Cold Air Intake

A cold air intake is usually the starting point of all upgrades. When people talk about bolt on upgrades they are usually talking about cold air intakes and performance exhaust systems. A cold air intake gets you more power by getting you colder, more dense air. If your vehicle is getting more dense air then it is getting more air, and that means more power, but not only do you get colder air with a cold air intake, but it is also gets air a lot easier because the cone filter of a cold air intake has less resistance than a stock cold air intake.

There is only one real downfall of a cold air intake and that is that it puts the intake farther away from your engine to get colder air, but this causes the air to have to travel a lot further to reach the engine. There is a lot of debate about whether it should be far away and get colder air or closer and get faster air, but I suggest somewhere in the middle meaning not too far away and not to close. But Import Tuner Magazine recently did a test on a 350z that showed the intake further away (getting colder air) added more power.

If you have a car with quite a bit of power and were thinking of doing a dual intake system I highly recommend doing one where the coldest air is and one closer to the engine so you get the best of both designs.