Q) If that helps you sleep at night, keep telling yourself that.
A) The four things needed to make an engine run are, Air, Fuel, Spark and Compression. Spark and compression aren't going to change without aftermarket parts. You increase air flow and don't increase fuel then you run lean. The short and long fuel trims will adjust fueling to meet air flow demands and that's a fact. If the vehicle has a Mass Air Meter, the meter will measure (the beauty of Mass Air) the increase in airflow or air mass and the processor will make the necessary changes to fueling to meet the commanded Lambse.
1. Hard to understand? It's not. But how do you know the stock tune would account for any potential gains in airflow? I don't think you know, but of course you could get a custom tune. But you're still at the mercy of the throttle plate as you said, which could be a restriction - do you know?
1A. I do know but I'm not sure if I understand your question. The processor will account for increases and decreases in air flow. Again the processor will adjust fueling and you can see those changes in your short and long fuel trims. If you have a handheld tuner, I know they have those as parameters you can view. I'll be happy to explain in more detail how those fuel trims work. Like I said before, a CAI is beneficial at WOT because the throttle plate is basically taken out of the equation.
2. Have you cut open the resonator - how do you know it's not just an open box?
2A. I've seen inside the 5.7 resonator but not the 3.6. By definition a resonator is designed to reduce noise, that's its main function and not increasing air flow. So if you can remove the obstructions air velocity and air flow will increase.
3. Even if it does slightly reduce air velocity, who says it's reducing it to a point that actually affects the power of the 3.6?
3A. As a rule of thumb, 10 degrees of cooler air inlet temperatures will increase power by 1%. 5 degrees cooler air, power increases by 0.5%. So slightly reducing air velocity will net you lower HP. Is it significant? No. But to verify, you can test your parts on a dyno or at the track to see if increases in HP or TQ were measured or loss.
4. Doesn't matter how fast the temperature drops. Point is, it's going to be sucking in much hotter air than the stock setup whenever the vehicle is sitting for any period of time.
4A. You are correct about sucking in hotter air at idle. But hopefully, everyone is more concerned with performance and air temps when the vehicle is moving and not at rest. I tested this the other day. I let my vehicle idle for 20 mins. Air Inlet Temperatures (AITs) got as high as 91 degrees. Ambient temperature was 39 degrees. As I drove the distance between three telephone poles AITs dropped to 46 degrees that fast. And my vehicle speed was 20-30 mph.
5. "Cold" air intakes are a waste of damn money for a lot of vehicles, these included. The stock paper filter and box that flows the 3.6 and 5.7 is the same box design for the SRT. It is slightly restrctive on the SRT and is a worthwhile upgrade (prior to 2016 - they finally made it bigger on the newer vehicles by the looks of images on Jeep's site).
5A. I agree on smaller 4 cylinder engines a CAI isn't worth the money on the vehicles I tested (Honda, Subaru, Golf and Scion). On vehicles where the stk. OEM intake has less restrictions the HP increases may also be not worth it. But how do you know? Someone, somewhere, has to test it. And hopefully they'll use a dyno to verify if gains were noticed or not.
6. So explain to me how the filter/box that works on the SRT is tragic for the 5.7 and 3.6? It's not.
6A. I'm not sure what the stk. OEM air intake system looks like on the SRT. On the 5.7L and 3.6L engines, I have dyno results from my own vehicle and I have a friend with dyno results on his 3.6L. We both have HP and TQ gains to the tires. The main advantage of a dyno is quantifying the results of a change, hence the reason why I and others use them.
7. And even if an intake does add a few ponies, they're still not worth the money.
7A. If that's how you feel that's cool but that's your opinion. But to blindly say something works or doesn't work when you have no type of data to back up you're saying or information to point to, isn't cool.
8. These are Jeeps. Not high performance vehicles. Who gives a damn if it makes a few more HP, because it really doesn't matter. If you want aggressive sound, or cosmetic looks, then by all means.
8A. I know what Jeeps are, I've had 3 of them already. If I want to spend my money on these so-called performance parts that's my concern and not anyone else's. If I go out and spend my money on dyno testing and quarter mile runs down the drag strip I do it for me. And I also use this public forum to share information to others who may not have those resources available to them.
9. But if anyone buys an intake thinking they are going to have some noticeably positive effect on power or fuel mileage, they're just going to get the placebo effect or disappointment.
9A. I believe I mentioned in one of my posts I couldn't really feel the difference in HP when I went from my custom tune to the stk. tune and that's because it takes more HP to the tires to actually feel a difference in the car. If someone says they can actually feel 10-15HP increases, then they have a better super duper calibrated butt.
Thanks
Michael Plummer