Auto Accessories - Cold Air Intakes

Summary: In this series of articles we will be looking individually at some basic auto accessories that most people find to be necessary for your high performance vehicle. In this particular one we will be looking at cold air intakes, one of the first things most of the modifiers in the industry take care of right off the bat.

So lets talk about the whole theory of an intake and in particular of a cold air intake. We all know that an engine mixes air and fuel together, compresses it and then ignites the concoction, that creates a small explosion in your cylinders. So in the digital world the engine computer takes care of this concoction to the best of it's ability. Here is another piece of information, the colder the air is, the denser it is. What does it mean to you? The denser the air in the mix with fuel, the bigger the explosion in your cylinders, the bigger the explosion in your cylinders, the more horsepower you get. So we want to take advantage of this and put in as cold (dense) air as we can in our cylinders to create more horsepower. Now to make a clarification of what a cold air intake really is and what it is not. There are intakes that are called short or ram intakes, and these are not considered cold air intakes. It is a better performing air intake system since it involves a better breathing filter and an intake tube that has less turns and kinks to improve the intake of air to your engine. Yet, consider where the a short or ram intake is placed; right next to the engine. Well, if you haven't noticed the engine produces heat and that heat is kept in the engine compartment, thus when those short or ram air intakes suck in air they are sucking in the hot air in the engine compartment. Since hot air is less dense than cold air, you may not be getting the best possible performance out of engine. Coming out of stage right, the cold air intake. Now there are thousands of variations as to what a cold air intake looks like, there is no real variation for what it does. The filter is put as far away as possible from the engine where it can suck in ambient air, which in most cases is colder than the air inside your engine compartment. They are done in several ways, some have longer intake tubes and are put either inside the fender or downwards towards the ground to suck in fresh air. Some use a box that prevents air from the engine compartment to enter so that in can suck in air from the outside. Which ever company you choose to buy this item from, buy from a reputable source. A good reputable company invest plenty of money in research and development to give you the best possible product and while some may look the part, they don't perform the part. This has been a short introduction to a one of the favorite auto accessories in the market: The Cold Air Intake. We will be creating more articles about auto accessories in the future so please visit us at the resource box below and make sure you have the inside scoop on what is what in the auto modifiers industry.