How Does a Cold Air Intake System Improve Engine Performance

A cold air intake system is one way to increase engine performance.  An engine operates by taking in air (oxygen), mixing it with fuel and burning the resulting mixture to produce power. Why is this important? If you increase the amount of air flowing into an engine, you can increase the power output by adding additional fuel. Adding fuel is easy, but increasing airflow into an engine is more difficult. This is where a cold air intake system comes into play.

A cold air intake system increases airflow by dropping the air coming into an engine to a lower temperature. Why is this important? As air gets colder, it gets denser. This means you get more oxygen within a smaller volume. More oxygen means more power. Increasing oxygen levels by this method can be found mostly in the racing industry. Many racers will dump ice on their intake manifolds and intercoolers to get a temporary increase in horsepower.  Another aspect of a cold air intake system is reduced air flow resistance. All of the pipes in this system have been polished and tuned to reduce air flow resistance. This reduces unwanted turbulence within the pipes which would otherwise reduce airflow into the engine.

There are many ways to increase airflow into an engine. Turbochargers, superchargers, and cold air intakes all qualify in this category.  Cold air intakes are the cheapest and easiest of the three to install. Cold air intakes also do not cause a major increase in fuel consumption. It is a cheap alternative when you don’t have the time or money to invest in the engine modifications needed for the other systems.