent). 2.5 inch to 3 inch pipe will work excellent.

For best results go out the back. Do not dump!!!