Cold Air Intake

If i put in a Cold Air intake in my 2003 civic dx, will i notice any
difference in pickup or gas milage?

 

I don't know about CAI's affecting gas mileage, but I would say the car
breathes better with a CAI, & I would say you would pick-up a few extra
horses. Cold air is getter than hot air. Get a bypass valve installed on
your CAI, though.

 

Hey, what exactly is a bypass valve? and why do you recommend it over a cold
air intake?
thanks

 

The CAI input is inside the wheel well, so when you drive through big
puddles, it will suck water into your engine. As you can imagine, that
is not the best thing to happen, because at the least your engine will
stall. A bypass valve will help prevent the water from entering the engine.

Cosmin

 

I don't recommend it over a CAI, it's an addition that fits ON a cold air
intake. I've seen them cheapest on Ebay for ~$15, but if you go someplace
else, you'll pay ~$40-$50. Ebay has a CAI (or used to) by BOMZ Racing that
works fine, WITH the bypass valve for ~$60 total. I bought the BOMZ
short-ram off Ebay, & the CAI (for my '92 Teg) wasn't offered, or I just
didn't notice it. I would've bought it, though, & I've heard it works great.
You can go higher quality, though, & get AEM, K&N, etc., & pay well over
$100 just for the intake.

Do a Google search on "cold air intake bypass valve" & see what comes up.
You'll prolly find lots of info on bypass valves. I'd give you some links
about them, but my pc is b.s.'ing me right now, so I gotta reboot..... ;{

Basically, from what I understand, the bypass valve stops water from
entering the intake, that would then go into the throttle body, which is not
good. You have to cut the CAI's pipe to install the bypass (if it's not cut
already).The reason you don't need a bypass valve on a sort-ram intake (like
I have) is because the short-ram is shorter than a CAI, & does not exit the
engine area (bay/compartment), unlike the CAI, which comes out of the engine
area & sucks in cooler air that's further away from the engine, hence the
name "cold-air intake". I'm prolly wrong on some things there, but I took a
stab at answering that the best I could.

 

According to a book that I own
"The result [of a cold air intake intake system] is a 7 to 8 percent
increase in real horsepower"

The book did not mention any figures related to gas milage. It's my guess
that the miles per gallon would not be effected in any significant way.
For example, if your miles per gallon were 29 without the cold air intake,
it would be about 28 miles per gallon after the cold air intake was
installed.

Be careful when you install it. I saw a recent post from someone that
installed it incorrectly. When it rained, it would suck water from the
road into the system. There is a method of installing it that will keep
this from happening.

 

Well,actually,the intake end of the cold air intake is generally LOW to the
ground,(much lower than the stock air intake)that's why it can suck up
water when driving thru deep puddles.

 

What's cold air?

 

If this is a serious question, all I know about "cold air", when referring
to a cold-air intake on a car, is air that the CAI brings in that's cooler
than the air immediately around the engine bay/area. People install
intercoolers on their cars when turbo kit is being used to cool the
intake/turbo air even further. HTH.

 

colder air= denser air,more O2;more fuel can be added for more power.

Because in compressing or forcing air into the cylinder,the turbo or
supercharger greatly heats it up. A hot air/fuel charge ignites
sooner,perhaps TOO soon(preignition,very damaging to a motor)

 

air from up here in the great north