1yakini

I bought a K&N after talking to the guys at the shop. One of them put one on his vette and did get hp gains per their dyno.. so I figured what the hell. Got the kit installed and then looked at it thinking... "what the ****". The "heatshield" that K&N created might work, but there is literally no air supply to the corner. So the intake gets engine air anyway from the spaces and cracks in between the heatshield and small spaces in the hood. Its really a horrible design, so I call K&N and ask them... of course they are clueless. The stock box had a supply tube that runs right next to the radiator and their kit eliminates it. The guy says " yea, that would have made sense to design it with another supply tube". So apparently they didnt spend too much time thinking this through.

I bought some autozone intake tubing and tomorrow the heat shield is getting cut so that I can run some tubing from next to the radiator into the fliter "box". I am hoping this will keep those intake temps down as well as supply plenty of fresh air to the thing. I will post pics when I get the job done and hopefully it will do the job. It looks like the Volant intake took this into consideration as theirs has a supply tube.

MN_V

iTrader: (5)

K&N are idiots

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

While you do see some gains from a CAI on the V1s, the K&N definetly heatsoaks on hot days and long drives. I think you can rig it up to work better though. If yout ake some pictures throughout your process it would be a great addition to this thread for other guys to do.

BudRacing

iTrader: (3)

Creating a better heat shield will do the most good for a K&N setup. The tube itself isn't bad and it's better than the OEM setup. Piping in some cooler air from the lower brake duct would finish it off nicely. I haven't done any of this to my setup because I don't really have the time, but if I were to do anything to it then that would be direction I would take. A basic office trash can and some edge style weather stripping is what most people use to create a heat shield. Search for "trashcan mod" on the V forums.

etcts-v

I ditched my K&N for a custom 4" tube with a Volant box.

1yakini

Yea, If I cant get this ducting to work right then I probably will go with the volant box. Its going to be too much trying to duct it from the bottom of the bumper though, Im going to try from the original location next to the radiator.

Gary Wells

These are only claims by the CAI manufacturers & sellers but you might find it interesting in regards to CAI claims in general. This is from the Cadillac forum.
However, the test run by "newcadman" are real number results.

03-19-2009: 04:19 PM: (JTHennessey) True Cold Air Intakes – Instock!: “True Cold Air intakes – Instock”: Want to add a quick 15 hp? This is the solution. Completely replaces the factory intake system with our true cold air intake. Last week, Nick @ American Racing Headers was able to test this induction system and was able to show a gain of 18 rwhp!!! Awesome setup. Images attached to this post

05-21-2009: 09:06 AM: “New Era CTS-V Cold Air Intake”: Mike @ New Era tuned a 09 CTSV and tested our intake on it. It made 451 rwhp and 437 rwtq in -stock- form and it picked up 34 rwhp and 28 rwtq with the New Era 09 CTSV intake untuned. After Mike tuned it, it made 505 rwhp and 470 rwtq.

05-14-2010: 03:11 PM: KPE Cold Air Intake: Designed to draw cold air and fit with the factory -engine- bay trim. The first CTS-V intake to feature injection molded plastic tube and large filter protected in sealed powdercoated aluminum box. Makes 24 RWHP on a -stock- motor and even more with other modifications.

06-06-2010: 06:32 PM: Airaid 250-253 - Best prices – Free Shipping!: Airaid Cold Air Intake System for the 2009-2010 Cadillac CTS-V 6.2L Supercharged -V8- includes a modular intake tube, air dam and highflow washable air filter. This System will give you 28 HP and 43 FT/LBS of Torque with out a Tune.

07-31-2010: 04:55 PM: KPE: Re: All KPE CAI owners………Instead of using our -car-, we grabbed a used 2010 CTS-V straight off the lot from our local Cadillac Dealer with 7980 miles which was bone stock. We then installed the KPE intake, and they ran the -car- again on the dyno..………….they took the average of the three runs which proved an 11 hp increase. They did have a run that showed +20 but the average at full temperature was +11.

07-31-2010: 06:53 PM: newcadman: Re: All KPE CAI owners: As indicated I took my 2009 V -auto- V (7000 miles) to the same (dynojet) dyno where it was previously tested when it was bone stock…………… Three pulls were made with the now installed KPE cai. End result, the -engine- made 8 MORE rwhp on its best pull than it did on its previous best bone stock pull.

DACTARI

iTrader: (1)

Any NA tuner knows that getting cold air to the engine through the most direct route possible will increase the potential to make power. You just have to use your judgement as a consumer as to whether a particular product will help you do that, or whether it's snake oil.

OP, you'll be fine with the trash can mod over the K&N.

Stone17

iTrader: (3)

I removed the air duct off my stock box and added to the K&N.
Just need to cut the shield. Work great.

1yakini

We are thinking along the same lines and like someone said, the more cold air you can get to the thing the better off you will be.



I finished the mod today.. will post pics soon with instructions. What a difference. You can hear it sucking loud as hell now even while accelerating at 60mph, thats how much air it was pulling from inside the compartment before. Those CAI manufacturer claims are probably accurate on a dyno.. with the hood up and a fan blowing, but the whole purpose is defeated once that hood closes and there is no air supply but from whats inside. I thought there was a leak it was so loud but everything is tight.

I already bought the K&N though.. so Im finding a way to make it better since I know im not the only one who has it.

First thing was the tubing.. I had wrapped some pvc in header tape but still didnt trust it with the engine heat. So I went to autozone and saw they had a whole mess of intake tubings (for the rice community). I bought some 3 inch flex line and a couple of couplers and an adapter plate. started basically with this.



Ended up finding out the hard way that the heatshield KN uses is not aluminum or anything cheap as it was a bitch to drill out. Ruined a brand new holesaw blade and still didnt get through. Wonder it its titanium.. its too light to be steal.





Basically just drilled out a 3 inch hole just under the KN tubing. Then bolted the adapter plate to it. Then routed the flex tubing up alongside the radiator like the original supply line was routed.



This last pic shows the hose clamp we used to bolt to the heatshield bracket making sure the inlet wouldnt move. My partner also had some kiln insulation that we stuffed in between the tubing and the radiator.



Might be hard to see here but there is about half of the 3 inch tubing sitting right next to the radiator and its getting direct air through the grill. The other half is tucked behind part of the front panel and still has a fresh air supply but it isnt as "forced".



Overall... it came out real good and shame on K&N for being too stupid to engineer this a little better. Cost less that 40 in parts and now I have a constant outside air supply going directly to the box. Like I said previous.. it is loud as hell now.

Stone17

iTrader: (3)

WOW. That looks great.
My intake temp is about 15 to 20 degrees hotter than the outside air.

FYI. When you stop hearing the whistle noise, that means you need to clean your filter.

1yakini

Damn.... I dont have the tools to measure temps but that says quite a bit right there. Thats a lot of heat soak.

The sucking noise? Are you being serious? Thats normal for the cone filter? It perked my ears up since I could hear it over the engine, wind noise and exhaust lol. I had assumed it was normal but was going to take everything apart and recheck it just to be sure nothing was blocked... if you guys say its normal then I wont bother.

DMM

Wow...you all are taking this to the next level by re-engineering the CAI kits. If you really want to see a difference, stop using the IAT in the MAF. The fast response Omega thermister really helps also.

1yakini

Sir, please elaborate. My engine computer knowledge is clearly lacking. I would think deleting the IAT would only keep the computer from reading the real incoming temp... but it is still sucking the hot air which has less oxygen per volume and therefor makes slightly less power anyway. I could be wrong but that was my understanding.

Besides, for 40 dollars and an hour of my time I think it does the trick.

Onefast V

iTrader: (3)

I believe he means relocating the thermistor. Also omega sells an upgraded thermistor that reacts faster than the factory one.

1yakini

Alright... but by relocating you are still taking in heat soak off the engine so you defeat the computer but not physics. Is there more here that I am missing?

incubusjunkie614

iTrader: (1)

Am I crazy for thinking we can just use the volant box/ tube with a vacuum port plastic welded or even a screw in barb type vacuum connector (all this for 06-07 guys)? I know the volant system has the fresh air port next to the radiator, just like the factory box, since the k&n is just a simple design which is obviously flawed.

DMM

It would seem so.

The OE IAT sensor integrated into the MAF is not very sensitive, this is either to prevent wild swings in readings or just b/c GM cheaped out on the thermistor used (the latter most likely being the case). The idea is to get the true temperature of the air rather than the temperature of the tubing/etc that is absorbing heat. The plastic is not likely to cause much of a temperature rise (if any) to the air in the tube b/c the plastic used does not have stellar thermal conductive properties, esp at the rate the air is flowing through. This is the same reason every manufacturer has changed over to the plastic intake manifolds.

Long story short, get a thermister with a faster response time (Omega) and place at a point in the system that is least likely to have engine compartment heat affect the sensor. Most install the IAT in the end of the cone filter.

1yakini

Right, I see what you are saying. Although what I was saying still holds true, you are still better off getting colder outside air to the intake. Despite what the computer reads from the sensors, cooler air produces more power and thus decreasing the amount of warm air sucked in from the engine compartment is advantageous.

The stock box ducted in outside air, the volant box does too. The K&N's are tested on a dyno with the hood open and air pushed past the motor but in reality do not provide any ducting like the other intakes. So for those of us who bought a KN intake this is a cheap easy fix.

Honestly this fix seems a lot simpler than messing with the IAT and MAF. While your tech knowledge is impressive I dont have the time or inclination to delve that deep into the cars computer and sensors. To me its an example of Occams razor. You tech guys are priceless and I'm sure ill be picking your brain for other projects later as I have seen several of your posts and was impressed. This time however, Ill just stick with my 30 dollar intake ducting DIY.

Stone17

iTrader: (3)

This was this morning. Outside temp was about 65f and cruising about 85mph on freeway about 26 miles to work.



Stopped at Mc Donald for 5 min.


2 min drive to work.