Rep Power: 291

Heyo,

Just a quick question about the performance of cold air intake in really cold weather.

It was about -40 here last week with the wind chill and all and I was wondering how the performance of a cold air intake would be affected by such cold and humid air.

Anyone have an idea?

 
Rep Power: 811

Supposed to improve performance. Colder air is more dense and has more oxygen per unit volume. I have a stock car and it tends to run bad when cold. Engine idles rough and takes a couple tries to start. Once warmed up, it drives pretty good. I have noticed my car feels faster ever since I moved from Nevada (hot, dry), to Illinois (cold, humid).

 
Rep Power: 291

I just noticed I had no juice in my car when it was that cold.

It was like i was pressing the gas and I didn't get the normal acceleration. Im just wondering if that's due to very cold air coming in or something else.

 
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my 2003 civic LX (sedan) feels a bit sluggish when its -35 (not including the windchill), engine (and everything else) doesnt give a damn about windchill, yesterday it was -31C (not including the winchill again) and i was waiting for a friend of mine in front of his apartment block for like 10 minutes, and although i didnt turn the engine off, the engine was cooling down although the car was idling. it only warms up when ure at high(er) rpms, and hardly ever reaches its normal working temperature (the middle of that temperature bar) when its lower than -30C. just dont forget to plug ur car in, coz no matter what, it still gets me around and keeps me warm inside.

oh yeah, and i dont have any aftermarket stuff installed (eg cold air intake).

 
Rep Power: 811

The cold makes it slower as far as everything working. The throttle becomes harder to push, temp control ***** are stickier, etc. I think the cars just like normal operating temp better.

 
Rep Power: 291

aight...thanks for your thoughts guys.

 
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yeah car drives like sh*t when the engine is not warmed up, but when the engine is at normal temperature and its cold outside, my car seems like it has a little more power.

 
Rep Power: 359

True, that's what I was going to say. . During the heat of the summer my car drives like crap. I don't even like to drive it when it's really hot, because I feel like I'm hurting it, it just runs crappy. When it's cold out, as long as it's warmed up, it runs wonderful. Seems to have a little more response. But when it's really really cold, it's hard starting and runs really rough, and it's hard to shift until it gets warmed up.

 
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when engine is WARM UP in cold weather its faster, u definitely will feel it

 
Rep Power: 304

Once the inside of your car and the engine are warmed up, the colder air from outside should give minor gains over when normal or hot. But I really dont think I can feel it when I've taking my car to the track on a freaking cold *** day. Only thing I noticed was that the tires and track never warmed up enough so it was spin city.

 
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All cars get a little performance increase during the winter. The colder air obviously helps make a smidget more power. This is at operating temperture of course.

 
Rep Power: 393

more power!

 
Rep Power: 368

I dunno how much more power I get during the winter months because:
- there's snow on the ground, so I can't rev high anyway
- my winter rims/tires are WAY heavier than my summer...
- my clutch is really sluggish in the winter. One night after a 14-hour workday (stupid network failures) I have to PUSH the clutch back up cos it was releasing sooooo slow.

 
Rep Power: 368

Theoretically though the cooler air = more fuel = more power. Then again, you're running richer longer too while warming up....aren't you? This would explain everyone's crappy milage in the winter....help me out here, I'm a friggin idiot.

 
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I heard that for every 10 degree F drop in tempurature, the average engine will produce about 1% increase in power.

I've felt that increase in the past on days when it was very cold, however, last week I was in North Bay, Canada (-40). My car ran like crap. The engine would hardly turn over, then when it got started I heard weird noises that I'd never heard before. It sounded like a small electric motor on the driver's side behind the firewall started up about 1 second after my engine started, and shut down about three seconds later. I did notice that when the strange "electric motor" sound went away, my engine ran a bit smoother.

 
Rep Power: 291

ya man i guess weather extremes are bad no matter what...

btw...would your engine performance change if you changed the temperature of No2 injections?