Have you found any air intakes for the naturally aspirated 2.5 L skyactiv engine that actually increases horsepower?

I have fooled around with running the stock air box with the bottom removed, taken out the dangling hemholtz resonator. Ran it temporarily without the snorkel. They all sounded like hot garbage, seem to lose low end torque, and I really couldn't tell if they did anything at all.

Is it better to just stick with the stock air box and cold air snorkel on the stock engine?

 

AEM is showing gains of torque at low RPM, but is that with the hood open and giant fans blowing on it so they're hot air intake can actually get some cool air?

 

Running one of those will just make it a hot air intake, rather than cool. I would just do a K&N drop in air filter, but it may not filer the particles as well as a regular paper filter. However, I've been using them for years on all of my vehicles with no issues. With my 2.5 Turbo I feel a slight boost in performance (no pun itended ).

 

Any open filter in the engine bay will increase heat it does not reduce it.
Many manufacturers now include an enclosed air box with their systems.
The CX-5 air intake has a great cold air flow design (or as cold as the outside temp is going to be).
Just change to a performance filter and spend the money on a performance chip.
But then you won't get that "intake noise" that makes vehicles "go faster" ..

 

I can't imagine there would be any appreciable increase in power over the OEM airbox and filter in a stock engine. Providing you filter is clean , you are GTG with the Factory airbox and filter. . If there was a totally sealed insulated airbox that only ingested cooler air from outside the engine compartment it would be something to look at. As far as low restriction oiled filters ,what little you gain in power on a stock engine ,you loose in filtering out fine particles .Best bet is keep a clean OEM quality air filter and change them when needed. Modify the cylinder head, exhaust system , cam ,throttle body and computer ,and a lower restriction intake will give you a good bit more power . But fuel mileage will suffer along with your transmission ,axles and overall longevity of the engine. There is no free lunch, power cost money. Best bet is to find a bulk deal on OEM quality air filters and change them when needed.

 

You might see a small increase in power by using the K&N drop-in filter (see below for one datapoint, others report less difference) but it will likely not be noticeable by most drivers. And the K&N doesn’t filter as well - I’ve run K&N conical isolated filters on many cars and oil samples showed relatively high levels of silicon even on the humid Gulf Coast. It was never a problem for me since I leased most vehicles, but if you keep your vehicles a long time then engine wear may become an issue. Now that I live in the dusty Southwest I keep the factory filters, changing them at least yearly.

 

There is a mis understanding of what the factory well engineered air intake system does.
Believe it or not it keeps the intake air charge warmer in order to lower the emissions and improve the MPG.
This can clearly be seen DATA logging during engine start to complete warm up cycle and during both the hot summer months and cold winter months.
The ECU adjust depending of the IAT changes.

As far as a true CAI.... very few enough to say not really because what it takes to create a true CAI.
Just keep this in mind no matter what air intake system you use unless you are WOT for at least1-3 minutes then anything less then 40% TB angle you are going to heat the air intake charge up.
So for a true CAI to work you first need to devise a way to dump the heated air that builds up in the intake system before it goes into he intake manifold.

 

Had the CAI brand on my modified 2014 1LE ,worked real well

 

Ok .... u must be the 1...