# Cold Air Intake



## Renwo (Jan 29, 2014)

Has anyone installed a CAI on their 1st gen Cruze diesel?

I'm thinking of purchasing and installing this:

https://www.aemintakes.com/cold-air-intakes/chevrolet/cruze/2.0l-l4-diesel/2014

What are the pros and cons? Any power/mpg gains or just more noise?

Thanks guys.


----------



## BDCCruze (Jul 12, 2017)

First, that filter is not a cold air intake. Second, your Cruze has a cold air intake from the factory as do most new vehicles. Open up your intake cover, remove the filter, and follow the intake tube down to the front of the car to visually inspect it for yourself. Purchasing a filter like this and having the intake exposed to engine bay temperature is just stupid in my opinion. If I were looking at a used car and opened to hood to see something like that I would shut the hood and walk away.


----------



## Thebigzeus (Dec 2, 2018)

BDCCruze said:


> First, that filter is not a cold air intake. Second, your Cruze has a cold air intake from the factory as do most new vehicles. Open up your intake cover, remove the filter, and follow the intake tube down to the front of the car to visually inspect it for yourself. Purchasing a filter like this and having the intake exposed to engine bay temperature is just stupid in my opinion. If I were looking at a used car and opened to hood to see something like that I would shut the hood and walk away.


I agree, that will likely take in more hot air than the stock one, it sucks from inside the hood compartment versus the fender.


----------



## sailurman (Sep 29, 2016)

So I'm no Mike the Mechanic here. But what I wonder is how air intake temperature actually affects the performance of a diesel engine. Any knowledgeable responses?


----------



## Diesel4Ever (May 30, 2018)

Increasing airflow by reducing filtration efficiency will do nothing on a stock diesel engine. Diesels are fuel limited by design and aren’t limited by the stoichiometric ratio like gasoline engines.

Even a tuned gen 1 Cruze diesel is limited by the stock fuel injectors.

leave your OEM air filter in place and save your money for other mods that will actually do something.


----------



## justin13703 (May 2, 2016)

I bought the K&N over the AEM just because of the K&N tube being metal and the AEM is plastic. Just to clarify, everyone should pretty much know by now that an intake alone will get you nothing in the performance department. An intake alone is for sound. Nothing else. Thats why I went with the K&N, a metal tube is louder than a plastic one.

All that aside, the sound alone being the only improvement, yes they are worth it if you like your car to make good sounds. The turbo is very audible under pretty much any amount of throttle, and the car in general has a deeper "rumble" sound from the intake.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

As mentioned above - the only reason to buy the SRI (short ram intake) is for additional sound. It's _quite_ loud.

That said, I like ours (we have the K&N, with an AMSOIL filter).


----------



## okihedges24 (Aug 16, 2012)

I'm sorry but I have to jump in here. It has been proven again and again that putting more air you put into the engine improves performance and economy. A properly designed cold air intake draws it's air from the same place as the stock filter, but more of it. Talk to any diesel tuner and they will verify this with dyno graphs. Google it.


----------



## 15CruzeTD (Oct 23, 2019)

okihedges24 said:


> I'm sorry but I have to jump in here. It has been proven again and again that putting more air you put into the engine improves performance and economy. A properly designed cold air intake draws it's air from the same place as the stock filter, but more of it. Talk to any diesel tuner and they will verify this with dyno graphs. Google it.


But it won't do you much good if your engine is not tuned.


----------



## WillL84 (Aug 5, 2019)

15CruzeTD said:


> But it won't do you much good if your engine is not tuned.


It will but it will do more with a tune


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

okihedges24 said:


> I'm sorry but I have to jump in here. It has been proven again and again that putting more air you put into the engine improves performance and economy. A properly designed cold air intake draws it's air from the same place as the stock filter, but more of it. Talk to any diesel tuner and they will verify this with dyno graphs. Google it.


Yes - cold air is denser, and thus, _with more fuel, _will make more power. But more fuel = lower fuel economy. You don't get both - you're not solving an efficiency issue. Modern OE intakes are not inefficient, so CAIs these days are mostly, if not entirely, for sound. Not to mention, many engines being turbocharged these days want to make a certain amount of power - they make more or less boost depending on environmental conditions to make that number. You've just made it easier to make that number - you do not make any more power, without a tune allowing the engine to take advantage of the extra cold air.

Also important, and pertinent to this thread: the cold air intakes for the 1st gen CTD don't draw air from the same place - they are in the engine bay, as they are short-ram intakes. They are purely for sound. Any claims of extra power is entirely typical variation between two dyno runs - or due to the hood being open and a gigantic fan blowing on it (not properly replicating a closed hood condition).



WillL84 said:


> It will but it will do more with a tune


Except, at least at the moment, they won't. I asked Trifecta to adjust for the K&N SRI when I got our tune last Black Friday, but they said they are only doing 100% stock tunes at the moment, which is fine, because it didn't change much, if anything, except sound.


----------



## Diesel4Ever (May 30, 2018)

okihedges24 said:


> I'm sorry but I have to jump in here. It has been proven again and again that putting more air you put into the engine improves performance and economy. A properly designed cold air intake draws it's air from the same place as the stock filter, but more of it. Talk to any diesel tuner and they will verify this with dyno graphs. Google it.


No it doesnt. A modern diesel engine will inject a specific quantity of fuel based on load and throttle position. Adding 5% more air by using a low efficiency air filter on a stock tune will not make more power because the same quantity of fuel is being injected because the fuel delivery isn’t controlled by the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7:1 like a gas engine. You need to add more fuel if you want to make more power, air by itself ain’t gonna do it. Even a tuned CTD is limited by the stock injectors so more air isn’t necessary.

Not only that but a low efficiency air filter will allow abrasive silica dust (fine dirt) into the engine and ultimately shorten its lifespan.

If I went to look at a used diesel car or truck and it had a K&N on it I would turn around and go home because I would know the owner was clueless.


----------



## LiveTrash (May 24, 2015)

I have the K&N Short Ram Intake. As mentioned, it isn't actually a Cold Air Intake, as it is clearly taking air from inside the engine bay, even with there being a shield. However, the warm air it takes vs. cold are that the stock one takes, for this engine specifically, makes little to no difference. I've been running mine for the last 50,000mi or so. Here's what I find with it.

Maybe an increased throttle response, but not much at all.
No difference in fuel efficiency that I noticed
No difference in power delivered that I noticed.
For any of this, you'd only be able to see a difference when it comes to numbers on a dyno.

Big difference in turbo noise.
Big difference in engine sound. That diesel growl is very prominent and it just sounds more throaty in general. This turbo also has turbo flutter and in certain conditions that is very noticeable.

At the end of the day, don't get a this "Cold air intake" thinking you'll get anything other than sound. That's what I got it for and it delivered 100%.

*EDIT*: See this thread I posted back when I first was considering getting one. It has details mainly about the K&N intake but still some more information, such as YouTube videos busting a myth surrounding CAI's. Air Intake


----------

