Diff. between Ram air and cold air intake

[Brainless]

I saw the instruction on Luc St-Pierre's web site on making a home made Ram air and it seems to be almost de same thing as a cold air intake.<P>Whitch one is the best?

[Esper]

if i understand this correctly, a "cold air" intake just draws in air from any source outside the egine, thus being cooler and better for performance. ram air also draws air from the outside, but also has the benefit of being forced in at a very high speed as you drive. cold air isn't necessarily "rammed" in the same way, as it usually is routed from the bottom of the car. ram air comes straight from the front. as for which is better, i'd say ram air, b/c mroe air is forced in at a higher speed with less restiction, but the only real way to truly do this is put a scoop in the hood or do the missing-headlight thing that drag cars do, but i wouldn't recommend that on a street car.

[codyhoover]

most "cold air" intakes are essentially just higher flow intakes. they are less restrictive therfore alow the engine to suck more air. they still suck the hot air from under the hood. hks and weapon r are examples of this. prms intake is a cold air intake since it draws air from the wheel well not the engine bay. true ram air uses the positive preasue in frount of the car while driving to force air into the intake manifold. no one makes i ram air for the mx-3 to my knowledge. but they are not hard to make. ram air efectivly puts higher volume colder air into the engine but it also can lower your airfilters life dramaticly since you now can suck all kinds of good stuff staight into the filter off the road.