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CAI for turbo applications, who does it?

733 Views 14 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Nitelife
I was wondering how many of you make a CAI for your maf to turbo pipe. I searched but coudnt find much on the subject.
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No point really. Plus its hard to do unless you set it next to the tranny but that leaves it wide open for water.
I guess i should be more specific, this is more for ppl with log style manifolds i guess where the turbo is up top and u can ether run a striaght pipe or curve it down to make a cai
Witt19 said:
I was wondering how many of you make a CAI for your maf to turbo pipe. I searched but coudnt find much on the subject.
I made a CAI for my HotShot turbo setup:

http://www.brazosport.edu/~lshadoff/turbo/cai.html

Lew
is there any proof that this mod actually makes more power over having the intake in the engine bay? I would think it would, being it could draw colder air.
i was thinking of doing this but didn't know how much more power it would make and if it was even worth doing it
I was contemplating including this in my set-up. I don't see why it wouldn't give an increase in power; its still going to pull colder air, except now there is a turbo pulling more of the cold air in.
It seems like it would not matter one bit. The air is going through a hot ass turbo anyway. It depends on how good of an I/C you have.
97SE-R C2 said:
It seems like it would not matter one bit. The air is going through a hot ass turbo anyway. It depends on how good of an I/C you have.
I'm not trying to instigate an argument here, but it just seems that while yes the turbo is going to heatsoak the intake charge, there is still the fact that you are sucking more air in via a CAI.

Say you are sucking in x amount of air through a regular intake, pop charger, whatever, it is going to encounter the turbo, heat soak a bit, and continue on its course.
With a CAI you are sucking in x amount of air plus the variable amount (y) from pulling in a colder more dense source of air. The x+y intake charge hits the turbo and heatsoaks before continuing on its course. I don't see how the turbo is going to somehow even out the density between the two.

It seems a CAI setup, with efficient FMIC, and even Thermoblock IM spacers would be the optimum set up to keep the incoming air at the lowest possible temperature before hitting the combustion chambers, thus freeing up a few extra (maybe more than just a few) ponies. Thats just my opinion. I'd like to hear opposing views or counter remarks.
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WHile at higher speeds there is air movement under the hood, so its not just hot air its pulling in all the time. At low speeds though It would be a benefit. Either way its not a bad idea and probably would work a little better.
the air is cooled eather way, so i dont see how its going to help you really, thats the hole point of having an intercooler to cool the air going into the intake.
i pointed mine straight down and drove through some super bad rain storms and puddles with no problems. I have a long K&N filter on it also.

brent
my explaination was tooconfusing. yes, theory says cai = more power. could result in less work for turbo or faster spool up. this is related to the pressure at the turbo outlet which is governed by the density/temp. of the inlet air. It gets confusing because we are not only dealing with tempurate but pressure.ie.PSI. when air is heated to a set temp, the final pressure will be relative to the inital temp. so when we want 10psi, it will be achieved faster with colder intake air. (faster spool up).
The advantages come down to how the turbo works. does it heat incoming air a set amout or degrees, or does it heat incoming air to a set degree? there is a difference but both cases will produce more HP with colder intake air. (theory). the problem is that it may be insignificant!!!
I was just thinking about this again. Just wanted to bring up some other points I was pondering. It seems like this may work better for a T3/T4 or bigger turbo. Maybe help spool up a bit faster due to more air? Also since more air is coming in, this may not be the best thing to do on a setup with 370cc injectors and a bored maf, since we are pushing the limits of the maf's voltage with this setup.

Again, these are just thoughts passing through my head. They may be unfounded, just trying to look at possible downsides.
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