Short Ram Intake: Benefits and How They Compare to Cold Air Intakes

There’s a simple formula for getting more power from any engine. Push more, oxygen-rich in, and have carbs or throttle bodies and electronics spray a matching amount of fuel. This gets you the power boost when on the gas. Simply put, the more air you can cram into the engine, the more power it produces.

Decent stock intakes are a rare find, largely due to underperforming filters and restrictive and narrow tubing that don’t get enough air to the intake manifold. For a real performance boost, your best bet is a short ram intake to increase air volume and get improved throttle response and better mileage (among other benefits). Or if your engine has the space and you’re willing to commit to further engine upgrades. a cold air intake could be want you want. There are slight price and performance differences between these two intake systems, but both transform any car and engine for a more thrilling driving experience. 

Basics of Short Ram Air Intakes 

Aftermarket air intakes replace your factory airbox with free-flowing parts. This includes wider tubing made of reinforced plastics or aluminum and more efficient, bigger cotton gauze filters. The goal is to pull more air in, and improve efficiency. Short ram intakes use simplified designs, with shorter and straighter tubes inside the engine bay, paired with larger, often enclosed filters that remove more external contaminants and airflow restrictions typical of stock paper filters. Located nearer the manifolds, these intake systems provide better throttle response with higher air volumes pushed at faster speeds. 

Benefits They Provide 

While they draw warmer air from the engine bay, a short ram air intake has clear benefits compared to what’s already fitted to production cars: 

• Enhanced airflow and efficiency – by forcing more air into the engine, there are clear gains, especially with lower fuel use at the same engine loads. Lower resistance, slightly lower temperatures and more durable designs increase efficiency. 
• Better throttle response and faster acceleration – the tangible performance gain is that the car is more responsive, especially from a standstill, and in-gear acceleration at low-to-mid RPMs is significantly improved. 
• Improved performance in colder climates – a major benefit is that these intake systems get instant engine response, even in cold settings. A major factor is that they draw warm air directly from the engine bay. 
• Value for money and easy installation – with fewer parts and simplified and more compact designs, a short ram intake is easy to install, fits the engine without tedious mods, and is cheaper to buy against its direct performance rival – a cold air intake. It also requires less maintenance. 
• Louder engine sound – located closer to the manifold. and with shorter tubing and high-flow filters provides for a louder engine sound. Beef up the decibels from smaller turbocharged or larger-displacement cars. 
• Engine longevity with improved filtering – cotton filters remove more damaging debris and pollutants that can harm engine internals. Most are also reusable, so you’ll be saving money in the long run with fewer filter changes. 

Compared to Cold Air Intake Systems 

A short ram intake is the value proposition for instant throttle response and a louder engine, especially in urban driving with frequent stops and starts. The convenience of 2 to 5 bhp in bigger engines though is dwarfed by the performance gains of a full cold air intake. This consists of more complex designs that draw cooler air from the wheel wells or hood vents. Longer piping extending outside the engine bay pulls in denser, oxygen rich air for considerably better combustion, especially when paired with other upgrades like high-pressure fuel injectors and ECU tunes to balance the fueling. 
A major component is the the heat-shielded piping that keeps radiant heat from hot engine parts away, with similar cone, dome or cylindrical cotton filters clearing incoming air of debris and contaminants. The cooled outside air has major benefits. It improves burns, lowers fuel use (more so than short ram intakes), gets a deeper, throatier engine sound and adjusts easily to changes to outside air temperatures for more versatility in varied driving and weather conditions. But the biggest difference is the added power. 
Cold air intakes match short rams for responsiveness, but add up to 25bhp and 30ft-lbs of torque. And this is a tangible difference in mid-to-high engine revs, with the engine moving through the rev range faster. The question remains: Is that power worth almost double the money? Or the additional work and time during installation? 

The Take Away 

Short ram intakes are inexpensive, easy to install, get your car up to speed faster, have much better filters and look the part. The performance gains are minimal, but engines do go louder, use less fuel and endure lower stress with the improved filters. They also fit smaller engine bays with no or minimal modifications to stock parts, meaning this is a short DIY install with basic tools. 
Cold air intakes are more about serious upgrades that move onto other engine parts, or include modified suspension or aftermarket bodykit for all-round improvements. They’re much more expensive and harder to install with rerouted or relocated parts, but add more puff and result in a livelier car. What you choose will ultimately depend on your upgrade needs, the space under the hood and how much you’re willing to spend.