Anyone here install a cold air intake on a N/A GM 3.8?
If so is it a worth while upgrade?
3800 series 3 cold air intake
- Thread starter richport29
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No it is not it will allow excess debris into the engine and shorten it's service life. The engineers that design the air box and filtration systems are highly intelligent and it really shouldn't be messed with. Nor will messing with it yield any benefits at all.
Originally Posted By: ram_man
No it is not it will allow excess debris into the engine and shorten it's service life. The engineers that design the air box and filtration systems are highly intelligent and it really shouldn't be messed with. Nor will messing with it yield any benefits at all.
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Originally Posted By: ram_man
No it is not it will allow excess debris into the engine and shorten it's service life. The engineers that design the air box and filtration systems are highly intelligent and it really shouldn't be messed with. Nor will messing with it yield any benefits at all.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2023
Not worth it, there's been test results showing large amounts of dirt coming in through K&N air filters. Your engine is basically a vacuum pump and will suck in as much air as it needs to (within reason) through the factory air box.
Unless you turbocharged the engine and have no other option its pretty much a worthless mod.
Have you taken a look at the OEM intake design? I could understand if it had Hemholtz resonators and a convoluted twisty air path....But the OEM set up is 12 inches long from opening to throttle body, straight line and pulls air directly from behind the drivers headlamp. It's filter element is isolated from the engine bay heat in a air-box that already flows more air than the engine can use.
How can this really get any better?
I have read many after market intake websites with no conclusive dyno results from an 'upgrade' to these intakes. Many 'ram air' 'cold air' after market intakes have been myth-busted to perform actually poorer than the OEM setup. The Thrasher claims that their intakes are 21c cooler, protect against foul weather better than open air element-type filter setups...well these are the same results that can be found using the OEM one. It's your $$, but $225+ for a little different intake growl and less effective filtration makes for poor investment to me.
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Please don't do this to a 3.8 cold air intakes do nothing. And for them to do something you typically need to re-map the computer. (Professionally modified sports cars).
GM spent millions designing theses cars and the air box for maximum efficiency.
Engines work under vacuum. The engine will get all the air it needs.
Only time people notice a improvement with a cold air intake is when they replace a $3 cardboard filter that is 5-6 years old and 20-30k miles past its prime.
They do flow better but like I said just because there's more air doesn't mean the engine will take it.
Ultimately your trading filtration for flow and trust me any good air filter replaced regularly will give you all the flow you need.
But if you insist to get one just buy a drop in model.
Places like K&N do dozens of Dino runs with theses filters and they compare the very worst run with what ever filter they choose to use to the best run with their filter. They can legal do this so just because they promise a performance gain doesn't make it true.
You can watch videos online from many reputable youtubers who uses multiple cars with and without cold air filters and OEM filters. I promise you at the end of every one the OEM and the millions paid in engineering the original air box always won.
GM designed this CAI...
And it doesn't seem, across the fleet of vehicles using it, to be causing too much devastation behind it...it's got the regular filter, just draws cold air.
My 4WD Nissan (Fronteir in US speak) managed to suck water in driving through a 2" puddle, with an air intake much much higher off the ground than the Holden.
And it doesn't seem, across the fleet of vehicles using it, to be causing too much devastation behind it...it's got the regular filter, just draws cold air.
My 4WD Nissan (Fronteir in US speak) managed to suck water in driving through a 2" puddle, with an air intake much much higher off the ground than the Holden.Originally Posted By: richport29
Anyone here install a cold air intake on a N/A GM 3.8?
Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Please don't do this to a 3.8 cold air intakes do nothing. And for them to do something you typically need to re-map the computer. (Professionally modified sports cars).
GM spent millions designing theses cars and the air box for maximum efficiency.
Engines work under vacuum. The engine will get all the air it needs.
Only time people notice a improvement with a cold air intake is when they replace a $3 cardboard filter that is 5-6 years old and 20-30k miles past its prime.
They do flow better but like I said just because there's more air doesn't mean the engine will take it.
Ultimately your trading filtration for flow and trust me any good air filter replaced regularly will give you all the flow you need.
But if you insist to get one just buy a drop in model.
Places like K&N do dozens of Dino runs with theses filters and they compare the very worst run with what ever filter they choose to use to the best run with their filter. They can legal do this so just because they promise a performance gain doesn't make it true.
You can watch videos online from many reputable youtubers who uses multiple cars with and without cold air filters and OEM filters. I promise you at the end of every one the OEM and the millions paid in engineering the original air box always won.
Sure, OEM intakes usually suck in cold air, the problem is that some of them often have narrow tubing, small filter surface area, only part of the filter used effectively, less than ideal routing, and sometimes the noise canceling devices are an airflow restriction. This doesn't apply to everything, some OEM intakes are hard to improve on, and flow so well, that supercharger kits or upgrades don't replace the whole OE intake.
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