How To Choose The Right Air Intake

Cold Air Vs. Ram Air Vs. Short Ram Air Vs. Stock

Making sure your engine can readily breathe in all the air it needs to meet your power goals is a complicated task with many components to consider. Still, one of the most immediate updates you can make to this system is upgrading the air intake.

The proper intake for your build will depend on various factors, including application, routing options, and performance goals. As such, it's essential to know the distinctions between cold air intakes, ram air intakes, and your stock intake.

Slapping on a pod filter in place of your factory filter box is generally one of the worse things you can do for an intake in terms of performance. You might get some more sound out of the intake, and you might sound faster, but sucking in all that hot air from the engine bay through the restrictive stock intake piping isn't doing any wonders for your power numbers. Getting your car set up with the proper intake comes with understanding the differences, and that's exactly what we'll clear up here.

Why Upgrade Your Intake

The main thing you want to do with an upgraded air intake is get a higher air mass into the engine bay. With the laws of thermodynamics in mind, we know that a given air mass can have different volumes (the amount of space it takes up) at different temperatures. Higher temperature air needs more space given pressure is constant. Since your cylinders have a set volume (save a few VCR engines), the goal is then to increase the mass of air to yield more power, and can be done by lowering the temperature.

However, if the air intake is restrictive, the cylinders can't effectively fill up with air to their full capacity, so the end goal is to have a free-flowing air intake that keeps the intake temperatures down. With those two things in mind, you'll be able to optimize the intake for your vehicle. Let's take a look at your options.

Ram air intake

Ram air intakes are essentially cold air intakes that are designed to make use of direct airflow to increase the flow rate and take advantage of your vehicle's speed. This type of intake uses the increased air pressure due to vehicle motion to increase intake air pressure, effectively allowing the engine to bring in more oxygen and allowing it to burn more fuel (to make more power). Vehicles with exterior scoops that channel air into the intake can be considered to have a ram air intake. All else constant, a ram air intake will typically outperform a cold air intake at high speeds, but the difference may be negligible at low speeds.

Short Ram air intake

Short ram air intakes make the intake length as short as possible to reduce any restriction caused by the intake piping. As a result, this will typically be the loudest kind of intake you can put on your car. This also means they usually draw in air from the engine bay, so the effectiveness of a short ram intake will vary wildly depending on your intake placement. Still, these types of intakes are typically best for applications where the underhood temperatures remain moderate.

Can you keep stock intake piping?

You can do anything you'd like with your build, of course, and if you like keeping the stock appearance, keeping the stock intake piping can do wonders to reinforce the sleeper look. Using a high-flowing air filter in place of the factory paper filter can help you increase the flow rate, as can widening the inlet, if possible, for your application. Improving your performance while maintaining the stock intake is possible; speak with the professionals at Boostin Performance to see how to make it happen.

Find the Best Intake for Your Build with Boostin Performance

Knowing how each kind of intake works is an important consideration when choosing which is best for your build, but it's far from the only factor to consider. Everything from your camshaft(s) to your exhaust diameter can affect how your intake alters your performance, and that's not even to mention forced induction setups, so start a conversation with us at Boostin Performance to figure out the best products for your build. What's more, a fancy new intake won't make the difference it's capable of until you get a tune, so start with us at Boostin Performance to schedule your tune today. Our team of experts has the experience and the passion to help you achieve your goals in all things performance. Give us a call or stop by today.