To give you a little background (dont know what you know) Modern cars are 4 strokes. This means that there are 4 steps to every full piston movement in the engine. They are: Intake, Compression, Combustion, and Exhaust.

If you go to this Link how stuff works they have a very good way of describing it. They can help You with most technical questions if you search their page.

Basically the only way to make a engine faster is to suck more air and fuel in and therefore let more exhaust (bi-product of air and fuel burning in an engine)

also the colder air is the better. This is why intercoolers are put on turbo charged cars. Turbo chargers are big compressors to force more air into the engine. The bad side of it is that compressed air is hoter then non compressed air, therefor a intercooler is nessessary to ensure maximum performance to the engine.
Cold Air Burns Better.

The first and main step to free horsepower would be an intake. Most Stock Intakes are air-box styles that are there to restrict air going into the engine to help with fuel economy and emissions. This part is very restrictive (on hiow much air it lets in to your car) and can be easly improved in a few different methods.

1. Drop In filter:
Use your stock Airbox but purchashe a drop in filter for it
roughly 2% power increase.
Cost about $25-50 click me

2. Short Ram Intake:
A cheap way to gain performance and create a nice loud (not too loud but throaty) engine. It lets a much greater amount of air in but since it sucks air in from inside the engine bay the air is hot. (a heat shield can greatly help this)
Power Increase - 3%-6%
Cost about $40-150 click me
3. Cold Air Intake: Simular to a short ram intake but it has a downpipe on it as well and the pipe for it goes further away from the engine where it can pull in direct outside cold air (hence the name). Since the air is colder then a short ram the power is better. The main problem with a cold air system is that there is a chance of sucking up out side water and causing hydro-lock to the engine (very bad) but this can pretty mcuh only happen if the filter is submerged in water. Rain is fine, turn your car off (on acessory and in nutrule) when in car waches or better yet, hand wash it. There are Bi-pass valves available for these systems to help ensure this doesnt happen.
Power Increase - 8-10%
Cost about $200-500 click me





Please remember that I guess these Prices in Canadian Dollers

I hope this answers some questions that people might have. Im sure that this has been touched on before but I wanted to make it easier to find info on at aswell. I realize that I dont know everything about intakes, I'm not claiming I do. If someone has facts about Intakes they would like to add to this post that might be advantagous to the reader then please do.

 

Just one note: The reason intercoolers are used is not really to improve performance from a cold intake charge. Their primary function is to reduce temperature to prevent excess heat causing predetonation (knock).

Thanks for the post. Hopefully the nublets read this before posting another freakin' intake thread. ...not likely though.

 

Are the mods going to sticky this .... with a title saying "Read this before posting an intake question"? Might be a good idea.

 

It would be if people read stickies. Iono yet. I'll defer judgement to the local mods.

 

Oh crap the short ram intake link does not work.

------FIXED-------