I'm going to say that it is in fact the Less restrictive air filter that all these intakes come with that do more for power gains than the shape and design of the tubes. On all brands.

Cruuzin LV you have a 2012 so the over the radiator style Vararam will not work. They are redesigning the intake for 2012+, here is a link to the Vararam that will work on your car
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258276

i can take my vararam out in less than 5 mintues. Its not hard just have to know what your doing. Love the IATs!!!!

Whole heartedly disagree. The stock system is ok for what it is, but there are several places that can and have been improved upon. The silencers and accordian section are killer for laminar flow. Add in that it gets air from one source and you have a somewhat restrictive system. I don't see your meaning about moving the MAF to get lower IAT's. ADM is the only one that moved theirs to the box but the rest of them are pretty much in the same place in relation to the filter. They get lower IAT's because they get more fresh air from several places instead of just one. The stock one gets ALL it's air right off the radiator. If the OEM system was as good as the aftermarket ones, someone would have shown a nice increase from just adding a aftermarket replacement filter. To date, no one has. There was one article from HPTV, I think, that showed it gained several HP but that same article showed the K&N typhoon making 25whp 20+tq with no tune.:rolleyes:

Also not entirely true. All the OEM location CAI's have basically the same shape, yet some are quite a bit better than others. Lack of connections in the intake tube, a velocity stack, and other tweaks make a big difference when you put them all together. Obviously you need a good flowing filter as well but that's just one part of the puzzle.

All of the better CAI's are at or within a degree or two of ambient.


I'm intersted to see what VR is going to claim about their new intake, to say it's better than all the others since they are now in the OEM location. If you want to talk about wild claims, VR has had their fair share. I've seen them claim, 20+ degree LOWER than ambient IAT's, positive pressure created from their ram air, and DYNO PROVEN results when they in fact stated in their threads that they calculate their gains from track times. Obviously it's a decent intake but they have been FAR from straight forward in regards to their intake.

THIS! They have a totally new design now. :)

One main reason I picked my CAI,Inc was the lower IAT's.

Bill

I have no idea what Vararam expects people to believe. But did you have a real question in there about these filters, or flow rates, or intakes? :rules:

Not if you have a temp probe directly in front of the throttle body (or in the intake manifold) and check. But hey there are those that don't believe people should actually try stuff for themselves, think out of the box, or even suggest it out loud.:D

Yeah looking at this as far as money vs temp/flow. I'm really thinking of getting the blackwing and ceremic cote it and a green air filter and calling it a day.

Actaully my questions have been pretty much answered. Via this thread and other searchs. A good intake has good flow and low IAT's and since Vararam seems to back up their claims according to quite a few people I'm going to pull the trigger and select what makes sense to me cost/performance wise. Which is a ceramic coated blackwing tube/ intake box and a green filter.

+1 there will always be marketing and companies trying to drive profits. sometimes you just need to see through the bull and read customers real world experiences.

And who's put a probe there to check the IAT's from all the different CAI's? Since the PCM adjusts fuel/timing based off the IAT's from the MAF, that's the big one. Seeing how fast the air is moving in the intake, I don't see how you could get a appreciable change in temps in the ~1.5ft of tubing from the MAF to the TB.

I decided to do some testing today :D

I mounted my LS3 head/intake/tb to the flow bench and tested the stock airbox w/ stock filter, and stock tube, then I swapped the tube out for a tube similar to that which you would find in most intake systems (4" OD 16GA aluminum tube, ~16" long, 6" CLR)... Much to my surprise the stock intake tube with it's baffles & accordion section flowed more than the tube without that stuff...

The stock tube flowed ~0.75% more (~2 CFM) than the aluminum tube did. While I didn't compare the stock tube to a Blackwing because I don't have one, I imagine the results would be similar (little to no change).

After doing this and seeing the results, IMO the tube is a waste of money, all you'd get is more intake sound due to the lack of the baffle box.

The filter: I did compare the stock filter vs an S&B filter @ .500" lift on cyl#3 through the top end assy.

The S&B filter flowed roughly 1% better through the intake system/tb/intake/head @ .500" lift... (appx 3 CFM more)...

I have... And you'd be surprised at the results.

Post em up. The more data we have the better.