Steeda vs Airaid vs JLT - which cold air is best?? Look here
4/27/11, 12:45 PM
#1
Cobra Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: February 14, 2005
Posts: 1,075
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Steeda vs Airaid vs JLT - which cold air is best?? Look here
No, this is not a "STEEDA is the best" thread. So read on for some really good info!
A few months ago there was a similar thread which I believe got deleted cause I could not find it anymore. Myself and a few others questioned the results of that thread, as it showed one of the intakes with tuning to make less power in the midrange than a stock car which is not true, it also showed one of the intakes making a ton of low end power over the others which was also incorrect.
We knew from our own data for this to be incorrect. Our argument was that these intakes are all close and you really can't go wrong with any one of them. But for the data to be valid for presentation we needed to do pulls on the same car, same day, same dyno. Our data at the time was scattered and not from the same cars, days, etc. Only from the same dyno.
So a few weeks ago we finally got the intakes together for our own shootout, same car, same day, same dyno, etc......
The tunes for this test were setup so timing and fuel were completely stable & consistent, so the differences between just the cold air systems themselves would be revealed. We did not have a stock intake for this car to test, so we baseline the Steeda system with tuning, then swapped each intake, modified the tune to accomodate each intake and made another pull.
So did our shootout back up what we were saying all along???
Yes, it did. As you can see, you really can't go wrong with any of these intake systems. They all make comparable levels of horsepower and torque across the entire RPM range.
As we had argued in the past, due to its size the JLT trades off a little bit of low end torque, however to the average user this difference would not be perceptible. Any of these intakes given the same tuning will essentially feel and perform about the same. I am sure some of the JLT's torque loss down low could be minimized with further tuning, but that was not the intent for this test and would have skewed the results. We wanted to show what the intakes themselves will do compared to each other.
So the conclusion? Choose your cold air intake based on your personal preference, because from a performance standpoint, you will not be disappointed by any of the ones in this thread.
A few months ago there was a similar thread which I believe got deleted cause I could not find it anymore. Myself and a few others questioned the results of that thread, as it showed one of the intakes with tuning to make less power in the midrange than a stock car which is not true, it also showed one of the intakes making a ton of low end power over the others which was also incorrect.
We knew from our own data for this to be incorrect. Our argument was that these intakes are all close and you really can't go wrong with any one of them. But for the data to be valid for presentation we needed to do pulls on the same car, same day, same dyno. Our data at the time was scattered and not from the same cars, days, etc. Only from the same dyno.
So a few weeks ago we finally got the intakes together for our own shootout, same car, same day, same dyno, etc......
The tunes for this test were setup so timing and fuel were completely stable & consistent, so the differences between just the cold air systems themselves would be revealed. We did not have a stock intake for this car to test, so we baseline the Steeda system with tuning, then swapped each intake, modified the tune to accomodate each intake and made another pull.
So did our shootout back up what we were saying all along???
Yes, it did. As you can see, you really can't go wrong with any of these intake systems. They all make comparable levels of horsepower and torque across the entire RPM range.
As we had argued in the past, due to its size the JLT trades off a little bit of low end torque, however to the average user this difference would not be perceptible. Any of these intakes given the same tuning will essentially feel and perform about the same. I am sure some of the JLT's torque loss down low could be minimized with further tuning, but that was not the intent for this test and would have skewed the results. We wanted to show what the intakes themselves will do compared to each other.
So the conclusion? Choose your cold air intake based on your personal preference, because from a performance standpoint, you will not be disappointed by any of the ones in this thread.
Last edited by SteedaGus; 4/27/11 at 01:28 PM.
4/27/11, 01:23 PM
#4
Cobra Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: February 14, 2005
Posts: 1,075
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No, its not the same tune, but we did put some good timing in it to make sure all of the intakes put up good numbers. Its pretty close to what we normally do for our Power Paks.
4/27/11, 01:43 PM
#5
Bullitt Member
Join Date: January 9, 2005
Posts: 350
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Looks like virtually no difference between the three, it would have been nice to see the stock in the mix too. They're so close I guess it really gets down to cost vs. Quality... What's the cost breakdown on each?
4/27/11, 03:47 PM
#7
Mach 1 Member
Join Date: March 20, 2011
Location: Bremen, Indiana
Posts: 869
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Nice fair test and comparison. Cool to see that even though you may be biased towards one particular intake you didn't show it in your test or in your results. 
4/27/11, 07:35 PM
#10
Bullitt Member
Join Date: November 14, 2010
Location: Infront of my PC
Posts: 257
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
When I got mine I spoke with Airaid and Bama and both said if you are adding a tune it should have the insert OUT. If just putting the Airaid on and no tune then the insert needs to be IN.
4/27/11, 08:01 PM
#11
Team Mustang Source
Join Date: January 30, 2004
Location: Montreal
Posts: 3,738
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Very happy with my Steeda tune, just gotta redownload it again cuz the actual speed i'm going is not matching my speedometer. Will recheck the parameters of the tune ,revs per mile and gear options.
Oh, and topnotch service from Gus and the boys over at Steeda.
Oh, and topnotch service from Gus and the boys over at Steeda.
8/24/11, 09:37 AM
#16
Shelby GT350 Member
8/24/11, 09:41 AM
#17
Yep, they use the stock MAF sensor, but use a different housing. The only ones I know of that had different MAFs were the 03-04 Cobra when you started pushing big power through them. I believe there's a conversion to MAP instead of MAF that requires a new sensor to do.
12/27/16, 08:16 PM
#18
Member
Join Date: December 27, 2016
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Airaid CAI not an Option on my SCTX4, only Steeda
My SCTX4 Tuner only shows "Stock Air Intake" and "Steeda".
I have a Airaid CAI. Will it be ok for me to select Steeda? I'm not running a stock air Intake.
Just want to make sure I'm not gonna cause any damage to my vehicle.
Thank you in advance for the input!
I have a Airaid CAI. Will it be ok for me to select Steeda? I'm not running a stock air Intake.
Just want to make sure I'm not gonna cause any damage to my vehicle.
Thank you in advance for the input!
4/25/21, 03:24 PM
#19
Member
Join Date: April 25, 2021
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Which version of the airraid cold air intake was utilized? Looking to get one for an '05 mustang gt for the low end torque gains, was it the airraid race mxp, airraid mxp, or the airraid race? Thank you for your time!
4/26/21, 06:30 AM
#20
Legacy TMS Member
Join Date: January 25, 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,755
Received 1,494 Likes
on
1,019 Posts
This thread is 5 years old and the models have probably changed since . . . but, I would expect any low end torque gains to come more from the tune and less from the intake itself
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
tj@steeda
2015 - 2023 MUSTANG
0
9/24/15 08:15 PM