Aftermarket Air Intakes....Not Only For Street Racers

The air that a car's engine sucks while running makes a huge impact on its performance. The positivity or the negativity of the impact depends on the quality of the air fed to the engine. Cold air intakes offer more efficiency as the air they send to the engine is denser and molecules of oxygen are tightly bound with each other and result in improved performance of the engine.

There are a lot of air intake systems available in the market these days and some can actually increase the horse power of the engine of your car. Modern cars and other vehicles have air intake systems which comprises of different parts, some systems are very complex and have specially developed intake manifolds that divide air into different cylinders and thus increase the power. Mainly a car intake system has three parts.

Air filter

Mass flow sensor and

Throttle body

Some manufacturers also include the silencer in the construction of the air intake system, but the silencer has resulted in the decrease in efficiency because it impedes the flow of the air. Therefore, most of the performance oriented vehicle owners usually remove them.

One important part of the air intake system is the sensor which senses the temperature of the air. Cold air is allowed to enter by opening the flap. Air enters through a long plastic tube; it then goes through the air filter and finally reaches the AFM (Air Flow Meter.) There are two types of air flow meters.

Vane type

Hot wire type

Hot wire type system has numerous wires having constant resistant in the air passage. The cold air hits the hot wires when it enters the air intake system and makes the wires cool down. The resistance of the wires decreases due to this and the EFI computer gets more voltage and adjusts the mixture of fuel and air. It all happens in a split second but the effect on the performance is impeccable.

The throttle chamber in the air intake system controls the flow of the air into the car's engine. In addition to this chamber, another bypass chamber is present which allows a small amount of air to go through to the throttle body. This amount of the air is used to adjust the speed of engine.

The last part of an air intake system is the cold start valve. The functions performed by this component are exactly the same as of the choke present in the carburetor. This component is valve shaped with a special element present in it which expands on heating. When it is not in its expanded shape, i.e. when it is cold, it makes it easy for the air to get to the throttle chamber.

These are the main functions of an air intake system and you can greatly enhance the performance of your car by installing one. The systems like K&N air intake systems are not only affordable but also increase the horse power and fuel efficiency of the engine and allow you to take the performance of your car to the next level,Adding as much as 15 horsepower! Your MPG is also increased....some claim as much as 2 Miles Per Gallon !