Thread: CAI vs WAI: Myth?

pics?

Well it does

Agreed on that, the flow stack alone did some very interesting things to my A/F ratios.

hey vadim no one makes an air box for sr20's do they?

I don't think there is one for a FWD sr20 but people have used the ARC Induction box and modded it to fit the sr20 in the b13/b14's.

Doing the same thing very soon. Me personaly I like my warm air intake and the throttle reponse time it brings with it.

a wai or cai will definetly affect air/fuel ratios. And thats where tuning can take a big part in how the car reacts.

Here is the deal. Our cars use a mass air flow meter with a hotwire type sensor. Different air temperatures will affect the sensor reading period no questions asked. If you have cooler air passing over the sensor it will cool the hotwire at the same amount of airflow thus adding fuel to the engine. This is why your car runs alot richer at startup and in the morning time. This can be seen on your wideband if you have one.

Argument over. A cai can be very benificial not only because you get the added benifit of having cool air but if you tune the a/f back to what it should be to compensate for the cooler air you will see even more noticable gains. Also if you have a cai this will allow you to bump your timing up as well and that will bring your a/f a bit better and give you more power.

This is what i enjoyed most about tuning an all motor car. There is soo many variables depending on your setup to make the best power.

Although, I don't have data for a B13, I do have data from a few other cars that indicated that the intake air temperature on a WAI system was a extremely close to ambient.

Although this is mostly the case, it seems many of the average forum goers are misinformed.

well when you are actually driving it probably is close but it will still be a bit hotter under the hood.

I did switch to blow-thru. You can put the maf in the engine bay 12" from the turbo, with the rest of the intake outside in the fender. There is no doubt in my mind that getting my air from outside the bay would improve power. This is a fact, and on a turbo car it will make an even larger difference because compressor efficiency will change based on air temp.

Even on a NA engine the CAI will make more power when it is designed right. But there is an easy way to test this on the dyno. If anyone can dyno and bring in the data proving that a WAI will make the same power or even within 2% then I would be impressed. CAI will make more power and I am sticking behind that one. There is no way that 200* air going into the turbo is going to be beneficial, regardless of heat soak and yada yada.

For NA I still think that a CAI will make better power. Let's put them on the dyno. WAI with the hood closed, vs with the hood open will prove a point.