I got to put my two cents in on this one, your engine is basically an airpump. The more air in, the more air out, the more power. Why does the Daytona have 10 more HP. Intake and Exhaust is the answer, correct me if I am wrong. Throttle body spacer question is valid but my guess is unless it alters air speed or volume in, then no effect. I'll go along with the sounds cool factor though, that is definately worth something if not everything.

To IXLR8, somebody has got you brainwashed, you sound like a factory guy or girl (for all I know you may be one)! I don't buy it, the aftermarket world is huge and there is a reason.

 

A fool and his money, are soon parted...

I just put my money into buying next years model sooner, it will already be faster, cooler, and have less maintenance nightmares (warranty). Instead of decreasing the trade-in value of the car with aftermarket crap, I keep the money in the bank, the value in my car, and turn them over more frequently. The cost is the same.

No I do not work for any manufacturer, but I am an engineer. I do understand airflow, and the point of more air and less restrictive exhaust equals more power. But there is an art to designing an intake. If a resonance is created at the valve intake port, it can act as a little supercharger, providing much more power than it should for given airflow, by passing the resonance pressure wave into the combustion changer. This type of tuning is almost impossible to calculate, but can be measured on the dyno quite easily. By changing the intake, you destroy the resonance, and it will take a LOT more air to get the same power. I do believe that different CAI systems can have significantly different power characteristics, however I have not seen any that appear to be much more than the shortest route between two points, and that is not how I would expect a properly "tuned" intake to look.

Back in the day we just flipped the top of the air cleaner over, for more airflow....
<slaps self>

I'll shut up now.

 

Enough said IXLR8 you had me laughing, you were laying it on a bit thick with the perfectly tuned stuff. Don't forget though these mopar engineers feel pressure from "emision control central" and "gas guzzler reform groups" and I am sure that this comes in to play with the tuning for emissionsand/or performance. Don'tassume they are tuning for performance in this day when the global warming thing is everywhere.

You are right a fool and his money are soon parted, been there done that!

 

global warming is BS

 

And I thought that I may have strayed a little off topic....

 

doesnt that make life fun ixlr8 have a good one

 

Throttle body spacers increase plenum volume.

Dodge 4.7/5.2/5.9 and 5.7 engines already have the largest plenum volumes in the domestic V8 industry...larger than Ford or GM
so throttle body spacers don't do much of anything.

That is not to say that changing the volume of different parts of a 'tuned' air intake system won't change torque, or more likely move it up or down the rpm range.
Read Dulcich's and Friends experiment near the end of this article:


caption on picture reads:
Our pal, Richard Holdener, dropped by and took us to school on the effect of ram tuning the induction tract forward of the throttle body. This is essentially the air-intake system. Holdener got to work adding a shnoz to our intake to demonstrate the effect of air intake ram pipes.

from article:

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/t...kes/index.html

As you consider what Steve Dulcich and Richard Holdener are doing here,
keep in mind that most of the eBay guys selling spacers and CAI's
and discounters like Air_Ram
don't have enough education
and aren't willing to do the hard work of learn 'harmonics'
to be able to know what their changes to intake volumes do to the tuning.

Would you like to learn more ?

Before taking the job as technical director of SuperChips
Jim McFarland wrote this good set of articles for beginners
who are willing to "knuckle down"
and read things several times to learn:

http://www.n2performance.com/archives.shtml

 

Good one!

 

I'm not so sure I agree with you IXLR8. The majority of tuning is done to meet federal emission requirements. The factory would be doing a ton of things differently that would increase horsepower however a lot of those ideas just won't pass the ole' emission test! I'm not so sure that the power curve is effected asmuch as emissions.