A good Buddy with a decked out CJ says to get a cold air intake, K&N, Air Raid, etc. Auto mechanic Buddy who worked at 4x4 say no. I've read about them and get the theory. But what about practicable use, maintenance, etc? Are they worth the cost?
I've not yet seen a CAI for the ZJ that was BETTER than the factory airbox with regard to filtration.
The incremental gain you'll get in power/torque, is unfortunately offset by the leaking of dust that many of the CAI systems have over a period of time with multiple heat-soak cycles. Dust in your engine means less power... as your engine slowly loses compression...and needs a rebuild.
Many "seat of the pants dyno" type of folks...confuse the increased sound from under the hood (being that most CAIs don't have the factory baffles to reduce intake noise resonance) with their Jeep being far faster after the install. It SOUNDS faster...agreed...but unless you're running quarter-mile times...you're not going to notice a difference worth rebuilding your engine over after it leaks dust in, IMHO.
If you can find a larger paper-filter system, with easy-to-purchase replacement paper elements, and will flow air a bit better...then by all means...grab it. But most of the CAIs I've seen, use filters that are NOT easy to clean, and NOT easy to justfity the cost of throwing away and replacing...which means that every time they get dirty...you have to spend a Saturday afternoon dinking around with soaking it in cleaning fluid, allowing it to dry, re-applying oil to it, and reinstalling it. Not my idea of a fun Saturday...but hey...different strokes for different folks.
Butt dynos say they're worth it. Real dynos say they're not.
You need a gain of about 10hp to be able to notice any real-world improvement, and you'd be lucky to get more than a few hp with a CAI on any Jeep with a stock engine.
The only reason I have 1 on my wj is because I bought it with the k&n fipk up already on it with an aem dry flow filter that was dirty as ****. So I looked getting the factory high output box but I kinda dig the throaty sound it gives and since I'm on pavement only I went with an afe pro dry s and I'm vigorously watching the internals and I see no dust, but like I said my wj is street use only and sees no off-road and its been on 2 oil changes now.
I have a k&n fipk I'd sell you for 50 bucks. I just took it off the 98 ZJ I bought.
The real problem with the stock intake is the thin pancake like air hat that sits on the throttle body. It's a restrictive bottle neck.
You can replace it with a Durango air hat with minor hood trimming or I think Summit has an expensive shiny one.
Tuning is the best bang for the buck in my opinion.
It changes how the entire vehicle runs. Better shifts, better fuel trim(especially at Wot), more timing, ect.
Then when you start adding performance parts it makes it even better.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Jeep Enthusiast Forums
18.5M posts
726.8K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to all jeep owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, engine swaps, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!