Will Installing an Intake in my car kill the life of it?

[Kenji4861]

Thinking of getting one of those AEM cold air intakes for my car to get a little boost. I don't want people to think I'm one of those modifiers, so I thought this was the cleanest way to go. Will this kill my car's life? Thanks for any advice.

 

[JC]

No, something simple like that shouldn't affect the lifespan of your engine.

JC

 

[Thegonagle]

No, assuming the filter is effective, it will do nothing bad unless you suck water into the engine. OEM engineers take into account the fact that their cars will be driven in heavy storms and through flash-flooded intersections from time to time, and so their intakes generally have large drain holes and other precautions. Aftermarket intakes generally do not. Splashing through a flooded intersection with a low-mounted cold air intake faster than, oh say 2 MPH, is a good way to force a significant volume of uncompressible water all the way into the cylinder, which will cause immediate and potentially catastrophic damage to any engine.

(And that's not covered by warranty!)

 

[yakko]

It should not have an adverse affects.

 

[notfred]

The average "cold air intake" kit will have little to no effect at all on a car, positive or negative.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: notfred
The average "cold air intake" kit will have little to no effect at all on a car, positive or negative.

That's true too.

 

[Kenji4861]

So what's the talk about AEM Cold Air Intake boosting your car by 5-7hp? Wait, what's even the point to install a cold air intake which costs me around $200.

 

[b0mbrman]

Not to mention that you gotta cut a hole in your car :Q

 

[Ns1]

what kinda car do you have?

higher rpms and stuff you'll feel it, but you will lose lower end torque

so unless you drive your car hard (alot), you'll feel slower ^_^

 

[OS]

Let's look. If we had 100 grams of dust on a new BMW filter we would let thru a total of 6.6 grams of dust in. If we used the new K&N filter we get 14.8 grams of dust. Thats 224% (TWO HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR PERCENT!!) more dust ingested initially, stock vs. "free flow" and this ratio is pretty much held. Somewhere between 200-300% more dirt gets "ingested" anywhere across loading equivalence.

...

Now, does any of this additional dirt cause problems? I dunno. I suppose we could have a few people do some independent oil analyses on different motors using both K&Ns and Stock filters. Get enough of them, and you'd have a good statistical basis. For me though, it's simple: More DIRT = BAD.

OEM filter vs K&N in dirt loading test

Don't kill the messenger, I have don't have extensive firsthand experience on this specific aspect of filters.

However, I will say I think intakes are a waste of money. At best, you get a few more peak HP. At worst, you let more dirt in and you actually lose horsepower.