If I read this article correctly in the October 2006 edition of MM&FF, CAI's make very little difference in quarter mile times. Even with a tune, the difference was barely 1 mph with an automatic 06 GT. That's a far cry from the nearly 30hp dyno claims I've seen on this forum, using a CAI and tune. A 30hp gain should ad 2-3mph to the trap speed I think. I used to get over 1 mph speed gain by just using a short belt on 5.0's. Improving "throttle response" with a nearly $600 CAI/Tuner purchase may not make the car very much quicker it seems to me.

Comment away....

 

Well, weather permitting, I'll be going to the strippers, I mean the strip, this weekend. I myself am curious as to how much of an improvement I'm getting. I am an amateur at best, and I was kind of disappointed with my runs before the CAI install, even though I won most of my races. I know for a fact that I can FEEL a lot more power after the CAI install, but I guess this weekend might just give an idea of how much.

 

Now looking at it from one to the other they tested 3 different air intakes and only used a tuner for two of them. Then the tuners were Steeda and a baseline from SCT but it doesn't say what octane the tuners were adjusted for. Finally look at the CAI's they were using, WMS, Steeda and AEM, not the biggest power makers of any of them. Also, I'm not sure what they are refering to here but the DA(?)of the air was rising, maybe some of you guys way above sea level can explain this better, but even so they do state that as the day progressed the DA was getting worse for each test and that alone can drop some times.

If you'll turn further back in the book and read page 194 on " 12's or Bust" you'll see that on both cars they used the C&L intakes and a few other minor mods and got into the 12's easily. On page 196 the second picture down on the right they say they gained 4-5 tenths after installing the Racer C&L kit with the tuner, which I'm sure is setup for 91/93 octane.

On my personal car I've noted 2-3 tenths with a just a high octane performance tune and at the track that is what I quote to anyone there. Match that with the adjustment of the throttle plate to stop it from closing when you are near you shift point and with the auto making it shift at the right time and you should definatly lower some times.

Maybe I'm missing this in the article but I'd like to know what the tunes for those air intakes were designed for octane wise.

Thanks, Doug.

 

http://www.csgnetwork.com/densaltcalc.html

Here's a density altitude(DA) calculator, and an explanation.

I am gonna install my JLT/SCT this coming weekend, and look forward to seeing the performance gains for myself.

 

I have not track tested my car, but with a tune you lose the delay in the throttle response. I used to run jet engines on test cells to measure performance in addition to other things. We factor'd in several items. Air temp, humidity, altitude, barometric temp. We had pages of variables to factor in and after taking readings, we then added how the above reading to give us the numbers to measure performance and see if it was inside limits.

Ok, I said all that to say this. IF MM&FF was going to test CAI's test several non tune cai and several tuned cai. Use the same tunes (IE: octane levels all the same). Then drag race them. even using the same driver, each time is a human factor difference. Shift points, etc.

I am very happy with my tune and I NOTICED the difference. If you are a one time performance modder, get a K & N and let it go with a 10 - 15 hp increase (their numbers) and some bling under the hood. IF you are going down the serious modder (CAI, Pulleys, Gears, LT Headers, NO2, etc.) get a tune, the 600 bucks is worth it. I can only speak of Bama's tune. It is great and as you mod, you can adjust it as you go. I just modded my tune for the 2nd time with LT's.

You can tweek your tune if you spend big $$$ to have your car dyno'd (I found one place that for about 200 bucks, they will tune your car for you on the dyno) or you can spend 75 bucks at Bama and get what you need. I am sure that Bren can also work with you, I have heard good words on him aswell. I can only speak of Bama and am very satisified and don't feel the need to go else where.

 

my 05 automatic GT ran 13.6 @99.8 bone stock. After an Alternative Auto tune for the C & L intake times dropped to 13.2 @ 105. With 4.10 gears, I dropped to 13.02 at just under 105.

 

cool times, your on the edge of being in the 12 second club. Maybe a set of pulleys or LT's will make a difference.

 

I started this thread a couple of days ago before installing my Bamachip JLT/SCT mods. I installed them today, and I am using the 87 performance tune. I can say there is a helluva difference in the way the car drives. It will now chirp the tires nicely from 1-2 and 2-3 shifts(automatic), and the throttle response is much better. I will probably never do any timed runs with the car, but I sure like the way it drives now! Thanks, Doug........

 

I can say with certainty that they do add a noticable improvement. I went to the track and ran stock, then came back 2 weeks later with my C&L and Diablo (with stock C&L tunes) on it and ran the 91 octane tune and I added 2.5-3MPH and dropped 2.5 tenths. the MPH varied a bit as I was ****ing with shift points and the like with the tuner but considering the weather was worse when I ran with the CAI than it was when I ran stock I was impressed. I now want to buy a portable weather station to get the actual altitude when I race to better do conversions.

 

God I suck worse than I thought

 

Altitude (among other things) is a HUGE factor in ETs. And I would be willing to bet the altitude in Albuquerque is vastly different than NJ.