Is a K&N cold air intake worth it for my car?

Question

I have a 95 camaro 3.4L and the site says I'll get around a 18HP gain. The stock intake I have is pretty restricted to air passing through so will this purchase be worth 180+ dollars?

Answer 1

K&N has a gift for exaggeration. Your motor might see an 18HP gain if build your engine out to 400HP by adding headers, cams, flowed heads, big valves, etc. Then, once the motor NEEDS to breathe 900cfm, a K&N may push you to 418HP. But you're not going to see anything like a 10% gain on a stock motor. The thing you have to realize about filtration is that the better the filter, the more restrictive it will be. It can't be any other way. So if you see any gain at all from the K&N, it will come at the expense of pushing more dirt through your motor. You don't need horsepower that badly.

What you will buy with that K&N is a lifetime of messy washing, cleaning and reoiling. If you don't maintain it, and maintain it often, you won't see any gain at all. The next thing you know, you'll be back here asking if there's any cheap generic oil that can be used in place of genuine K&N oil.

BTW, the people telling you this stuff are also getting ready to rob you. The K&N filter for a 3.4L Camaro should cost around 40 bucks. I've included a few links that you should look at before you leap.

Answer 2

Any time a manufactuer of aftermarket parts rates something for horsepower, they do it at ideal conditions. aka controlled invironment. Likely this rating came from a highly modified vehicle with many other internal and bolt on external modifications, and then and only then did the cold air intake add 18 HP.
The truth is you will not see an 18 HP increase, however you will see a noticable increase in throttle response, and possibly a noticable power gain. The way a cold air intake system works is by drawing fresh cooler "cold" air from outside the engine compartment through a high flow air filter element and into the motor. THE ADVANTAGES:
1. the cooler the air the more dense it is. the more dense it is the more oxygen it contains. the more oxygen air can carry the more fuel a motor can burn and still maintain proper air/fuel mixture. thus improving power. by the theory of more fuel+ more oxygen=bigger bang in cylinder= MORE POWER
2. for the same reason as 1 a high flow air filter can add power....remember more air, more fuel, more power

will also help with fuel milage aswell, how you ask?
more air+ MORE FUEL = more power right???
YES, CORRECT, but more power means you will have to not push the accelerator down as hard to get the same affect as before the addition. thus.....thats right, improved fuel economy....THAT IS OF COURSE IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR FOOT OFF THE FLOORBOARDS, which may be hard considering you just added maybe 8 HP if your lucky.
So I guess you will have to decide, I hope these facts can help.

Answer 3

Dude don't believe everything you read. The air intake may give you like 2hp. Now if you did some other upgrades like a catback exhaust etc.... you would get a little closer to 18hp gain. You will get a bit more gas milage out of it. Either way if you want performance, the V6 was not the way to go. Not muscle and would take alot more to make a little quicker.

Answer 4

"Around a 18hp gain" means under ideal circumstances, you might get 18hp more by spending that money. In reality, you will probably get half of that which is hardly worth the time and effort to install the piece of junk and certainly not worth the money.

Answer 5

It you are racing it, then i might be worth it because you want every bit of extra horse power you can get out of your engine. I sold performance parts for years and I could never see where K & N got those inflated numbers from. If you are just driving it on the street, you would never notice a difference. You would be better off just simply replacing your filter more often because the dirt that clogs your filter is what really restricts airflow...not the filter media itself.

Answer 6

Not likely. If you figure worth it in terms of improved mileage or performance. Gas mileage improvement would take longer than the life of the car to recoup your investment. It will have a little noisy sound though and just plain noise seems to impress a lot of people (if it's from THEIR car)
Don't believe all you read either.

Answer 7

i own a repair shop,and it will help it get a lot better air,and it will help it on throttle response also,but this totally up to you whether or not you want to spend the money on it,that is a lot of money,but you can gain from it,not much but some,i have installed those on some of the camaro,s like yours and on some of them you could tell it a lot ,and on others not very much,this all depends on the condition of the car really ,but its up to you on this one,good luck i hope this helps.

Answer 8

for some years, environmentalism has been the Left's only right excuse for increasing government administration over our strikes in strategies the two super and small. that's for mom Earth! that's for the infants! that's for the whales! yet previously, the doomsday-undertaking environmental scares they have trumped up have not been sufficiently huge to offer the sinister prize they choose maximum of all: finished administration of yankee politics, financial activity, or maybe guy or woman habit. With international warming, whether, greenhouse gasbags can argue that vehicle emissions in Ohio threaten human beings in Paris, and that purely international government can address such issues. national sovereignty? Democracy? forget approximately it: international warming has now introduced the Left closer to international government, statism, and the eradication of guy or woman rights than it has ever been till now.

Answer 9

Like the others say... It all depends. Throttle response should change, but what I noticed most is actually the benefits of improved mileage.

Answer 10

it is worth it it increases hp and fuel economy and last alot longer and only have to recharge the air filter.