Cold air Intakes

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PathSV
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2019 12:43 pm

Cold air Intakes

Postby PathSV » Sun Sep 08, 2019 12:46 pm

Was looking for anyone who has had experience and what they would recommend for me looking for cold air intakes but im stumped and dont know what to look for and where to start I have a 2011 pathfinder SE thank you


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smj999smj
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Location: Prospect, VA

Postby smj999smj » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:27 pm

There are a few threads on here about CAI's, most of them in the engine section. The factory air intake system is actually a cold air intake design, getting it's air from the driver's side fender. It's really not a bad design, at all, and unless you are doing some much more extensive modifications, you aren't going to get any noticeable gains in performance nor gas mileage with an aftermarket system. The only thing it will do is make your wallet skinnier.

If you "have to" have an aftermarket CAI system on your vehicle, there are a couple of choices. Volant is very popular and getting near the holidays, you can usually pick one up relatively cheap. Personally, I prefer and have an aFe Momentum GT cold air intake system with a dry filter. It's designed well and has a window through which you can see the filter without removing it from the air box. However, it is a tad expensive, usually selling in the $400-450 range. Injen's "PF" series (i.e. # PF1957P) is another good choice for around $280 that incorporates a small resonator, which is absent from most aftermarket CAI's. If K&N is your thing, I would recommend the # 77-6014-1KP over their less expensive options as they have an intake tube that drastically narrows down in size as it approaches the cone filter, whereas the other doesn't. It isn't much different in design compared to the Nismo CAI. AIRAID's systems don't give you much for what you pay for as far as the R51. These are all presuming you have the QR40DE engine; if you have the V8, you'll probably have fewer options. One issue I ran into on my 06 and 08 Pathys: I found I needed to bend down the air box mounting arm, which is part of the ABS actuator bracket, in order to get either the Volante or the aFe to fit down where it was supposed to go. More notes: Volant has two different styles for the V6 Pathfinders. The early ones come with an almost completely closed box and a bracket to relocate the horns. They later deleted the horn bracket, saying you didn't need it, but you really do because there isn't enough room for the box to sit down in place with the horns being where they are. The other version, usually listed for 2008 and later Pathfinders, IIRC, has a big section cut out of the air box to allow clearance for the horns. However, they didn't close-up the cutout, which leaves a big hole in it that allows dirt and sand into the box. For that reason, I'm not a big fan of the Volant.

If you are looking for the biggest "bang" with spending the least dollars, my recommendations would be installing and XTP plenum spacer and a performance tuner, like Bully Dog GT.

https://extremetruckperformance.com/?page_id=6

PathSV
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2019 12:43 pm

bully dog tuner

Postby PathSV » Mon Jun 01, 2020 6:39 pm

what options can you use with the bully dog gt like can you select shift timing and such would you mind explaining? thank you.


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