CarNutz - Thanks for taking care of that, I was out for a bit.

As for my experience I have a strong background in racing P-cars and GTP's with a little time working with/on Indy lights - most of the aftermarket crap for cars does not produce power. More noise means nothing to me, I want real gains, if a new CAI can not deliver at least 10hp(at all speeds) its not worth the effort, unless of course you have FI. Nissan did a very good job tuning this car from the factory, with out spending big bucks I don't think your going to get much more out of it. That's just my opinion based on 2 decades of racing experience. Look at the G37, they had to change the bore and stroke of the engine to produce an additional 24hp.

I'll just sit back and wait for these aftermarket companies to prove me wrong.

 

Carnutz, you can keep telling youself whatever you want, but if you cannot except the fact that a car requires more air for everybit of extra fuel you put into the engine then you know nothing about cars. Maybe i can have my father who was an engineer and designer for GM for 30 years chime in on this. Once he gets into town i can have him explain the simple concept to you.

-sean

 

As for the new VQ like i stated in i believe my first post, i dont know much about it and how its tuned. I would have to look at the way the stock air boxes are set up before i or anyone im sure could easily tell if its capable of more power. Im sure you would know more about it than i do sense you have one, but it doesnt seem like you know that much in the performance department other than what a tech guy has told you.

-sean

 

Sean brotha, I hate to tell you but CarNutz is completely right. Unfortunately bro, his experience/knowledge is beyond yours. Nothing against you personally, but he knows what he is talking about.

 

I think that you no better than that. You honestly think that there are going to be no gains past stock when a CAI is added on the 07 sedan?

-sean

 

The stock airbox on the 03-06 cars can more air than the VQ35 can dish out. Shall I post the link of the 7 dedicated 350Z and G coupe race cars where 5 of the 7 cars are still equipped with the stock airboxes and the slowest cars were the ones with the aftermarket intakes? All these cars had significant NA mods like cams, intake spacers/manifolds, headers, etc.

 

Thanks Garnet.. for the record.. I attended Denver Automotive and Diesel college back in 71. I graduated and became ASE certified after that. Then somehow I lost my way and became a EE in the computer industry.

 

Sean.. nobody is debating the fact that more fuel requires more air to make more power.
The point being made is that the engine can only flow so much air. If the intake(s) flows more air volume than the engine does, how is that going to make more power with a tune or a bigger intake... ? It won't when the engine is the restriction itself. It might make less power as the velocity of the air is reduced with a larger pipe.
You just can't add more air with a bigger pipe when whats behind the pipe only flows so much...

 

Does the Temp of the air mean nothing? Just curious, everyone is talking volume.

 

Yes, i completely agree with you on the fact that the engine can only flow so much air. The debate that im trying to prove is that if you tune a engine correctly you allow the engine to flow more fuel, which will then need more air to compensate for the addition of fuel.

I guess there were a lot of things that i did not talk about that led us in a way difference direction. CAI obviously have the upper hand when a car is moving since it typically is getting direct air from outside (colder air and also ram air effect) vs. a short ram air intake or factory air box since they are placed in the engine bay (lack of ram air and also sucks in warmer air from the heat the engine puts off = less power).

So with a properly tuned engine more fuel and more air allow for more power, with the addition to a CAI it is going to allow for colder air from directly outside to be sucked into the engine in a "ram air" manner rather than warm air from with in the engine bay.

So my hypothesis is...i think dual CAIs will provide more air flow to the engine thus making more power.

Now you can sit here all night and argue, debate..whatever you want to call it, but no one to my knowledge has seen if CAIs will provide more power for the new VQ motor. So until it has been proven that it provides less, equal, or more power no one is right. Once a company develops a CAI setup for the VQ motor then we will see who is right and who is wrong.

I might be young and i might think i know everything, but one thing that i would consider myself skilled at is my knowledge of cars. I believe for the mods that I have put on the car i have one of the fastest 5AT N/A coupes on the forum. Reason why I think i have one of the faster coupes on the forum is because i have researched and found what parts truly make the car faster at higher speeds (which is usually when you need performance). Not trying to sound like a smartass or anything, but tell me what other coupes on here have a air intake, exhaust, and a spacer and run 13.8 at basically 100.4 MPH with a non-revup motor…not many.

I guess we will see who is right when someone finally puts the car on the dyno and takes it to the track after addition to CAI.

Hope this sums up what i was trying to say.

-sean

 

Absolutely it matters, cold dry air is your friend when it comes time to produce power.

Interestingly enough, a lot of the CAI intakes are not really getting cold(or colder) air then the stock units. The auto makers have got very good at getting the most from a stock intake, for them its just free power(which certainly helps sell more cars). They also have millions upon millions of dollars for R&D and the little aftermarket companies just cannot compete with that - 10 years ago it was a different story. But today the little things of yesterday just don't yield the benefits they used to, which is also why the tuner market has shrunk almost as quickly as it grew.

 

Yes. Hence, intercoolers for forced induction engines.

You know, the web has virtually the sum total of human knowledge at your fingertips. Why don't some of the people in this thread do some reading instead of arguing. Search for things like volumetric efficiency, torque demand strategies, powertrain calibration, etc.
Sheesh.

 

I have had 1/2 of each air box out and have looked at it closely, they really did a fantastic job with it. I am sure you could smooth out some of the angles and get a RCH of better throttle response, but even that may prove to be easier said then done. I have no doubt that a cone type filter would sound sublime on the 07 motor, but with out noticable improvements in performance its not for me.

Short of going FI I don't think you'll be able to pick up but 1-5hp with the basic bolt on upgrades - you want that level of improvement, take the spare and jack out of the car and it will probably equal the same real world performance gains.

 

I guess I'll have to wait for more agressive mods to get decentHP gains. Was looking for some cheap alternatives, Exhaust and CAI vs. Turbo/Supercharger. I'm glad to see that we are getting what we pay for at least.

 

Fastest? No. One of the quickest coupes? Yes. An interesting tid bit is your coupe is only managing 100.4mph in the 1/4 mile with all those mods. My 03 sedan with a spacer and Z-tube is consistently seeing 99.7-99.9mph in the 1/4 mile though my ET is solidly .4 seconds off your pace. But only .5mph to .7mph from your coupe. From a roll, our cars would be neck and neck. I firmly believe your coupe would go 102mph if you replaced that POS CAI with the stock airbox. All that additonal intake piping length of the CAI is chocking the higher rpm performance of your VQ. I saw the exact thing with a CAI on my last VQ. My ETs were generally the same, but the CAI sucked a solid 2mph in the last 1/8 mile.

The stock intake setup, especially on the 07, is pulling in ambient air so it is truely a CAI. You would be kidding yourself if you thought the aftermarket could build a cooler CAI because nothing is cooler than pulling in ambient air and the OEM setup already does this.