General CAI information
 

OK so.... I have been reading thread after thread and I'm having a hard time getting solid information on this.

But as far as drop ins and post maf tubes vs takeda or Stillen g3s.

So I've read that CAI mostly only ad high end HP and even decrease torque. And that the drop ins make less power but it is in the lower rpm range. thanks for any help in advance.

I'll tell you what I know about drop-ins. The stock air box is already very good. The best bang for your buck would for sure be drop-ins and MAF tubes.

Thanks Élan. Not too concerned about best bang for buck I just think it would be a little idiotic to spend hundreds of dollars and lose torque even if it was just a little bit.

Most losses that people talk about due to the G3's are from not getting a tune afterwards. Get it tuned and any losses should go away.

I never thought about that factor.

I would like to get an FI exhaust and intake. I'm not sure what else I could get that would make a tune "worth" it or could potentially do before I finalize everything with a tune.

Headers in a perfect world would be nice, but just don't seem reasonable for me.

Pulleys seem iffy. And I'm not sure where to buy from at this point after reading that thread anyways.

I guess I could do one more breather mod. I dunno haha

Changes are nominal and you wont notice any difference other than sound in your engine bay. Yea they add a few ponies so my advice is get what you like. K&N, Takeda, Stillen, etc are all good choices. These CAI's are not game changers but they do dress up your engine bay quite nice.

Ive seen AEM's make power all the way. through the rpm range. I've seen it in AEM's testing, motoiq's testing, and in my own. I'll admit I had NST pulleys in mine at the same time, so it wasn't a perfect observation. Some members have complained of the eti module that adjusts the mafreadings, but I didn't have issues before. You can also easily bypass them. Most intakes neck back down at the maf (2.75" to 2.5"), except for a couple CAI's. With tuning, pretty much guaranteed you gain power everywhere, with the most up top. Stillen is running a special on their crank pulley if you're wary of NST. This last batch was the first real issue I've seen with them getting those out to customers within a reasonable amount of time. Garageline also sells stock sized crank and alternator pulleys at a great price.

Headers aren't the best bang for buck, but the gains are proven and you really don't see stock headers push 50+whp gains (there might be a couple out there). But with Z1's, or PPE's, big gains are guaranteed and the more you open up the breathing, the farther they take you. The drawbacks are the costs and install. You''re looking at $2,000+ with install on PPEs. They can run from $1200-$1750 depending on temp coating, material type (stainless or a mild steel), and merge collector type. Z1's start around $1100 with test pipes. If you decide to run resonated cats (DE style), expect to pay $300-$400 more. It's highly recommended to tune them for the best gains.