EBay Cold Air Intakes Any Good??

[SPreston2001]

Hey guys are these cold air intakes im seeing on EBay any good or worth buying? Theres not much to a cold air intake kit so will these kits I see for $30-$40 provide better air flow than the stock setup? From looking at the kits they look almost identical to a K&N setup minus the K&N stickers and unique K&N filter. Has anybody experimented with these kits? Heres a link http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1993-2004-C...emZ370093437316

[JimD]

Save your money. The OEM filter setup will flow more air than the engine can pump at RPM redline.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Please refer to my Northstar air filter tests here.

For the Northstar I did not find any intake configuration that improved performance over the stock intake. However, a 4L Aurora dyno test of back to back runs did show some improvement.

My conclusion is that in an otherwise stock NS engine the air intake is not a bottleneck.

If you are able to show that an air intake configuration improves performance please do share though. A lot of people would love an inexpensive performance boost.

[dell1554]

I did buy one of those kits........I believe I am seeing performance boost....especially low end torque and throttle response.......I also am seeing some improved mileage...but I travel a lot of highway miles.....about a 5 percent increase......and darn it do sound good....sucks air like a freight train,,sounds like the old four barrel carbs kicking in.......

[Xtreme]

I put a large K&N filter on mine.

I just removed the entire airbox setup, and replaced it with the filter.

I DEFINATELY notice an increase in hp and tq.

It also sounds wicked!

A lot more growly, and you can hear it sucking in the air more.

-Shawn.

[BodybyFisher]

I put a large K&N filter on mine.

I just removed the entire airbox setup, and replaced it with the filter.

I DEFINATELY notice an increase in hp and tq.

It also sounds wicked!

A lot more growly, and you can hear it sucking in the air more.

-Shawn.

You are NOT likely experiencing increased performance, you are HEARING the intake sound, and think you are getting better performance. And thats ok because the sound is a cool sound.

BUT........... you are in fact SUCKING in much more DIRT through that K&N filter, we have testing that was done on the K&N filter that proves that. You are allowing dirt into your cylinders, if you drive in dusty areas you could potentially score your cylinder walls. DEFINATELY change your oil more often.

The SECOND problem you created is that the STOCK air box PULLS air over the PCM, now, you are NOT pulling air over the PCM and risk overheating it in certain road and weather conditions and can reduce its life span.

PLUS, you are in fact SUCKING in HOT UNDER HOOD air and are not even close to getting any COLD AIR into your intake..

I think that is THREE STRIKES, LOL...

But it sounds COOL....

[Ranger]

That about says it all.

[martini]

i bought Kit from autopartsway.ca it saves me great .

[BodybyFisher]

i bought Kit from autopartsway.ca it saves me great .

What do you mean by "it saves you great"?

[MAC]

PLUS, you are in fact SUCKING in HOT UNDER HOOD air and are not even close to getting any COLD AIR into your intake..

I think that is THREE STRIKES, LOL...

But it sounds COOL....

This is what I don't get about so-called cold air intakes. The stock air box pulls in air from the outside from the front left wheel well, which is going to be cooler than under hood air. Plus filtration is not going to be as good as a stock filter. The Guru said to forget about cold air intakes and that a stock filter provides more than enough air. Also, cold air intakes can cause changes that may actually lower performance.

[Cadillac Jim]

Is there a way that the hose between the intake and the air cleaner box could be changed, that would let the intake sound through? There is a marvelous pipe organ living in the intake manifold of the Northstar and some of us would like to hear a mini-concert from time to time. But, I've read Bruce's performance reviews, with back-to-back timed runs, and I'm not changing my intake configuration. Then, there's the fact that Cadillac moved the ECM from under the dash to an area in the intake and added cooling fins, and that's likely more important than anything else.

[BodybyFisher]

You are correct Mac, the caddy already has a COLD AIR intake on it.

[katherine]

According to me you can give up a try becos those may be worth for the price in quality.

[mcrete]

According to me you can give up a try becos those may be worth for the price in quality.

I have also been looking for a cold air intake. However i have a 92 Seville, has anyone ever seen one for my Cadi?

[eldog01]

[Cadillac moved the ECM from under the dash to an area in the intake and added cooling ? So where is the ecm located?? I've had my intake & air induction system off twice.. The sound would be great but if it causes harm I'll leave my stock.

[BodybyFisher]

[Cadillac moved the ECM from under the dash to an area in the intake and added cooling ? So where is the ecm located?? I've had my intake & air induction system off twice.. The sound would be great but if it causes harm I'll leave my stock.

I dont know about your year, but on my year its located in a black box below the filter box, the filter box clips into it, you can see the PCM when you remove the filter box

[Ranger]

His is in the same place BBF.

[BodybyFisher]

His is in the same place BBF.

Thanks for the confirmation Ranger

[abad95]

I replaced my stock filter with a K&N air filter,but not a cone.It's still inside the air box.I believe it was made for a Buick of some sort since K&N didn't make one for my '95 STS. Defenitely some improvement.It used to shift at 6000rpm now it shifts at 6500,but the best improvement was getting the exhaust done.Probably didn't gain much, but defenitely freed some horses though...Well...A little more than some.

Florin

[Ranger]

Shift points are set by the PCM via data from electronic monitors such as the TPS, MAP/MAF sensors, and probably many others. The air filter should have absolutely no effect on it.

[Deville02]

Try two filters lol, twice the diffrence,litteraly

[abad95]

Shift points are set by the PCM via data from electronic monitors such as the TPS, MAP/MAF sensors, and probably many others. The air filter should have absolutely no effect on it.

If you're reffering to "IT" as shifting It did get affected by the air flow,so therefore it did have an effect.And YES,you're right the PCM does control things based on many things...

[Cadillac Jim]

That actual RPM at which a WOT shift begins depends on not as many things. One of these is engine redline. Possibly, with a restricted intake, the falloff of engine torque could make the shift point below redline. With a clean stock air cleaner and element, that won't happen. What the engine RPM does during the shift willl change if the engine restriction is changed because the torque at redline will improve and the PCM changes to pull the engine RPM down for the shift -- spark retard, shutoff of random fuel injectors -- will have slightly less effect and the tach will wander a little higher during the shift, particularly if you do the WOT shift in Drive instead of 3 or 2.

Bruce made some timed runs with various cold air intakes and K&N solutions way back when his car was an STS. His post with a link to an archive of that page on post #4 on this topic now has a bad link, so I found the page where he documented his testing:

http://drupal.caddyinfo.com/?q=node/149

Note that there is no measurable performance improvement with either of the two aftermarket air cleaners. The conclusion is that there is no measurable advantage to be gained over the stock air box and Delco air cleaner. If you use the car as your daily driver and plan to keep it for a long time, the efficiency of the air cleaner in stopping dust is important, and the AC/Delco is far superior to the drop-ins there. And, the stock air box takes in cold air through the fender and passes it over the PCM cooling fins below the air cleaner element, and an K&N cone in the engine compartment gives up the cold air routing and the PCM cooling.

Here is his test with stock mufflers and Borla stainless steel "Super Turbo" replacements, an option that many dealers were putting on new cars at the time:

http://www.caddyinfo.com/exhausttest.htm

There is a slight but noticeable improvement from this change. In an older car, it is also legal to change the Cat (it's legal also if the cat is bad or missing) and you have an opportunity to get yet another improvement using an low-restriction catalytic converter; be sure and get an OBD compliant one. In California you need to take special care because 50-state OBD compliant cats are usually direct-replacement bolt-ons and you need to get one that has a larger element than the stock cat to improve the restriction at WOT.

[Deville02]

Forget cold air intake get two filters Direct Flow, the increase is crazy compared to cold air and short ram

Best of luck

[caddylovermarco]

I built a cold air set-up that still draws from the hole where the pcm rests (it is a sealed box inclosure around the new cone filter) and have about 90 dollars invested. it took 3 days of testing and fitting to get it to work properly and the box to seal to my high standards and in the end I got 3hp on the dino with little to no torque, so it really wasn't worth it (it was a pain in the blank to get everything to pit proporly) but it does make what people would call a "cool" sound. to sum it up just run the factory set up with a good high quality filter. my new set-up does use bigger 4 inch intake tubing with a spectre cone filter thats about 10 inches long, the tubing I used is welded alumium (I'm sure I butchered the spelling on that) (the tubing is insolated to help with heat), I used welded because the mandral belt tube I got which I'm not including in price because I didn't use it (it was EXPENSIVE) it didn't want to fit because it was to long on the bend. But with my custom magnaflow exaust (which makes it sound better than most mustangs and camaros), custom built engine cover, and front slotted rotors (which were a dealer add on from GM performance which I think is pretty cool) and the few other little goodies on my 99 Eldorado I can impress a few people and get some enjoyment out of it which is all that I care about. and one last thing I did for this set-up (execpt I did it on my 98 Deville) was cut the factory tube and use that instead of the 4 inch aftermarket one because there is more room to get it put on the MAF sensor housing but in the Deville I found there is slightly less engine room so I had to make a different box inclosure and only use a 8 inch long cone filter, for the Deville I there was not hardely a hp boost so it was really not worth it, I just did it because I had a spare tube laying around with my bunch of extra parts. So again I just recomend running the factory set-up with a high quality paper filter (I prefer wix or if you want the oiled spectre ones are a good value if you really don't want a paper one) because on the Deville there really was no performance increase and on the Eldorado there was one but it wasn't worth the time and money I put into it because I can't stress enough how much of a pain it was to get everything to fit and work properly.

Edited August 15, 2020 by caddylovermarco