Title: 
Auto Accessories - Cold Air Intakes

Word Count:
505

Summary:
In this series of articles we will be looking individually at some 
basic auto accessories that most people find to be necessary for 
your high performance vehicle. In this particular one we will be 
looking at cold air intakes, one of the first things most of the 
modifiers in the industry take care of right off the bat.


Keywords:
auto, accessories, performance, cold, intake, air, Spool Motorsports.com


Article Body:
So lets talk about the whole theory of an intake and in particular 
of a cold air intake. We all know that an engine mixes air and 
fuel together, compresses it and then ignites the concoction, 
that creates a small explosion in your cylinders. So in the digital 
world the engine computer takes care of this concoction to the 
best of it's ability. Here is another piece of information, the 
colder the air is, the denser it is. What does it mean to you? The 
denser the air in the mix with fuel, the bigger the explosion in 
your cylinders, the bigger the explosion in your cylinders, the 
more horsepower you get. So we want to take advantage of 
this and put in as cold (dense) air as we can in our cylinders to 
create more horsepower.

Now to make a clarification of what a cold air intake really is and 
what it is not. There are intakes that are called short or ram 
intakes, and these are not considered cold air intakes. It is a 
better performing air intake system since it involves a better 
breathing filter and an intake tube that has less turns and kinks 
to improve the intake of air to your engine. Yet, consider where 
the a short or ram intake is placed; right next to the engine. 
Well, if you haven't noticed the engine produces heat and that 
heat is kept in the engine compartment, thus when those short 
or ram air intakes suck in air they are sucking in the hot air in 
the engine compartment. Since hot air is less dense than cold 
air, you may not be getting the best possible performance out of 
engine.

Coming out of stage right, the cold air intake. Now there are 
thousands of variations as to what a cold air intake looks like, 
there is no real variation for what it does. The filter is put as far 
away as possible from the engine where it can suck in ambient 
air, which in most cases is colder than the air inside your engine 
compartment. They are done in several ways, some have longer 
intake tubes and are put either inside the fender or downwards 
towards the ground to suck in fresh air. Some use a box that 
prevents air from the engine compartment  to enter so that in 
can suck in air from the outside. Which ever company you 
choose to buy this item from, buy from a reputable source. A 
good reputable company invest plenty of money in research and 
development to give you the best possible product and while 
some may look the part, they don't perform the part.

This has been a short introduction to a one of the favorite auto 
accessories in the market: The Cold Air Intake. We will be 
creating more articles about auto accessories in the future so 
please visit us at the resource box below and make sure you 
have the inside scoop on what is what in the auto modifiers 
industry.