Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone made a CAI for the 08-09 Santa Fe.

Thanks in adavnce,

I'll bite. What's a CAI?

Cold air intake.

The tube mounted air filters. That you typically see in tuners.

Can be either in the engine compartment or down near the wheel well. I've been searching and no luck with any company.

Modding a smaller N/A engine always seems trivial to me :whistling:

I can see what your saying. But I've been modding cars for years now. And since the mileage sucks. I wanna get it that much better. A CAI will do just that.

Also a 3.3L V6 is not that small. Sure not a 6.1 Hemi but still mid range. Definatly not small.

My turn to bite... how exactly does a CAI increase mileage?

From K&N Website.

Your car's engine is essentially a giant air pump, combusting a mixture of fuel and air with a carefully timed spark. The more air the engine has available, the more horsepower it can make.

An engine that breathes more easily will also show improvements in throttle response. Throttle response is measured by the amount of delay or hesitation that your car exhibits between when you press down on the gas pedal and when the engine responds by delivering power. Improvements in throttle response give you more "pep" in your car's acceleration.

From Wiki.

A cold air intake is a device used to bring down the temperature of the air going into a car's internal-combustion engine, to slightly increase engine power. A secondary goal is to increase the visual appeal of a car by changing the appearance of the engine bay. It may also slightly increase fuel economy, and can increase the life of the engine by allowing it to run cooler.

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Hense colder denser air + more flow will increase fuel econ. This usually happens with most CAI's, but not all. Some depending on the design may bring in warm air from the engine bay.

The same princible in reverse can be seen in performance exhausts.

My experiance is that most do give you some fuel econ. So I was looking to see if anyone had any.

The only filter that I know of is a K&N drop in. But I have to admit I love modding vehicles.

The denser air logic is interesting, but seems to run against the following logic.

I think that we'd all agree that the throttle plate is the biggest impediment to intake flow while driving at normal road speeds. That's it's job. If the air is significantly cooler and denser, and the engine load is a typical 30% deal, the throttle plate must therefore need to be a bit more closed (and restrictive) than normal causing each cylinder in the engine to have to work a bit harder during each intake stroke. That would seem to slightly hurt not help fuel economy under normal low load situations. The FI will maintain approx 14.7:1 regardless of intake air temp.

Anyway, I hope that it doesn't sound like I'm not trying to give you a hard time and I am not. I'm simply curious if there are ways to really help fuel efficiency, and if a CAI can do it, just how exactly does it do it.

This post has been edited by UniR: Oct 11 2008, 11:43 AM

No. No hard time at all. I'm not a expert by any means just a veteran tuner. If I knew the very specifics I would be tuning a Ferrari not a SF. :thumbsup:

Good look at it. Think of it this way though. Sucking thru a straw. Then close the end a bit and see if you can suck the same amount of air. The other side is the same (Throttle Body). But you will find at that point your not getting the same flow.

So If we take the end of the straw and make it open and less restrictive. (Drop in/CAI) then you will find it easier to breath.

Also if you look anywhere in racing. Breathing in or having a cooler engine always give more power. Maybe not that much but always more. Also making the engine last longer cause of that.

And as for FI only a tune EC Swap/retune will change that. Unless you have a engine that can change that. Which the SF 3.3 isn't.

But like you said and like I said. The outcome can go either way. Which could mean that the reason why there isn't one on the market for the SF then it could be because there performance and otherwise doesn't happen.

Again good to see another view point.