Does a cold air intake improve fuel economy?
Need a specific test, or data to prove whether or not it will improve your fuel economy at all.
I know how it works, and I know that you could possible gain 1-2 mpg, but has there ever been any actual TESTS done in a real world environment or on a dyno that would support the claim?
Let me answer your question after I explain this.
Different engines have a specific optimal temperature for performance. Auto engineers have worked that out and properly programmed the Engine Computer Unit (ECU) to manage the engine ACCORDING to the specs of the various parts of the engine. They have also included a program in the ECU to compensate for weather fluctuation, humidity level, temperature level etc. I'll call this "self-learning program". However this program has a limited capacity, it can only adapt to a certain extend. If you modify your engine past the parameters of this program's capacity, the ECU will not be able to manage the engine properly. That's when other aftermarket hardware/software comes in to tune (recalibrate) your ECU beyond it's original program capacity to function with whatever modifications added to the engine.
There is a air intake sensor in place before the air enters the throttle body into the intake manifold. This data is to let the ECU calculate a baseline as to how much fuel should be injected. There is another sensor called MAP sensor (Manifold Absolute Pressure) in place on the intake manifold before the ECU decides how much fuel should be injected to mix with the air before the intake valve opens and let the Air Fuel Mixture in.
Once in the engine there is a knock sensor (newer vehicle) in place to see if the the air fuel mixture is too lean(air more than fuel) or rich(fuel more than air).
Leaner gets more power but increases temperature drastically to the extend that fuel ignite even before spark is created which is when the piston travels up in your engine creating a "metal knocking" sound when they collide (Very Bad) This can destroy your engine faster than you think.
Richer will run engine smoother but less power (believe it or not) and runs engine cooler because petroleum actually helps cool down engine!! Too rich and unburn fuel runs out exhaust and pollute air. Some also stays in engine which is mostly those black residue. Oh and you waste fuel.
I can go on but I think yo get the idea how complicated it is.
The Answer: Unless you change the whole system and have an expert to re-tune the ECU to work with the system to A:save fuel or B: have more power, the Cold Air Intake alone will do jack! At first you will feel some added power and fuel economy..then the Self-learning Program in your ECU compensate for the change then you are back to square 1 minus whatever you spent for the intake.
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cold air intake is designed to decrease the temperature of the air entering your car to take full advantage of your engine’s power. Colder, denser air acts like “food” for your engine, giving it the extra amount of power that it needs to perform optimally. thus giving you more horsepower, better performance and better fuel economy.
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cold air does not increase efficiency…it's just the opposite. Warm air..and warm fuel increase efficiency through better vaporization of the fuel.
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Every vehicle made in or imported into the U.S. since the early eighties has a cold air system in place. And NO, that cute aluminum pipe will NOT gain any hp or mileage.
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Cold air is denser (hot air is thinner). The cylinders would therefore have more air in them to compress and would give you a bit more horsepower and torque. But I don't think you get any actual fuel economy out of it.
With today's cars, the computer and all the sensors they have, I would think the O2 (exhaust) sensor would still adjust the fuel input to keep the engine running the way the computer is programed to run it. Which is usually a fine balance between efficiency, power and environment (exhaust gases).
If you did get some fuel economy, would it be enough to pay for the air cooler?
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Ok you just think. In a piston, There is something called compression ratio. This highly depend on temperature and the pressure of the piston. When your fuel-air mixture goes into the piston, it all depends on the compression power of your piston to make the fuel explode with great force.
As pressure increase, temperature increase but the flashpoint of fuel dun increase. Thats why fuels have formula-95, formula-98. The number after the fuel name is the octane number.
Octane is a very balanced fuel for petroleum. Diesel is much thicker so thats why diesel engines uses only pure pressure to combust.
So a piston needs temperature and pressure in order to produce a high output torque. So cold air doesn't help to improve fuel economy, it just make the piston produce lower output power.
Cold air intake is to maintain your engine at a certain temperature to PREVENT the alloys of the engine to be melted, you know the concept of RED HOT HARDNESS?
The car engine needs heat to move as a major source of energy. However the downside of heat is that it makes the metal parts expand and even in some parts of the engine for mostly high performance cars, engine parts can melt.
Clearance between parts are meant to make tolerate there things and anything beyond that goes into excessive wear and tear.
So remember, cold air intake DOES NOT improve fuel economy. BUT IT MERELY MEANT TO INCREASE YOUR ENGINES LIFE!!!
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Ok, everyone seems to have a different theory, even automotive engineers disagree on this subject. Here is the results of our own tests performed on the racetrack and dyno shop.
On a carburated engine, cold air lowered the horsepower and torque significantly when we used a freon system to take the intake air to below 75 degrees F. The colder we went the worse it got. We figured since the cold air holds more oxygen, it would increase performance, but the opposite happened. Why? After much testing we decided that the gasoline from the carburator was too cold to vaporize properly, thus expelling unburned gas out the tailpipe and wasting energy. By using hot water to heat the manifold, the performance increased greatly. Then we worked on a fuel injected engine, and found that the cold air had a similar effect, but to a lesser degree, untill we decided to heat the fuel before injecting it. Performance increased drastically with cold air and hot fuel, but after 3 catastrophic engine explosions, we also scrapped that idea as unsafe. I know a lot of engineers will dissagree with this, but it was documented over three years of trial and error testing.
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Slow down on the freeway ,check your tire pressure, keep your engine maintained(filters and lube,spark plugs,wires,etc)
ease into the throttle from a stop with an auto trans or progessivly shift if you have a stick.
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600,000 mile OTR, best MPG 7.734 with 79,400 lbs. MPLS.,MN to Laredo, TX
Factory air-boxes are way better than most aftermarket "cold" air intakes. The engineers at the factory didn't spend all that time designing the intake to suck air from the fender, hood, or some other location outside of the engine bay just for hell of it.
The only disadvantage of factory intakes is air flow. They are usually pretty restrictive. So if you get an aftermarket intake, and suck the air from outside the engine bay, you are most certainly going to see an increase in power. Every 10* temp change is equal to 1HP! So if you're cooling the air at the manifold by 50*-100*, that's 5-10HP.
Doesn't seem like a whole lot, but a true 5-10Hp is quite a bit, and it's a lot more when combined with other aftermarket mods.
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923
No need to have to prove it, it's fact already. Mack
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Not that this matters, but colder air can hold more oxygen which in turn burns the fuel better, which does cause the o2 sensor to adjust the fuel air ratio, but it does improve fuel mileage, and it does add horsepower and torque to the engine since the more oxygen there is the more volatile and potent the air becomes. Hotter air is thinner and cannot hold as much oxygen for it has less air particles in it to hold the oxygen.
Sorry though I couldn't find any specific test that supports this.
Kev;)
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No,engines are designed to run at specific temperatures for the best utilization of fuel.The fuel is atomized by the air/fuel ratio.Also,cold air can cause damage to your engine.The "air scoops that you see on some so called hot rods are not helping a thing one bit.
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I have helped build high performance/racing engines.
Let me answer your question after I explain this.
Different engines have a specific optimal temperature for performance. Auto engineers have worked that out and properly programmed the Engine Computer Unit (ECU) to manage the engine ACCORDING to the specs of the various parts of the engine. They have also included a program in the ECU to compensate for weather fluctuation, humidity level, temperature level etc. I'll call this "self-learning program". However this program has a limited capacity, it can only adapt to a certain extend. If you modify your engine past the parameters of this program's capacity, the ECU will not be able to manage the engine properly. That's when other aftermarket hardware/software comes in to tune (recalibrate) your ECU beyond it's original program capacity to function with whatever modifications added to the engine.
There is a air intake sensor in place before the air enters the throttle body into the intake manifold. This data is to let the ECU calculate a baseline as to how much fuel should be injected. There is another sensor called MAP sensor (Manifold Absolute Pressure) in place on the intake manifold before the ECU decides how much fuel should be injected to mix with the air before the intake valve opens and let the Air Fuel Mixture in.
Once in the engine there is a knock sensor (newer vehicle) in place to see if the the air fuel mixture is too lean(air more than fuel) or rich(fuel more than air).
Leaner gets more power but increases temperature drastically to the extend that fuel ignite even before spark is created which is when the piston travels up in your engine creating a "metal knocking" sound when they collide (Very Bad) This can destroy your engine faster than you think.
Richer will run engine smoother but less power (believe it or not) and runs engine cooler because petroleum actually helps cool down engine!! Too rich and unburn fuel runs out exhaust and pollute air. Some also stays in engine which is mostly those black residue. Oh and you waste fuel.
I can go on but I think yo get the idea how complicated it is.
The Answer: Unless you change the whole system and have an expert to re-tune the ECU to work with the system to A:save fuel or B: have more power, the Cold Air Intake alone will do jack! At first you will feel some added power and fuel economy..then the Self-learning Program in your ECU compensate for the change then you are back to square 1 minus whatever you spent for the intake.
References :
Throttle body spacer will do better on MPG. K&N eng. do testing on cold air intakes. E3 plugs are also good for MPG , although there are some new ones that claim to be more effective, Plus==something, can't remember the brand. But for good fuel economy===good old 55MPH. or single barel carb.
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