Identical CAI?
 

Does anyone know if buying a K&N air filter and removing the silencer acts like a CAI. Ive heard it does the same thing, makes it sound better and increases gas mileage by about 1mpg. Is this true? Has anyone tried it?

i've heard plenty of times and seen plenty of post saying it is just as good if not better than a cai kit. your factory intake is a cold air intake system, look at how it works. the snorkal or air silencer is pointing into the fender well and draws cold air into the engine. cheap cold air intake kits that are alluminum prob are worse than stock because of the heat absorbing through the thin alluminum. the only cai i have heard would be better is one made of carbon fiber. k&n air filter is what i have heard is the way to go for our 6ers. i have a k&n and no silencer and did not notice much but i have heard other people that have the aftermarket kits and say the same thing.

i did it to my car and couldn't really tell any differance..

Okay, thanks for the reply. I think im going to go ahead and get the K&N, then try it without the snorkel, and if i don't notice a difference i'll just put it back on to really get the true cold air to the engine.

jon, it sounds 1000000x better without the silencer...

yes, removing the silencer and adding a filter does the same as a CAI. a CAI on a V6 mustang does almost absolutly nothing.

Newbie Question: What *is* the silencer? I grasp it's supposed to make things quiter but where is it?

surrounds the air filter.

The scilencer is the little snorkle looking thing that goes into that little hole in the fender
Ford had a good idea in doing that but it kinda back fired a bit
And to answer your question NO its not like a CAI
although yes it will improve Proformance It's NO CAI
An after market CAI is bigger in diamerter much smoother flowing and blocks off the heat from the Engine Compartment

A CAI IS NOT THE SAME AS REMOVING THE SILENCER AND THROWING IN A K&N

No but the hp/mileage gains are identical.

Once the air hits the upper intake, it's getting the same restriction no matter what hose it goes through to get there. The choke point is not the stock intake.

Change to a windstar intake and you'll not only have to change the inlet but you'll see actual performance gains.

Off topic have anyone in here have tried the Windstar from VPM?

No, but having spoken to a good number of people who have and dyno'd their cars afterward, the hp gains on their site aren't inflated. That's always good.

what do you mean windstar intake? are you talking about a intake off a minivan or is that a brand name for a mustang intake? i have seen people say windstar intake before and i always wandered

the windstar mini van had split port intakes which make more power..

so if i go to a salvage yard and pull a intake off a windstar i can swap my stock out and it would be better?

i looked at this writeup

http://www.moddedmustangs.com/forums...swap-pics.html

but it looks like this was done with a 99-04 model. will it work on the 96? i have seen this one on one or two sites but i have not seen one on a 94-98 model yet.

:eek:

Dude, the mustang comes STOCK with a CAI. An aftermarket one is a little bit smoother, and supposedly reduces heat but i have never seen anything to back that claim up. But that doesent change the fact that the stock CAI, is in fact a CAI.

A Cold Air Intake is any setup where it pulls air on from an area away from the engine, like in the fender. WHich is exactly what the stock CAI does.

The gains from a CAI on a mustang are so rediculously small that all yer really buying is something pretty under the hood.

The reason you dont see much in the way of improvement is that the stock CAI is already pretty damn good but they made a compomise by adding the silencer / filter which quiet down the car, and they use a crappy filter instead of a high flow filter like K&N.

The proof is pretty much in the pudding, yank out the snorkel and put in high flow filter gives you pretty much the same gains.


i paid what, 279 for a K&N FPIK on my mustang and honestly it was a bit of a ripoff in my view. I could have gotten the same for a helluvalot cheaper.

i honestly wouldnt bother doing anything more than the filter/silencer DYI mod unless you start getting a lot more engine work done where you will start seeing the need for a larger throttlebody.

I finally did it. Went out and bought a k&n filter, and took the silencer off. It deffinately sounds better now and i CAN tell a difference in performance. I noticed when i took the silencer off it had a curve to it, which would drag down the engine if it was trying to suck air. Imagine trying to drink out of a curved straw, then a straight one. Obviously you could drink faster out of the straight one. I am happy with it.

anyone have input on the windstar intake swap on a 96 3.8l. will it fit under a stock hood? the pics i've seen look sweet. tons better than "the blob" looking intake i got under my hood. i want to do that soo bad.

From what I understand, a hood swap may be required to clear the windstar intake on some mustangs. VAP Automotive has a kit with everything you need. For more information, check out this thread at 3.8mustang.com's site.

edit: I read more of the link I posted, you'd need a bunch of other splitport swap parts to make it work :( Sorry.

Your Dumb.... it is... your just upset b.c u wasted 150-200 bucks when all i did was get a new filter.

hahaha True

You can not put a split port intake manifold on a car with single port heads (94-98 v6).

If someone is willing to shell out the 400 for the intake from vapauto you might want to consider saving up for some stage 2 stuff from ssms I know 1900 is a lot more than 400 but 70 hp is a lot more than 8hp and 14 ft/lbs

i've got a set of 3.8L split port intakes from a 2002 that i was going to have ported and polished that i'll gladly sell for $140+ shipping.

so if i had a ford windstar sitting around and i was wanting to do this it would be impossible? or would i have to pull from the head up? if it is impossible it is. but what would it take if it is not? i ain't ordering no intake kits off the internet, i want to know if i were to go junkyard browsing is it possible?

you need split port heads, the 99-04 v6's have split port heads. doing the windstar swap is like doing a port and polish on the stock split port intake except maybe a little more gain not sure

:mad:damn i guess i got the wrong year mustang if i want to do much modding? i keep hearing there is not much to do with this model unless you got some serious dough to throw down on a supercharger or something. i guess other than udp, cai and dual exhaust i am screwed unless i got some serious money. i was so looking foward to doing something like this. even gears run over the 500 dollar mark after install.

thats normal.

Well, it's an expensive hobby.

Basically you can do a windstar on a 94-98, you just have to do 90% of a splitport swap first, and probably either a Cobra R or cowl hood to clear the part.