Really I need to ask and not to sound to technical but If i understand physics right increasing air to a carburated motor is great but when you start adding more air to a motor that is not carbed (TP-TB etc etc) and they have O2 sensors attached and those O2's detect any unburnt O2 coming out of the combustion chambers (no one has a perfect burn) then wont those O2 sensors throw a code or else it will tell the PC to richen the mixture. I see alot of these companies claiming that it increases MPG, but with all the extra(unnessesary) goodies the big 4-5-or 6 has added to their motors, its kind of contradictive....along with that i dont understand how pulling air from the engine compartment ( even with a heat shield) can be beneficial when originally you are pulling air from the inside of the fender well (fresh cold) why not increase that amount of air.... I see postings saying how people have added Air-intakes and then a few weeks later asking why they are getting O2 error codes .......could these be connected???? just some questions maybe someone with good or bad experiences can shed some light on them....

 

My Son wants one of the e-bay "cold air" intake systems for his Mustang and wanted to know why I don't have one on my truck. We were talking last night about factory cold air coming in from the fender well vs. what I figured would be warm engine compartment air.

I am also interested in hearing how these e-bay or even K&N systems provide colder air from the engine compartment? I figure they must work, just don't understand how

 

You have to really watch what you buy - a lot of companies sell 'short ram' intakes which have a much more direct and smooth path for the air to follow, but they also draw hot air instead. The benefit of a true CAI is that it pulls air from the fender or other remote location, much like the OEM intake does, but it also has a much less restrictive filter and less drag inside the ducting.

An intake shouldn't really trigger a check engine light, unless it's a poor design. Even then it'd have to disconnect something important to trigger a CEL.
There are 2 major ways to determine the amount of air going into an engine. Both of them take measurements of certain parameters and reference a chart in the computer that'll tell the fuel injectors how much fuel to add. Intakes alone add very little power, but they benefit just about any other thing you can do. Exhausts on the other hand can wreak havoc on the emissions equipment. On the Subarus, for example, switching from the OEM exhaust manifolds to a header usually triggers a CEL because the exhaust gasses cool off far too much to keep the O2 sensor within proper range.

 

I just got the truck and haven't done much looking around. But I'm assuming the base fuel injector pulse width is based on Throttle Position, Intake Air Temp and Intake Manifold Pressure primarily, and adjusted based on Engine Coolant Temp, battery temp, voltage and whatnot, and continuously adjusted with Long- and Short-Term Fuel Trims based on the O2 sensor outputs in closed loop. So if that's the case, then by getting more oxygen molecules in there - either with colder, denser air, less restriction, or both - the computer will adjust fuel as necessary based on its pre-programmed fuel maps (RPM vs. engine load). In closed loop, it doesn't really matter. But at WOT, the a/f ratios will be pretty close to where the programmers wanted them. With carburetion, getting more air in could mean rejetting to prevent a lean condition - mechanical systems versus electronic monitoring.

 

I think i can follow that but what i am getting at is exactly how far can you go with air intake before you start throwing 02's outta wack, how rich will that engine run, if its rich its using more gas so how can they claim to save 15-20% on fuel if adding more air richens the mixture, what other mods need to be added to balance the system out-air-fuel-spark-combustion-power-exhaust, you have the main 2 and plenty of it, if you stop at air and fuel, what have you gained?

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