just to clear things up - I never doubted that the theory of a CAI was correct. It made sense. Cooler, denser, air, should produce more power. But, I think everyone here understands there's a world of difference between what engineers in a lab on a dyno stand can do and what we will get on our car.
So I tried to learn more. I got seriously skeptical when no one could provide any hard numbers. I was looking for two things: real world results, dyno tested, on an actual truck, and, failing that, at least the actual reduction in air temperature - it's a "cold air" intake, so how cold does it get?.
Adding to my doubts was the many pictures of installed CAIs pulling hot air directly from the engine compartment. I don't think that's going to turn cold by magic.
I think these are fair questions to ask when somebody made the claims the CAI vendors were making. Just tell me: how much power, how much colder? Is that not fair to ask?
As I've said, i got no actual answers until last week. Anecdotes are great, but I wanted more. I could not get it. I began to suspect that it's not so easy to make the theory work in the real world, so nobody wanted to cough up answer.
Then, when i finally got an answer, last week, it turned out to be ********. I'm not interested in spending a few hundred dollars only to get ten foot pounds of torque I'll never see (at over 4,000 RPM), plus some goofy engine bling. if it only produced 10 foot pounds at over 4 grand, what will i get off idle, as a DD, in traffic, or offroad? I'm not drag racing my truck. If I can't get usable torque from off idle to around 3,000 RPM, it's not value for money, for me. If that's what others want to do, hey, it's your truck, and your money. knock yourself out. I'm not going to spend money I'll never get a return on. that's all I'm saying.