I know this must be a very simple question to most of you but could someone explain to me exactly what adding a new intake does and what the differences are? It seems to be the first thing to do when you start mods.

 

Allows the engine to take in more air for combustion. More air = better burn = a little more HP/tq to make it really simple.

Basically all engine mods involve increasing air intake and increasing the amount of exhaust expelled. If you think of the engine on simple terms like that it helps understand a little better the whole intend of modding the car.

 

it also gives you colder, fresher air and better gas milage

 

it also makes a really cool sound when you hit the gas hard, looks cool under the hood, doesn't take up as much room as the stock airbox and gives you a little bit of extra pull in the high rpm ranges. also when you get the car brand new its pretty fun to drive, but then seems boring and slow, but that makes it interesting again for a few more months or weeks, but my car feels slow again, i need a turbo or something but can't afford it

 

alls i knows is that, that the more air you got goin in the less the engine is restricted. im sure you have a racer mindset,quick to red lights, as do i. and youre prolly asking a lot out of your engine. but its having a hard time breathing. i really need to buy one of those....my K&N box one is hackin it anymore!!

 

did the k&n one that just goes in the stock airbox actually make a noticeable diffrence in performance?

 

Just think of your car as a human body.... If you get in clean air and faster, you can be faster in whatever or be healthier. Just same with a car. And same as a muffler... If you inhale, you need to exhale.... This is just how i understand it, though its an expalanation for High School students

 

go to www.howstuffworks.com and look up how a car engine works. there's 4 steps to a combustion engine. first is intake, where you suck in as much air, preferably cold (because it is compressed and therefor more of it). then there is compression, when the piston compresses the air to a very small volume. then there is combustion, when the spark plugs ignite the compressed air (which is mixed with a small amount of gasoline). then the gas expands to push the piston back down, and expels the excess gas, last step being exhaust.

so in order to improve your engine's performance, you need to improve on each of these 4 steps.

on intake, you can get a high flow filter that sucks in a lot of air, maybe coldest air possible too. the next step is forced induction (turbo or supercharged).

on compression, basically you are talking about modifying internals. new pistons, bore stroke etc. $$$$

on combustion, what you can do is get really good spark plugs to help a better ignition and burn.

on exhaust, you need to eliminate back pressure. a header for example will provide each cylander an equal exhaust chamber cutting down on back pressure (back pressure is bad because it is already combusted gas that the engine's pistons have to work against in teh compression stage). a high flow catylitic convertor, or maybe no cat will help decrease back pressure. finally a new exhaust system with free flowing compenants will help.

i'm sure there's other stuff, such as port/polished head, valve upgrades.....along with reducing other loads on the engine like underdrive pulleys, etc.

did i forget anything? hope this helped.

 

Why would such a simple thing as the stock intake be designed to restrict performance?

 

Stock intake restricts intake for the sake of noise reduction mostly. All the baffles/boxes in the tubes cause turbulence.... Turbulence actually quiets it down a great deal. If it was direct flowing you would probably hear it like you hear a Short Ram or CAI intake. Whoosh sound= flow usually. Flow = power.

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