BBP Independent Cold Air Intake Testing – May 15, 2012

[Julie@BBP]

On May 15, 2012 Black Bear Performance will be testing five intake companies’ cold air intakes on the Dyno. We will be using a stock 2008 Silverado 5.3L to test all five intake products.

Reason for testing: Cold Air Inductions, Inc., a well-known cold air intake company that is an industry leader for the 2010+ Camaro market, is looking to expand into the GM Truck/SUV market. Although they test all of their intake designs before ever releasing them to the public, they have asked us to perform independent testing of their kit against some of the competition to help them gain credibility in the GM Truck/SUV community, as well as to back their claims with some independent 3rd party testing. Since we sell all of the companies’ intakes being tested, we have no financial bias towards any one kit over another, so this is strictly an independent testing for consumer benefit.

Here is a little bit of history on Cold Air Inductions Inc. (aka CAI Inc.) for those of you who are not familiar with them. The company started back in 2004 fueled from a passion for drag racing and continuous improvement by making their own vehicle parts and components. Now an industry leader that strictly manufactures Cold Air Intakes, CAI Inc. is known for their unique design approach for what a cold air intake should be. We are excited to test their product because they offer a few unique features, such as an enclosed and insulated air box, ceramic coated intake tubes that reduce heat soak, and they design and engineer their own high performance air filters. Although CAI Inc. has more than a dozen vehicle applications available, they are extremely excited about this new GM Truck/SUV Product line, and will even have it featured on upcoming episodes of Speed Channels TruckU! You can learn more about their company at www.ColdAirInductions.com.

The process for the testing will be: Test stock, test intake only, then tune, switch intakes, test intake only, then tune, switch intakes, etc.

The parameters being tested will be:
- Ease of installation,
- HP gains over stock,
- TQ gains over stock,
- Calculated cylinder air mass (g/cyl),
- Initial impact on Air/fuel ratio (AFR),
- IAT, and
- Overall quality.

Testing will be done with the hood closed to simulate real-world driving conditions, and gains reported will be to the wheels as opposed to the crank.

We will have the results posted back up here approximately 2-3 weeks after the testing so please stay tuned!

**Please note that we do not have anything to gain by this intake testing, nor do we have any bias for or against any of the companies’ products being tested. This is strictly an independent testing.**

[1988 GMC 355]

I don't even have a truck of this era or a 5.3 but am excited to see what the numbers are, seems like this will really prove whether they are worth it or not.

[Chevy53]

I'm interested to see this as well, I did tests on 5 cars using k&n intake kits and out of- a Nissan Titan old Subaru Impreza, an turbo integra gto and camaro the only one that didn't lose power was the impreza all others lost hp varying from 2-7hp some gained torque but some lost

[JennaBear]

We did a similar test a few years back, but this one will be more indepth.

[Julie@BBP]

Update: The 5 CAIs being tested are:

1. K&N
2. AEM
3. Volant
4. Airaid (MIT)
5. Cold Air Inductions, Inc.

[Julie@BBP]

Results coming soon....

[Quinton23]

Cant wait to see the results! been looking into an intake, just cant make a choice!

[Julie@BBP]

Results will be out this week!

Please note: **We sell all of the intake brands tested, including the CAI, Inc intake.

[Julie@BBP]

Test results are up and can be found here:

http://www.fullsizechevy.com/forum/m...ml#post5605592

[Jeff6.0]

Fantastic!
Thanks guys!