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Unpopular opinion: I thought cold air intakes were total hype until my buddy's dyno sheet proved me wrong
I used to roll my eyes at anyone who spent $300 on a cold air intake, because I figured the factory box was fine and the gains were all in your head. My buddy kept telling me otherwise, so last month we put his 2016 Mustang GT on a dyno in Garland, and the thing picked up 14 horsepower at the wheels after swapping in a decent intake and a tune. That is not life changing money, but 14 whp for about $400 is real, and I drove it after and the throttle felt sharper. Now I am wondering if I was wrong about other cheap bolt-ons too, like cat-back exhausts and throttle body spacers. Has anyone actually dyno tested a spacer, because I still think those are fake.
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wood.andrew5d ago
I saw a YouTube video last year where a guy tested a throttle body spacer on a dyno and it made basically zero difference, like maybe 1 hp and that could honestly just be run to run variance. He did back to back pulls with and without it and the curves were almost identical. The spacer is just a fancy paperweight unless you have some weird intake manifold setup that actually needs the extra room. Cat backs are a different story though, I have heard they free up maybe 5 to 10 hp on a V8 but mostly it is about sound. The intake plus tune thing you did is probably the best bang for buck move before you start messing with headers.
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