Cold Air Intake or Something Else?
 

I recently purchased a used 2001 Mustang GT Convertible and I want to upgrade it a bit. I was thinking about purchasing a cold air intake to start. I was looking around and I know that it won't give me much horsepower upgrade, only about 1-2 RWHP. My question is, will it make the car sound a litter "beefier" and what's the difference between the $89, $189, and $229 CAIs from AmericanMuscle.com?

Thanks!

get a drop in K&N and call it day with that mod. save the money for something more useful, like gears.

If you must get an ebay cheapo intake they all do the same shit, not alot.

Yeah all I have done in this area on my 01 is a K&N Dropin filter and removed air silencer. One day maybe I will get a JLT CAI or K&N RAID setup, but not on high priority...

I had a cheapo from EBAY I picked up for $40 and I just swapped in a BBK from AM and I noticed gains instantlly, but not the 10-15 hp that is advertised all over. BBk definatly pulls hard than Ebay kit and with just removing the silencer. The CAI was a gift from the wifey so I didnt drop a dime so I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. As far as sounding beefier? IDK I have LM1 catback I wouldnt know about on a stock exhaust.

BBk
 

Go with the BBk, they don't do much, but they look good under the hood and you will be ammused with the sound when layin into the throttle.

I have always wondered how they differ from one to another, like you have the cheapo ones from Ebay that has been mentioned above, but how do the BBK, MAC, American Muscle and others differ to make much of a differance between them?

they do look cool though. That may be more of a reason to get one than the hp gains.

do the exhaust first

Do CAI honestly do anything for V8's? I just bought a 2003 GT and i wanted to put one on, but my friends have mustangs and they said dont waste your money buying one. So i want some other peoples opinions if I should get one...

The CAI is not going to give you the HP gains that most places advertise (10-15-20 hp) You may get 1-2 hp, lbs torque. CAI was my first mod and I bought a shitty ebay one. I just bought a BBK and I noticed pretty good gains, but I also have 4.10's exhaust and a tune. If your like me and this is your first stang, you want to buy every bolt on you can. Many say that you should skip all this and just save for a power adder, but I find that to be incredibaly hard. To each his own....

Thanks man for the advice. I might just save my money for now and not buy an intake...

save up for a hot air intake ;)


best advice I've heard and like to pass along is to develop a plan for the car and do modifications that support that plan. That way you don't have to do things more then once and it will cost less in the long run

"hot air intake" haha