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Sedans Chevrolet Cavalier Chevrolet Cavalier Performance
128 messages, Last post on Feb 12, 2008 at 9:59 PM
You are in the Chevrolet Cavalier Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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First, they don't allow cursing here, so edit your post, please. RK Sport has everything you can imagine for Cavalier performance. NOPI also offers several things that will boost peak hp and torque. Bear in mind, just about anything you do that's NOT RK Sport will trash your warranty. RK Sport is a GM subsidiary and their products don't affect the warranty when installed properly.
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#1 post was deleted for profanity. Poster was asking about inexpensive mods to increase performance on 2005 Cavalier without voiding warranty. Driftracer offers suggestions above. Poster also wondered about cold air intake. My research indicates that these don't work and that a cannister type (ram-effect) air filtration system would be much better. CAI only works on a cold day (as does your normal filter) and merely sucks warm air into your engine on a warm day, same as your regular filter. Any other suggestions for the Cavalier? post 'em here. MrShiftright Co-host
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 01, 2005 9:10 am) I cannot believe you, as the Host, would post such a statement. A little history. In the earlier days, the air filter housing snorkel ended in the engine compartment. This being done, all you ever got was hot engine air. Later on they decided to route the input to the filter housing to outside the engine compartment. This provided much ‘cooler’ air compared to the engine compartment. Unfortunately, the manufacturers made the run not very straight and constrictive. If someone installs an aftermarket CAI, they will see an improvement. I know! I did not buy an aftermarket CAI, but took off the ‘S’ shaped intake in the fender well and now see an improvement in performance. The input to the filter housing is still in the fender well so that I get cooler air. True that Ram Air is the next step in getting even more performance boost. This system forces in even more cooler air than a CAI. |
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Well all I can tell you is that friends of mine have tested every CAI they can get their hands on, on a state of the art dynomometer, and they report no or miniscule results--period. They run a very successful tuning shop and don't even recommend the CAI systems on the market. They say cannister systems are the only way to get your money's worth, with the ram effect you talk about The logic of CAI escapes me, since the factory systems take in air right behind the grill anyway, and, even worse, on warm days a CAI is sucking in warm air just as warm as a factory system. The supposed "non-restrictive" qualities of CAI systems create a lot more noise than horsepower. Possibly at very high rpms with a large displacement engine, you might gain a couple HP under very ideal conditions. Hardly worth the trouble IMO. Your experiment really supports the contention, in my mind, that CAIs arent' in fact worth the money, since some tuners report that by merely cutting a hole in the factory air box, they outperformed the CAI easily.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 02, 2005 7:27 pm) Second, outside air is 'cooler' than engine compartment air. Some CAI systems do not exit the engine compartment. Those systems I would not buy. The systems that extend outside the engine compartment will receive the 'cooler' air. Third, the larger vehicles air intakes are right behind the grill. Most smaller vehicles route the systems to the fender well than right in back of the opening underneath the front headlights. "The supposed "non-restrictive" qualities of CAI systems create a lot more noise than horsepower. Possibly at very high rpms with a large displacement engine, you might gain a couple HP under very ideal conditions. Hardly worth the trouble IMO. " The CAI system does give a little more noise than the factory system, but that is because of all the baffling the factory does on the air intake to reduce this noise. As far as doing a Dyno test on CAIs, for me it is hard to see how you can get good 'real world' results when the vehicle is sitting still and the air that is getting sucked in is whatever the air temperature is in the garage at the time of the test. Try take a stock from the factory Cavalier on a road test. After you are done, remove the restrictive "s" snorkel intake and run the same road test. See if you do not see an improvement in horsepower. I sure did!! It's A FACT with my Z24. |
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the difference in a short intake vs a cold air system? No doubt, one of the cheap intakes where the filter is at the top of the engine, sitting in the perfect place to draw hot air, may sound cool, but hurts performance. Many of the wanna-be sticker boys get their alleged "intakes" or "cold air systems" off of ebay or JC Whitney and think they're some hopped up street racer because their car sounds cool when they jump on it - problem is, they're now slower than stock. A true cold air system draws air from outside the engine, usually low in the compartment, and can improve performance SOME (like 1-2%). No major gains, like so many vendors claim...
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Replying to: driftracer (Apr 02, 2005 8:31 pm) |
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not the bogus 10-15 hp claim by many manufacturers - 1% is 1 hp on your car. Add it because it sounds cool and looks cool, don't expect any performance from it. Mr Shiftright has plenty of experience to draw from and his opinions are directly in line with mine on this. Install it if it makes you feel better, and your buddies go nuts in the parking lot when you pop your hood - just don't expect to see dyno or quater mile results.
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What I said or meant to say and possibly didn't do a good job with, is that the horsepower gains " in the real world" are apparently not worth the money you spend for a CAI. You need to drop I believe 10 degrees I(and that's ALL the time you're driving) to gain 1% HP ON THE TOP END. So, if you figure that you're not always going to be 10 degrees cooler (especially on a warm day), and that you're not always going to be in the top end, and that 1% is hardly noticeable, and that you could lose that 1% with low air pressure in your tires or other variables that occur in your engine---well, what's the point of it? Also I've seen some CAI installations that are downright dangerous---they are too low in the airstream and there's a risk of hydro-locking. Having said all that, there may be some cars where it's worth it, maybe the older machines, but I have never seen a really bad design on air intake in a modern car. And we haven't even talked about people using air filters you oil up, which have been causing grief to MAF sensors and clogging up on dusty roads. I was once much more in favor of CAI but the more I read and the more pro people I talk to, the less and less I think of them as worth the effort and money. If you gave me one for free, sure I'd try it.
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