He is a shop that does mainly tunes on gas and diesel trucks. I plan on getting my tune from him as I have my last five trucks. I asked if I should add a cai or cat back and his reply was " only for the sound they add almost no power "
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My Camaro has an AIRAID CAI on it and it was a terrible product to install. When I bought the CAI it was the ONLY CAI available at the time (right when the new 2010 Camaro's came out). From that point on my thoughts of AIRAID have been tainted.. I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt with the Raptor CAI but now that you mentioned those issues, that is a definite pass for me.
I am still stuck between the aFe and the Volant though
In many cases, a CAI will do little or nothing for performance on a stock engine. That is a fact and we're very honest about the vehicles that have historically gained nothing or even lost power when adding a CAI.
For example, the SRT-10 Ram. It's been shown multiple times over that some of the aftermarket intake systems actually rob power on the stock V-10. Guys still buy them regardless. Some do it for the styling, some do it in support of other engine work.
That being said, these Raptors can gain up to ~5% of usable power throughout the RPM range with an air intake and tune. It's probably just a testament to how restrictive the factory air intake tube and air silencer is. Ignoring the actual raw HP numbers, 5% is pretty significant for bolt on parts.
My guess is that whoever you talked to had a negative experience once with a CAI and has subsequently formed an opinion about all intakes on all vehicles.