The AIRAID has the modular venturi tube that can be removed if you want to get a tune.
I have an Airaid, and the truth is with the venturi removed the the diameter across the MAF is 98mm. So one would think that bigger would be better....
Not necessarily.
Unless you have some kind of forced induction going on, you will NOT make anymore power on a normally aspirated motor with the venturi removed. In fact, it just makes it harder to tune with absolutely no benefit.
How do I know this? I provided Doug Studdard at BamaChips the very first Airaid for him to make tunes with and he told me he could make a tune either way but let me know that the huge inlet wouldn't provide me any benefit. If I recall correctly the HP numbers with his tunes were 283 peak H.P. in either configuration. I'm going on memory here, so I may be off a bit with that, it's been a couple of years now and I don't recall what the baseline numbers were.
He also said he sees the same thing with C&L's "racer" intake. It makes no more power than the cast aluminum "street" intake in an N/A application.
So, when you come down to it, the only way to really get any benefit from the monster intake tube with the venturi removed is with one particular supercharger. The Saleen. I suppose you could see some benefit with nitrous and maybe if you re-worked the heads for slightly better flow, but by and large a 98mm opening across the MAF is just way too much for this car in N/A form.
And for some more anecdotal evidence, I know someone here in AZ who removed the venturi and had his car tuned by a reputable nationwide tuner (Modular Depot) AND had it retuned locally and in either case they couldn't get it to run quite right. After hearing what I told him about it and what Doug said about it, it made sense to him and he re-inserted the venturi and ran a bamachips tune and his car ran a bunch better.
So, does the car run fine without a tune?
Yes, it does. Doug said that it did in fact run a "little" lean without a tune, but not enough to cross the line in triggering a check engine light, which is actually quite high.
Is it safe? Depends who you talk to. Some will tell you that running anything above a 12.5 to 1 a/f ratio (N/A) is dangerous. I think that's an alarmist point of view IMO. Without a tune the Airaid's a/f peaked at around 13.0. Nowhere near enough to trigger a check engine light, a little on the lean side, but you're certainly not going to blow up your motor either.
The only reason I have the Airaid is price. I can get my hands on one VERY cheap (they're local) and made it the cheapest way to get a CAI at the time. At the time I also had a canned Diablo Tune with my Predator, so I wasn't necessarily bone stock either. Without the Diablo tune, it ran ok, but it was quite boring!
Are there better intakes out there?
Certainly, if I was doing it again, I'd probably go with a JLT II OR I might give Modular Depot's new intake a try.
The bottom line is, with a tune ALL of them make respectable numbers, some more than others but all within a few H.P. of each other.
So, it comes down to looks, price and what you really want out of the CAI.
If you simply cannot spring for a tune right now, I'd go with the Airaid for sure, but don't expect a night and day difference either. But know that when you can get a tuner, you haven't completely wasted your money either.
