CAI vs. SRI

[odavis]

I was just wondering what the difference between a cold air intake and a short ram intake is, and opinions people have on which sounds better and gives more horsepower. I'm only 16 and want to be a mechanical engineer and have been reading alot about cars and just want any knowledge i can get.

[curtis73]

Any aftermarket intake will only provide minimal increases in power.

Stock intakes are designed to provide adequate flow without any noise. Some factory intakes are more than adequate, so aftermarket intakes don't add any power. Some intakes are very restrictive and an aftermarket intake might produce 10 hp.

Either way, its doubtful that it will provide a real seat-of-the-pants power increase. Depending on the design of the intake, it most likely won't help MPG and in fact might reduce it.

[slideways...]

read a book on aerodynamics. it will help immensly when your thinking about cars and trying to figure out optimum design. for instance, whenever a fixed volume of air that has a fixed velocity is forced to change direction, it cannot do so without the air to the outside of the curve moving much faster. normally this cant happen, so turbulence is created and this causes some airflow restriction. thus intakes and exhausts with more and sharper bends, are always more restrictive than straight pipes. but learn about resonance and how it applies to airflow to see why the size of an intake/exhaust matters.

[odavis]

Thank you, I'm currently reading a book my dad has on mechanics, but it was published in '68 so it has the basic but I should get a modern one to read and then I will definately look up on that in the library.