986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - What is the best air filter? Cold air, ram air, ect.

Jake Raby · 10-26-2010, 06:03 PM

Keep the stock filter in the stock filter housing..
The "Performance" units will make more power on the day they are installed, within a week that performance if tested again will prove to have diminished beyond the stock filter in my experience... Thats IF the oil used to service the aftermarket unit doesn't foul your MAF.

Cold air intakes...

Well we've been running a test on those over the past summer in one of our test cars, its a barely street legal Boxster S that sees a ton of track time..

For these tests a "popular" aftermarket intake system was used.

"AIT2" is installed in the intake air box, where the coldest air is present.
"AIT1" is installed just before the throttle body in the air intake tube.

The results of the direct tests are fairly clear. The next test will be to gather data on the same tracks in the same ambients next year with a STOCK airbox installed.

This data proves that the cold air intake, really isn't supplying the engine with colder air, thats probably due to the poor insulation properties of the airbox and the air leaks from the engine bay that are impossible to eliminate completely.

Nothing beats data.. I wonder if any of the companies that sell these units have this data? I did this to benefit my engine program.

Also, note the extreme oil temps on the track.. This is whats killing the M96 on the track, especially when using oils that are not developed to run at these elevated temps for longer periods of time.. Those lack film strength at temperature and the next thing you know a failure occurs that LOOKS like starvation, but its really from a lack of the oil to properly lubricate and maintain pressure at temp..

The oil in this engine during these tests is Mobil 1. We've changed oils and are testing our newest 5/40 formulation (aka 980) now to gather pressure and temperature differences in the final event of the season.

This is a BONE STOCK 3.2 Reman Porsche engine, installed in May of 2010 so we could compare the data to our 3.6 Stage II engine being used in the same car next year. Dr. Phil is the pilot.

Test tracks were Mid-Ohio, Road America and Watkins Glen.

10-26-2010, 06:03 PM	#8
Jake Raby Engine Surgeon Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Cleveland GA USA Posts: 2,425	Keep the stock filter in the stock filter housing.. The "Performance" units will make more power on the day they are installed, within a week that performance if tested again will prove to have diminished beyond the stock filter in my experience... Thats IF the oil used to service the aftermarket unit doesn't foul your MAF. Cold air intakes... Well we've been running a test on those over the past summer in one of our test cars, its a barely street legal Boxster S that sees a ton of track time.. For these tests a "popular" aftermarket intake system was used. "AIT2" is installed in the intake air box, where the coldest air is present. "AIT1" is installed just before the throttle body in the air intake tube. The results of the direct tests are fairly clear. The next test will be to gather data on the same tracks in the same ambients next year with a STOCK airbox installed. This data proves that the cold air intake, really isn't supplying the engine with colder air, thats probably due to the poor insulation properties of the airbox and the air leaks from the engine bay that are impossible to eliminate completely. Nothing beats data.. I wonder if any of the companies that sell these units have this data? I did this to benefit my engine program. Also, note the extreme oil temps on the track.. This is whats killing the M96 on the track, especially when using oils that are not developed to run at these elevated temps for longer periods of time.. Those lack film strength at temperature and the next thing you know a failure occurs that LOOKS like starvation, but its really from a lack of the oil to properly lubricate and maintain pressure at temp.. The oil in this engine during these tests is Mobil 1. We've changed oils and are testing our newest 5/40 formulation (aka 980) now to gather pressure and temperature differences in the final event of the season. This is a BONE STOCK 3.2 Reman Porsche engine, installed in May of 2010 so we could compare the data to our 3.6 Stage II engine being used in the same car next year. Dr. Phil is the pilot. Test tracks were Mid-Ohio, Road America and Watkins Glen. Attached Images __________________ Jake Raby/www.flat6innovations.com IMS Solution/ Faultless Tool Inventor US Patent 8,992,089 & US Patent 9,416,697 Developer of The IMS Retrofit Procedure- M96/ M97 Specialist Last edited by Jake Raby; 10-26-2010 at 06:07 PM.