Cold Air Kits?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Hey LK - I'm watching sales online right now and doing a little comparison shopping in local stores. Summer is coming and when the weather is warm, I'm hoping I can afford to do this to the Mustang.

Please pick in order of best to least desirable the 5 best cold air intake kits you think would be good for my car. Keep the price low too. No more than $300 or so.

http://www.usautoparts.net/catalog/index.php?N=1616+4294962948&Ntk=Main&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&Ntt=cold+air+kit+2009+ford+mustang&D=cold+air+kit+2009+ford+mustang&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ns=&Npp=50

[AnthonyG]

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I have actually been researching these recently for my truck, its suppose to give some extra horsepower and help with gas mileage a bit. Alot of the car manufacturers tend to use really inefficient systems,stock. I think its partially to fuel the aftermarket sales, all the research and effort the car companies make into improving their cars they have to be over looking these simple proven things.

So from what I learned, from people I know in the business and from my research, this is the top three.

S&B Intakes: best, based on quality and performance but you get what you pay for. I am unsure of what model fits your car but it might be at the top or over your budget.

Airaid Intakes: I rate these on par with S&B but they fall ever so slightly short in the performance because S&B is a bit more fine tuned to each car model they are made on. Price point is nice on these, for my truck they were around middle to upper 200's it might be less for you but I think your stang has the same engine as my truck.

K&N Intakes: these come in third for me because it is a decent upgrade over stock but your not getting the most out of your intake. It is the middle ground but the price is very fair usually under 200's.

There are many other brands but these are either the most tried and tested or their performance is confirmed. Brands like volant,injen,spectre their customer feedback varies drastically from one user to the next.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Anthony, I'm not sure I would bother with a truck. The benefits are minimal really. For my car, I might get about 1 or 2 extra mpg but I will benefit on performance. I think I might only boost horsepower by 50 horses too. Not really that much if the same stats are going to apply for a truck. My diesel gets better mileage than the Mustang ( NOT STANG!). And as for performance, that truck handles quite nicely and the engine is tight and does everything I ask of it without griping.

LK is our resident gear head and would know tons more on this.

[AnthonyG]

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Not to take away from LK but facts are facts. The real life gains of CAI's are around 5-10 extra horsepower regardless being car or truck. Your gains come from getting colder air to engine and minimizing the curves of the intake pipe to bring max airflow. Gains around 50 horsepower would come for changing out your exhaust and or getting a tuner.Both pretty expensive, exhaust around $1000+ tuners range from $200 up.

A 1-2 mpg for my truck is huge considering I get 14.5 right now and handling increases,this is all in reference to gas engines only.

You can't compare a diesel to a gas engine they inherently are more fuel efficient in truck applications because they have more torque from the higher compression rate. For that reason CAI's on diesels are not as popular because gains are even less and overall price to do it is higher.

You should go on a mustang forum and deal with people that knows all about the different mustang model years and the design and dynoed their car. If a good filter setup was used and the air flow is designed well on that model year changing out the intake will be a waste.

[LKTraz]

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Bottom line........IF you're going to do a cold air upgrade then the best bang for the buck is K & N.

As for looking to get a decent increase in ponies then free flow exhaust, as Anthony correctly mentioned, is the way to do it without going into some really extensive (and somewhat expensive) work.

The simplest exhaust mod is headers and low restriction mufflers. HOWEVER......on today's cars and with inspection standards being the way they are (especially in NY and NJ) you're looking at a bit more trouble than it's worth unless you really want your street car to serve double duty and be competitive at your local drag strip on a regular basis.

A set of headers from a quality manufacturer like Hedman, Hooker or Doug Thorley will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $400.00. A pair of Purple Hornies (the best dedicated header mufflers available) will run an additional $250.00. Next you must get 2 free flow catalytic converters for around $350.00 each and finally add in the rest of the piping, hangers, tail pipes, tips and labor to install which will run around $600 - $900. Total cost between $1950 and $2250.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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LK, you know what I want for my car. Since it's not the GT or Boss model, I'm not dumping a ton of money into it. That would be wasteful.

[LKTraz]

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yeah. That's why the K & N would be the deal.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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FINALLY bought the cold air kit for the Mustang!
It'll be in the store tomorrow and I'm going to put it in myself. Should be easy enough.

zoom zoom zooooom

[Twitchin Kitten]

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So I've had the opportunity to drive the car a few times and to get it on the highway and open it up a bit.
OMG the difference between those 10 horses and before! No longer does the car choke on itself when I hit the gas. Still bangs into gear because it's an automatic transmission, but NOTHING like it did before. Car feels 'handier' too and it has an almost 'floating' feeling when driving now.

I've got a feeling I have a duplicate of this somewhere here.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Yep, I do.

http://twitchinkitten.com/thread-3792-po...l#pid49936