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So not to stir up a beehive but After doing my eforce supercharger and basically taking the air cleaner assembly totally off its apparent that the CAI system's that I have seen aren't doing what guys think they are doing.
Now before you get your panties in a wad hear me out,,,,, On my C6 it made total sense because the snorkel pointed straight down on top of the radiator where you could get not only a cold air effect but also a ram air effect,,,,,,,,,,but on the C7 the snorkel points at an angle toward the fender and the airflow isn't direct at all and bends at leaste twice on the CAI systems I have seen!!!!
So are you really getting the "RAM AIR" effect that these vendors are claiming and cold air effect either? I would argue that the answer is "NO"
No offense to guys who buy these system's and say "man did it make a huge difference" and I get the halo effect of "feeling" like its better but I would argue its very minimal if at all.
Sure a higher flowing air filter could help but I would love to see actual dyno runs to prove that. This might get entertaining
You are right the standard Vette gets cold air from outside the engine compartment, the same location as C7 cold air systems. It gets air in a location outside the passenger side fender and an inner fender well. Below is a dyno graph from the company with their system. You're also probably right in that most increase is due to the lower restriction air filter, but their smoother air duct is some help. One thing I can validate is it makes a louder "sucking sound" at WOT! Not quite as loud as the 14 inch diameter 5 inch high K&N on the 8.2 liter BB in my street rod but definitely louder! In my street rod at WOT the air intake "sucking sound" is almost as loud as the exhaust produced by long tube headers, 3 inch pipes and Borla straight thru mufflers exiting just in front of the rear wheel wheels!
How much extra power is the AFE system actually producing? I doubt if it's the advertised 22 hp but certainly an increase. I added an AFE system and love that "sucking sound!".
As far as a "ram air effect" there is no significant increase with even one pointing straight ahead at highway speeds or even at 100 mph. Now for a Prostock drag car at 200 mph and with a huge scoop, yes there is some.
Power curves for AFE cold air system shows 22 hp increase
You are right the standard Vette gets cold air from outside the engine compartment, the same location as C7 cold air systems. It gets air in a location outside the passenger side fender and an inner fender well. Below is a dyno graph from the company with their system. You're also probably right in that most increase is due to the lower restriction air filter, but their smoother air duct is some help. One thing I can validate is it makes a louder "sucking sound" at WOT! Not quite as loud as the 14 inch diameter 5 inch high K&N on the 8.2 liter BB in my street rod but definitely louder! In my street rod at WOT the air intake "sucking sound" is almost as loud as the exhaust produced by long tube headers, 3 inch pipes and Borla straight thru mufflers exiting just in front of the rear wheel wheels!
How much extra power is the AFE system actually producing? I doubt if it's the advertised 22 hp but certainly an increase. I added an AFE system and love that "sucking sound!".
As far as a "ram air effect" there is no significant increase with even one pointing straight ahead at highway speeds or even at 100 mph. Now for a Prostock drag car at 200 mph and with a huge scoop, yes there is some.
Power curves for AFE cold air system shows 22 hp increase
Last edited by Steve Garrett; 12-03-2015 at 10:34 PM.
Reason: No need to requote the OP, especially when you're the next person posting.
I've been doing a lot of reading on this, the only conclusion I've come to is that it doesn't seem to add appreciable hp but it does make throttle response better. That's been the almost universal comment I've read. Of course some would say to just give it more gas, which is a completely valid point too. Ill be curious to see what people say that have added them.
It's not a very expensive bolt on that's easily reversed, and if it improves throttle response and adds sound, that works for me.
So not to stir up a beehive but After doing my eforce supercharger and basically taking the air cleaner assembly totally off its apparent that the CAI system's that I have seen aren't doing what guys think they are doing.
Now before you get your panties in a wad hear me out,,,,, On my C6 it made total sense because the snorkel pointed straight down on top of the radiator where you could get not only a cold air effect but also a ram air effect,,,,,,,,,,but on the C7 the snorkel points at an angle toward the fender and the airflow isn't direct at all and bends at leaste twice on the CAI systems I have seen!!!!
So are you really getting the "RAM AIR" effect that these vendors are claiming and cold air effect either? I would argue that the answer is "NO"
No offense to guys who buy these system's and say "man did it make a huge difference" and I get the halo effect of "feeling" like its better but I would argue its very minimal if at all.
Sure a higher flowing air filter could help but I would love to see actual dyno runs to prove that. This might get entertaining
Perhaps this is why Lingenfelter states what they do in the description below the green air filter they sell on their site:
i think intakes are a waste of time. on a stock car, or modded one. Add them in the past. Now of days these factory intakes are so good. only thing i would change is maybe the filter.
any stock stingray with some tuning can pick up around 20-30 hp so if they are adding the CAI and tuning as well that explains the chart.
I would certainly save the money on the CAI and just add an airfilter and a good tune like one from chuck cow!!! his stuff is LEGIT. not like the C6 and other makes like Camaro's etc.. the air direction on these things is pretty poorly designed, I liked the C6 version ram air setup going over the top of the radiator but on the C7 there is no way to do that from what I can see,,,,,
11K miles later: I've driven several stock 3LT/Z51 2014, then I have mine with the AFE CAI and their throttle body spacer. My "Butt" dyno tells me, with those tow MOD. I definitely have a faster throttle response, compare to a none MODed car. How much HP gain, not sure. But being in the manual mode and paddle shifting, definitely way better throttle response.
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I can see this discussion going on forever. Ad nauseam .......... I for one would like to see some real world before/after dyno testing on an otherwise bone stock C7. Done by someone other than the manufacture.
If LPE is going with nothing but a high flow air filter, that's good enough for me. They have a dyno or two and one would assume they've tinkered with cai's. I put the green air filter in mine and boy the horsepower increase!! Right. Lol. I wouldn't dump 4 or 5 hundred into a cai other than for engine dress up.
As long as you have that 90 degree bend in the air tube, i think the best you can do is put in a nice filter. To straighten out that air intake tube might require some rework of the hood. If someone was going to the trouble to put a new hood on their car, then it would be nice to see that the hood addresses the air intake issue... think back of what they did with ram air trans ams and Camaro SS's in 1999-2003.
any stock stingray with some tuning can pick up around 20-30 hp so if they are adding the CAI and tuning as well that explains the chart.
I would certainly save the money on the CAI and just add an airfilter and a good tune like one from chuck cow!!! his stuff is LEGIT. not like the C6 and other makes like Camaro's etc.. the air direction on these things is pretty poorly designed, I liked the C6 version ram air setup going over the top of the radiator but on the C7 there is no way to do that from what I can see,,,,,
Here is a test of the aFe system which got 18 hp instead of the manufacturers published 22 hp. There was no "tuning." You can also see the install and the quality of the parts. . http://www.corvetteonline.com/tech-s...2014-stingray/
When I talked to the tech at aFe I asked about the need for a special tune. He said unless adding long tube headers, it's not needed, however it will take running the engine for about a 100 miles (as I recall) to allow the air/fuel control system to optimize the calibration.
The effect of the best designed "ram air" system may add a few 0.1's psi between 60 to 100 mph but increasing pressure also increases the temperature canceling a portion of the small increased pressure benefit. Both effects are small at those speeds. Far better to have cold air taken from an area of slightly higher pressure (remember the cowl induction on some mussel cars versus the forward facing scoops that on the surface, looked like they would be more effective.) GM no doubt picked a good location for the C7 air intake. The aFe cold air intake design is also not limited to the OEM size filter since it has it's own housing
FWIW
My car is stock for now, only reason is I don't want to void the warrenty yet. I think most of the gains with these cai are the filter. I might install a green filter sometime soon but not a cai. I also plan on an E force and that would replace a cai anyway.
How are you liking the E Force, all finished tuning?
From all that I've researched I agree with Lingenfelter & also K&N that the easiest and most cost efficient is just adding a better flow filter. If you're going to add headers, intakes and a tune then go for a CAI. But just for a little better response, that's my opinion.
Go to any car forum and the CAI guys fight "the good fight".
From personal experience just installing a CAI does diddly on todays modern sports cars. Factory intakes are already designed for optimum efficiency.
Any dyno with a CAI showing gains is one of two cases:
A. Normal standard deviation from dyno runs due to environmental and other uncontrollable conditions.
B. The car has been tuned which is where the actual gains are coming from.
My last sports car had just a CAI on it. It made no discernible difference.
Last edited by TennisFreak; 12-03-2015 at 11:27 AM.
If LPE is going with nothing but a high flow air filter, that's good enough for me. They have a dyno or two and one would assume they've tinkered with cai's. I put the green air filter in mine and boy the horsepower increase!! Right. Lol. I wouldn't dump 4 or 5 hundred into a cai other than for engine dress up.
Does this green filter reqire coating with oil like a K&N? Never liked this concept.
Does this green filter reqire coating with oil like a K&N? Never liked this concept.
No...I have "the green" one, it's a dry filter. And I find no hp increase at all. I had a Cold air inductions, inc full CAI on my camaro, looked great but again, nothing I could feel.
All of these "High Flow" performance air filters get their increased flow by decreasing the air particle filtration performance.
While I don't buy used cars at this point, if I were in the market and saw that the air filtration was changed from stock, I'd reject that car from consideration.
and looked up the part number for the Air Filter on a base 2015 Stingray. The part number is 23107355.
Next I looked up the part number on a 2015 Z06. It is also part # 23107355.
So the same air filter is on the base car as the Z06. My reasoning is that if this filter flows enough air to feed the Z06, can't we assume that it flows way more than well enough for any other Corvette?
I installed a Vararam on my C5 and later put one on my C6. Did they make a difference? Well the C5 was harder to tell because I added headers and an intake manifold as well, but the car went from 13.1's to 12.6's consistantly. Later when I added a Vararam to my LS2 C6 I went from 12.8/12.9's to 12.2/12.3's all day long on street tires. So when someone says they don't make any difference they don't know what they're talking about. However, the stock air intakes on the later LS3's and now the LT1's are very much improved so the effect is not as great. But to say there's no effect is simply not true.
11-29-2015, 04:07 PM
Cold air induction on a C7 Stingray myth?
However, the stock air intakes on the later LS3's and now the LT1's are very much improved so the effect is not as great. But to say there's no effect is simply not true.