Originally Posted by Rubidozer

The Airaid spacers are only going to improve your low-range performance. Like wheeling, towing, taking off from a stop, etc. When you are at higher speeds, the airaid spacer is allowing the air to pass over the ridges with little disturbance, so it really does nothing at higher speeds.

The theory behind the turbulence effect is sound, if the turbulence is actually creating a beneficial aircharge that will actually force more air into the intake and the combustion chambers. After all, that's what a Supercharger does... However, as you increase the incoming volume of air, the ECU will adjust the ratio to include more fuel in the mixture. And without more spark to ignite the extra fuel, you will be sending the fuel out of your high-flow exhaust.

The Vortex product is crap, because it blocks more airflow than it actually allows to pass...
The Helix-bore spacers are crap, because they don't ever really cram any more aircharge into the intake as they are too straight-through with their design.

However, the Airaid spacer has enough of an effect along with their CAI that enough aircharge is actually created at slow speeds, and it won't hinder any faster moving air that is pulled into the intake. Meaning, that when you have both the CAI and the Airaid spacer, you should actually gain an improvemnent in the low-end torque and thus have slight savings at the gas pump.
That is until the ECU balances the air/fuel-ratio and you are getting more power with relatively the same fuel-mileage or worse... The ECU reads the input constantly, keeping the Stoichiometric Ratio at 14.7:1...

Unless you get a chip that will increase your spark, or an ignition upgrade, you will use more fuel when you add more air to the engine.
However, I will share a little secret with you all....
If you are adding more air into the engine, as with a CAI, then you can enlarge the gap in your sparkplugs to actually burn more of the existing volume of gas sent into the combustion chambers. Or you can change to rapidfire plugs that have multiple sparks per fire than your typical plugs. Just don't gap your plugs too far. Just a little at a time. I wouldn't gap more than .05"....... That should be plenty to keep the ECU happy with the spent-gas readings from the O2 sensor.

Originally Posted by ranterbul

Have you ever looked at the stock pipe as it goes over the rear axle? Mine was flattened almost in half when it was formed at the factory that's why I went with a whole new system from the cats back.


On another note it seems that it's split about 50/50 on this subject both on this thread and on other forums and review sites.