There are, obviously, thousands upon thousands of posts asking, advocating, and shaming CAIs. Seems like most people are either for or against but both stances are incomplete. What I don’t see are opinions on when they do become appropriate in the chain of upgrades.

In my case I have a 2014 3.5TT. It’s said that the stock intake is capable of taking in more air than the stock turbos could ever need, unless tuned/upgraded to the point that other components become a liability.

So for the average driver who just wants to be able to show out every now and then, I’d love to get some opinions from those traditionally in the against column on whether they think there is a time when a good aftermarket CAI becomes appropriate.

Seems to me I see most people advocating either:

1. CAI from the get-go
2. After/with tune
3. After tune and intercooler
4. After tune and downpipes and/or cat-back (regardless of intercooler)
5. After upgraded turbos only

Obviously you see a lot of 1 & 2 from owners wanting the noise and aesthetics but from what I’ve read the educated answer is post-turbo upgrade. Pre-exhaust is for those who want a mod without spending $1500, and post-exhaust is for those who suspect bigger turbos might be getting added to the wishlist soon anyway.

Would love to get some voices here because there are a million posts on the matter but very few that reference specific build progress/context.

 

Didn't mod my truck, but have experience with ( 2 ) GT500's:
On both cars I upgraded the blowers, which in turn needed the throttle body to be up sized, which would peg the MAF after tuning....( ( larger zip tube )
All the intake side increased air needs to go someplace = long tube headers.
Have an end goal in mind, get with a tuning shop & discuss your budget vs goals, see what they recommend.
......................Hope this helped..
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The stock 2014 turbos are tiny. The intake is not an issue.

Turbo upgrades will get you the most power capability with the least amount of work. At the end of the day, the stock turbos can only flow so much(around 48 lbs/min safely). But you will be power limited by the stock engine to around 450whp. fueling also becomes an issue since 2014’s are direct injection only.

intercooler should be the top priorities for power. The intercooler on the 2014’s are especially bad because they were dealing with the condensation issues so they did all sorts of stuff to make them less efficient. If you look inside your cooler you will see there are plastic inserts to block flow.

unless you are really pushing the turbos to the absolute limits, an intake and exhaust won’t do anything. Power is ultimately controlled by turbo air flow, so if the turbos are not maxed out then the exhaust and intake won’t be limitations. Rather than pushing the stock turbos so hard that the intake and exhaust make you small efficiency gains, you might as well just go to a larger turbo that works less hard.

Do not get an AFe intercooler. They are very mediocre but at the same time cost more than almost any other option.

If you really want to, you can monitor the pressure sensor that is on the intake just after the filter. That would tell you if there is significant pressure drop through the filter.

 

There is no replacement for displacement.

Cold air charge is always good, especially if there is some sort of restriction in the stock setup that is known.

As long as the CAI doesn’t cause a code to show up.

Sometimes they cause noise. This can be good or bad up to you.

I am not sure if anyone can tell the difference from just a CAI mod.

Usually performance mods go in stages.

Usually pre-packaged by a vendor with dyno tested data. (Which needs to be taken with a marketing grain of salt)

This is where forums can come in handy as people say what works and what doesn’t work .

Stage 1 = mild and affordable
Stage 2 = noticeable and more expensive
Stage 3 = radical and can affect street driveability

Then you take performance mods and couple them with tire, brake and suspension mods and call that a ‘combo’ or ‘setup’

If you can find one, take one of those old school perforated metal burn barrels, turbo with a leaf blower and start to throw money into it and watch it burn


Oh, and never, ever add up
your receipts.

 

I got alot of experience with boosted vehicles. 92
rx 7 95 Toyota supra twin turbo, a 1165 hp 952 tq r32 gtr a few built dsm talons eclipses, 97 Mitsubishi 3000 vr4, supercharged cobalt, twincharged saturn ion redline,

I've put on cai for 2 reasons
1. Helps feed the turbos, superchargers
2. Easy to check the air filter and looks..

Even on my na vehicles I've put on cai, just for the throttle response and quick visual filter checks.

Na you get engine sound and a very minimal improvement on power 3-5 hp if lucky.

Boosted alittle more response then na.

If I had a eco boost, I'd do the following.

Upgrade turbos
Better intercooler
Down pipe and than last a cai and tuning

 

Yep - I just ordered my intercooler and piping from CVFab, great customer service, I wore the poor girl out flipping back and forth and making changes to the order. Cristina tolerated my indecision like a saint!

I doubt I’ll go further for a while, but I’m just surprised that on a 10 year old truck there isn’t something more resembling a master sheet on what order to knock down mods. My neuroticism doesn’t handle subjectivity well.

I figured we’d have more tuners in here definitively stating “I’ve done all I can til you upgrade x, then y, then z” and put all these debates to rest.

 

Your wallet is the limiting factor, not what others have done & in what order..
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