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I'd provide additional photos but there's nothing remotely stock about my intake system... If anyone cares to contribute some, you are encouraged to do so.


I should also add, because I've heard this argued over, that it doesn't matter if the car is turbo or not; Getting cold air in at the filter is very beneficial. An intercooler does NOT make up for hot air coming in, it can only cool so much. Supply a turbocharged system with hot air and the turbo increases the temp to a larger degree than if the air entering was cold... Basically, a turbo fed air at 20C will kick out air at 30C, while one fed air at 40C will kick out air at 60C (not real math, just an easy to follow example). Then, the IC has a limit on its capacity as a thermal exchange (which isn't linear either, but let's pretend it is to keep this REALLY simple)... so we say the IC is capable of reducing temps by 10%, you feed it air at 30C (thanks to our CAI) and it feeds the engine air at 27C, feed it air at 60C and it feeds the engine air at 54C.

Running a real CAI is ALWAYS beneficial... How you provide the cold air is another variable which I'm not going to cover right now.


NOTE: The hypothetical example given above is only to serve as an easy to follow guide. The actual math is quite complex and the example above explains the basics well enough, IMO.