Do cold air intakes really give you more horsepower? If so is there one out there that can fit a gbody cutlass without doing alot and look nice as well?
Cold Air Intake
- Thread starter MWA
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MWA said:
Depends how well designed they are, most CAI kits are poorly designed and create alot of turbulence, but that affects EFI more than carbs but still is not good for both.
I'm in the process of trying to fabricate a ram air setup on my '84 Monte SS. I'm trying to fit a slim air intake in the lower front valence on the car. I'm looking at a kit from ramairss.com. Its meant for a mid '90s Impala SS, but I think I can get it to work on my Monte, with a few modifications.
As Clone Tie Pilot has pointed out, it probably won't provide much of an improvement in performance, but I'm hoping that it won't hurt performance, and look kind of cool.
As Clone Tie Pilot has pointed out, it probably won't provide much of an improvement in performance, but I'm hoping that it won't hurt performance, and look kind of cool.
Things to consider for doing a cold air set up are= Cooler air going into the carb will create HP. Just having an open element 14" air cleaner on will get the heated air from the fan blown right into it. Also the exhaust manifold/header heat. The ethanol based fuels now have been creating problems with carb equipped vehicles. It has a faster boiling rate. On the last few street rods I've built with carbs, they were hard to start after driving somewhere and shutting it off, like getting fuel at station or a cup of coffee. On restart, it acted flooded. I had one that would die driving on the highway. This was happening mid summer 90+ degree outside temps. Ended up using a phenolic spacer and it stopped it immediately. A cold air will help with this as well. Engine compartment heat is bad. Definitely don't want that heat going down my carbs. My dad has an original 82 Chevy truck. In the summer it was vapor locking. Put on a thin phenolic spacer and it fixed it that quick. My buddys 57 Chevy was doing it too. He went to Auto Zone and bought one that's aluminum with a plastic'phenolic center and it did NOT fix it. I loaned him a 1/2" solid phenolic and it fixed it. I had always heard old timers talk about vapor lock and thought it was bull. Those days ethanol was being sold at the pumps. Now ethanol is back and some are getting vapor lock again. My dad said they used wood clothes pins on their fuel lines 
I don't think CAI is worth a ton, but if done properly, it won't hurt and may help. I base this on the fact that 4th Gen F-bodies saw about a tenth improvement in the quarter with it. Hopefully going from an open-element to CAI will be worth 1-2 tenths. Not betting the house on it, but still going to try, and it's still cool, even if worthless. I intend to fab a system up on mine, planning to use the W30 under-bumper scoops.
Just chipping in my 2 cents worth...Here's mine in mock up stage
This is what I've done
The filters mount on the front side of the rad support, and draw cold air rammed in from behind custom fabbed mesh screens under the headlights.
Granted, it's not an easy off the shelf part, but it's unique, functional, and not another boring 14" round air cleaner.
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