In the good ole days...
Wed just flip the lid on the air cleaner of our "Carburated" motors....
It sounded cool to actually hear that big azz 4bbl kick open...
and actually hear it suckn the life out of anyone with in a 5 ft radius!

But for those of us that were actually in tune with the cars we owned...
any minor gain in HP was actually a seat of the pants feel...So, by trying different air cleaners,filters etc....We could actually find the best setup for those vehicles...

As far as these new hypedup computerized,fuel injected, turbo and supercharged motors,vehicles...Thats a tuff call to make to make a clear decision on what "works" versus the afore said "placebo" effect...
A dyno nowadays is the only true way to see if theres a real gain of HP...

 

I'm not sure what to think about the video. They never really isolated the filter inside the engine compartment to keep the engine temps from affecting the air going into the filter, effectively making a "hot air" intake. They put a cover on it once, but I seriously doubt they put as much effort into keeping the hot air out of the filter as companies like CAI do.

Also, the biggest thing I thought of was that they weren't driving the car. If the car is moving forward and sucking air as it's moving, the air stands to be cooler. Just like when you roll your windows down while driving. The air coming into the car through the open windows cools down the inside of the car (provided you don't have your sunroof open and the sun is directly beating down on you).

I'm not saying these guys are full of "hot air", but I don't consider their tests to be done during normal driving conditions.

 

I'm not saying I completely agree with the results in this video, primarily because there test car from the FACTORY was a performance car. But you missed two important items.

1 - You state they never really isolated the into the filter from the engine heat. If you saw the final test, they used a long hose (which I assume was rated to insulate heat) and brought the filter completely OUT of the car, thus removing it from any any all heat contained IN the car. The only heat, if at all, that the air got was from heat soak through the hose (again, I'm guessing that would not add up to much and again, the goal was to exaggerate that if the filter was moved to a source where the air is coolest, that's what the engine will suck in).

2 - You state they weren't driving the car. It won't matter. It was not hype or BS the guy said when he mentioned they use a BIG industrial fan pointed at the car. All dyno shops I've seen/heard of use a big blower fan that forces air on/in to the car in a manner that simulates normal driving conditions and to help keep the car cool (other wise, without that fan, you would have really messed up results).

 

Good points.

I just have never been convinced one way or the other on cold air intakes. I guess after watching the video, I'm still not convinced either way.

 

they also state they were going to do it the way most people do i know lots of people that do it without the box. i wonder if i put a cone filter into the box how it would work because thats basically what the expensive CAI's are.