Stock air intake vs. Aftermarket intake?

Question

I was wondering what the cons are of aftermarket intakes? Does more dirt and grime get into the engine? I know about hydrolocking, but is it going to decrease the overall lifetime of my engine?

Answer 1

Aftermarket intakes are better.

They push more air and cleaner air into the engine to add more power. 5-15HP depending on the car.

The bad things about them are:

Expensive to replace air filters. $40-60 compared to normal air filters that cost $10-35.

Answer 2

they make proveable hp gains.  if they can't prove it with dyno tests, they can't legally make that claim... but for the most part you won't notice much difference.  the difference in most cars is <7%.  

however, in the case of Toyotas, TRD makes cold air intakes complete with an MAF in them and supposedly if put on by a toyota tech, won't mess with your warranty either.

Answer 3

It may.. That's why you have to make sure you buy a quality intake.  I have a K&N Typhoon on my Civic and it has 217,000 miles (I have had the filter on for well over 100,000 miles). So,  no ebay filters.  

Answer 4

It will turn the Check Engine light on the dashboard forever, it will suck in water like the other person said, void the warranty and cost a lot of extra money, why do you need it anyway?

Answer 5

Cons: At best, 3-4 horsepower. If you're lucky. And only at certain RPM. For the rest of your powerband, expect no gain at all, or even a loss. This has been dyno proven thousands of times. 3-4 horsepower, will NOT be noticeable to the driver. It will sound different, which creates a placebo effect. But no actual performance is gained. For your 3-4 horsepower, you just spend $100+ if you bought a quality intake. Depending on the model of your car, it might be twice that.

You now can no longer just buy a filter from Napa. You now need an aftermarket filter. Or, you get a filter that's washable. Which you now must maintain, or it will rob you of even more power.

Also, there are quite a few vehicles where the stock intake is actually designed to be optimal, so you run into the chance of just losing power, rather than getting any benefit at all from it.

Hopefully you don't have a turbo engine...if you do, cold air intakes are 100% wastes of money. Turbos don't require cold air, it does nothing for them.

Pros? You might get 3-4 horsepower. Go you.