Now i know that a new air intake ie volant/KN/airraid can boost your horsepower due to less restricted air flow to the throttle body. Well this morning after listening to the news and the predicted gas price increase i was curious as to how something that increase power also saves gas... I though increase power should equal increased gas consumption. I guess i dont quite understand the physics at hand.
Thanks
Jay

Jay
You get incresed power from a more efficient burn by allowing more air into your intake. Try running while breading through a straw (same deal). How is that for short and sweet?

I see, i was thinking along the line of fanning a fire the more o2 it gets the faster and hotter it burns. Faster being the root of my confusion..

I am unclear on breading through a straw but it sounds perverted.... seriously though, you mentioned a more efficient burn which would seem to infer getting more power per gallon of gas and hence improved mileage... is that correct?

Ender

That would be the case if the mass airflow sensor didn't report more air coming in. The ECU adds more full because you have more air.

Your biggest gain would be from the decreased pumping losses. You have less restriction in the intake path so the engine doesn't have to work as hard at pulling more air in. Same principle would apply with a less restrictive exhaust. (Less work to expel the exhaust gasses.)

Your mileage will increase, not so much from the increased HP, but from the improvement of the overall efficiency of the engine increases. Even if you gained no HP from this you are wasting less energy pumping.

It's a two-fold benefit, less pumping losses and more O2 both equal more useable HP.

I wouldn't buy it just for mileage reasons because it would take quite a while for any kind of payback. Its more for the fun of the new sound and little bit of performance increase.