Ok so my friend doesn't think a CAI helps on gas vs. just the standard stuff. can anyone back me up on this??

 

youre saying a cai should improve gas mileage?

i dont think it does really but i dont think it hurts it either. you get better airflow with colder air but youre also gaining horsepower. if you drive your car easy, like shifting at 3k, and just going easy on it you may pick up a little gas mileage. but if you hit high rpm at all you wont be helping anything. i think it depends on how you drive

 

If you are gaining HP, then you should be getting slightly better gas mileage. ie if advancing your timing gives you a bit more HP, you wont have to pump as much fuel into your engine to attain the same speed.
CAI seemed to help my gas mileage a little bit. Maybe cause colder air causes your engine to burn cleaner, and so it uses less fuel to create the same HP?

 

yeah, but it's so much more difficult to save gas... once you slap that CAI on, the beautiful sound at 4-6Krpm is pretty addicting. I love that sound.

 

^^^^ werd.gif

 

Actually, it does. Why? Because it improves the effeciency of your engine.
So how do you gain HP at the same time? Same reason. Effeciency.

Colder air = air that is more dense (more air molecules). Your engine has the same "sucking" power as it did before, but now its pulling in more air.

Colder air actually = MORE air. wink1.gif

 

Well if its in pulling in more air, it has to add more fuel to compensate for it.

Colder air is less prone to detonation, so the car wouldn't have to retard the timing or add more fuel (I dunno if the stock ECU dumps fuel if it senses detonation... possibly) so it might effect gas mileage that way.

On a good tank of quality gas I don't see it doing any better for gas mileage. If you shift at the same RPM before and after a CAI, your mileage should go down because your putting out more horsepower and torque at that RPM then you did before, so you'd need more fuel.

 

I have to go with Ham on this one. Unless your car is not adjusting the fuel accordingly in which case you will be running a little lean. Yes colder air = more efficient but more efficient does not = better gas mileage. I don't care what any company claims, you cannot argue with physics. Take any engine building class and they will tell you the same thing, you have to sacrifice somewhere...

 

actually, more efficient Does = better gas milleage. Think about it - say it takes you 100units of fuel to keep your car driving a steady highway speed for x amount of time. if your car is more efficient, that means it will only take 99units of fuel to keep your car driving the same highway speed.

better efficiency is most definitelly = to better gas milleage

 

Then factor in the decrease in pumping losses at low rpm? If its not having to work as hard to pull in the air, what would that do?