CAI for a 302?

[goony]

Hey guys, one thing that has been bothering me is the fact that I cannot find any cold air intakes for a Colony Park. But could I just buy a CAI for a 302 in a stang and work it our for my Merc?

Also, does anyone know if buying a throttle body spacer would seem reasonable? I always hear good things about the spacers giving better gas mileage and a boost in power.

Thanks guy!

[mrltd]

You would need to modify a mustang one a bit to get it to work.

TB spacer is a waste on these cars. A modded mustang TB and a bored EGR spacer with a HO upper would do way more. Get some mustang headers and at least a 2.25" duals. That will make a huge increase in HP.

[Mercracer]

Re: CAI for a 302?

Hey guys, one thing that has been bothering me is the fact that I cannot find any cold air intakes for a Colony Park. But could I just buy a CAI for a 302 in a stang and work it our for my Merc? !

Contrary to the missplaced conception of some, a cold air intake needs to actually get air from a cold source, and not hot engine compartment air, or it is just an aftermarket air cleaner setup.
Since a Mustang inner fender well is different than a CV one, there will be mods necessary. This is where creativity will prevail. If you are running a factory engine, there is little benefit to be found in a CAI. If you are doing a HO upgrade, then there is a greater potential.

[Southern_Pride]

Not really any reason to do it. The stock setup pulls air from in front of the radiator. Cant get any colder unless you run it from in front of the a/c vents.

[Freshmeat]

Not really any reason to do it. The stock setup pulls air from in front of the radiator. Cant get any colder unless you run it from in front of the a/c vents.

But at the same time, the stock air set-up is complete crap. I swapped it for a warm air short-ram type intake (fat ass elbow and filter sits just above the headers) and I noticed massive improvements, even though it wasn't pulling actual cold air.

[Blaze86Vic]

I beg to differ. You can say what you want, but the stock setup is the best setup that is readily available for us. I wouldn't do a warm air intake.

[Archangel]

A guy at LOL has done a real CAI for his TC, much freer-flowing than the stock setup. Take a look (images are clicky):

[Freshmeat]

I did the warm air intake and I know damn well I had a LOT more power. Everything is wrong about the stock set-up except that it pulls in front of the radiator.

[88MercWagon]

Basically, what we need is a less restrictive intake from the same location in front of the radiator, right?

[Blaze86Vic]

That Lincoln CAI is funny, that pipe is like 5 feet long LOL

I wouldn't use that intake anyways because it puts the filter in the perfect puddle sucking position. Every time he goes through a puddle it's going to get soaked from the splash.

[Mercracer]

I did the warm air intake and I know damn well I had a LOT more power. Everything is wrong about the stock set-up except that it pulls in front of the radiator.

Even a true cold air intake will not give you a LOT more power. If your engine can not draw more air than the stock intake can supply, then there is no restriction. Unless you have a dyno sheet or a drag slip to back up your claims, I'd say there is probably a pile of wishfull thinking involved.

[Blaze86Vic]

I don't mean to be rude, but Mercracer is right. No CAI is giving a LOT more power if any. One big problem with personal opinions, is the distorted perception. There really is nothing that can be done to stop this, so dynos and 1/4 mile times are the only way to prove it.

Apparently the exhaust cut outs on my Vic do make a difference, I always though they felt like it lowered my power from not having any kind of pressure wave conducive exhaust. But my 1/4 mile ETs show a .25 second change to the good.

[Freshmeat]

Dyno sheet or not, when I switched to the short ram set-up, I actually had acceleration above 2,000rpms where before I didn't have acceleration at any RPMs.

Take it as literally as you want so you can pick it down to nothingness, but I know what I felt. I didn't expect any difference at all for the same reasons you listed, but it was a noticeable improvement.

"A lot more power..." = "A lot more improvement than I had expected..."

Don't try to shut me down with your wishful thinking bullshit. I couldn't have cared less- just wanted to clean up the engine bay and gained noticeable acceleration. That's all.

[Archangel]

Blaze, if you think about it the filter is in the same position as the stock intake inlet, only lower. I agree about the splashes, but the guy's in Arizona, so he couldn't care less about about rain (actually if you look at the pics you'll see he has no washer fluid tank), when I'm doing that to my TC I will definitely use a splash shield under the filter. I am currently running a warm air intake (a bigass filter attached directly to the rubber elbow of the manifold) and although I've probably lost some performance my gas mileage has become rock-solid 17 city - it's winter now, snow and shit, torque and HP don't matter so much to me

[Blaze86Vic]

Actually rain is a big concern for him. In arizona it does not rain often, but when it does, it rains so fast there is no avoiding puddles. And it's no where near the stock location. There is a good 2 feet of distance, not to mention the amount of shielding it has being at the top of the radiator.