My success story by dumping the CAI
 

I got my 05 Mustang GT in early April 2011. After 2 months, and 7 tanks, I slapped on a CAI as I was autocrossing it and my Saturn was my Daily Driver.

Last summer I was forced to part with the Saturn, so now that the Mustang is my only car, I decided to take out the CAI and put the stock airbox back in.

Here is my data:

4/8/2011 - 6/1/2011 *stock airbox and tune*
tanks -- 7
miles -- 1769.3
gallons -- 88.281
MPG -- 20.04169
G/100M -- 4.98960

6/10/2011 - 1/11/2013 *C&L Racer CAI + various Bama tunes*
tanks -- 30
miles -- 7892.2
gallons -- 385.718
MPG -- 20.46106
G/100M -- 4.88733

2/1/2013 - present *stock airbox and tune*
tanks -- 4
miles -- 1250
gallons -- 54.447
MPG -- 22.95811
G/100M -- 4.35576

My MPGs are slowly increasing (and my G/100Ms are slowly decreasing) over those 4 tanks:
22.41 MPG, 4.46229 G/100M
22.65 MPG, 4.41501 G/100M
23.02 MPG, 4.34405 G/100M
23.88 MPG, 4.18760 G/100M

My ultimate goal is to have a 90 day average of 25 MPG, 4 G/100M. As it starts warming up, I think it will be possible this summer.



Just for comparison, all stock airbox tanks combined
tanks -- 11
miles -- 3019.3
gallons -- 142.728
MPG -- 21.15422
G/100M -- 4.72719

Most CAI systems only show gains at wot.
So it probably helped in the autocrossing.

I used to ac an 79 RX7..................SOOOOO much fun!!!

After 26 months or so of ownership, I never broke 24 MPG. I have now broken 25.75 twice in a month. I really think that 26 MPG is in my sights!

My last 4 tanks were:
25.75
24.04
24.90
25.77

Not bad for a 4.6L V8 daily driver!

I don't know where your stock air box draws it air from but what you want is
a WAI (warm air intake). If your stock air box does not get it's air from under the hood in the engine compartment, then you should look for a way to make it happen.

Gas engines + warm air = Better mpg

Diesel engines + cold air = Better mpg

>

Have you tried using the cone induction tube without the heat shield? Essentially, warm air induction. One thing to note is there were tunes with the induction-which can make a huge difference, as I'm sure you know.

I found with my (poor) testing, cold air induction decreased fuel economy.

No, I didn't try that, but I could in the future. One thing that I think helps is getting rid of the tune I was using. The throttle was really sensitive at low RPMs (from a dead stop) and not sensitive enough at around 1500-2500 RPMs. From a stop, I would accidentally rev higher than I wanted to because it was so touchy.

The only real difference between using the CAI vs stock airbox was 1) the shape of the airbox (cone vs box) 2) the heat shield, 3) the tune. Both airboxes are located in the same location, above the left front tire.

A cone filter, possibly, could get more warm air into the engine than the air box. Of course, without the heat shield.

Is the tune required for the other intake? I know some adjust the size of the tube, making a tune important to not screw things up.

Yeah, it does. I might try the pre-programmed tune in the tuner and not my custom Bama tune if I reinstall it

They may have less aggressive tunes, also. I've heard of "hybrid" tunes and what not, maybe trying out different ones may show a good balance.

I need to look into that. I heard of hybrid tunes on the moddedmustang forums. I have free tunes for life from Bama, so I need to order one.

In other news, just broke 26 MPG. 26.04 mpg (US) on 374.9 miles and 14.398 gallons