A cold air intake makes the sound of your vehicle more aggressive, louder, and savage. However, it might sound a bit different than loudness. A cold air intake changes the sound of the engine of your vehicle rather than the sound.
Further, you will be able to hear the sound of airflow inside the intake. The sound will be more audible when you press the accelerator and release the pedal. However, it is a bonus point for you because the sound is very satisfying and soothing. Moreover, you will feel like your car is moving faster due to the roaring sound from the engine.
However, what does a cold air intake sound like? What is the role of the cold air in making the engine sound louder? Let us discuss all of them below.
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Contents
What role does the air play in a vehicle?
We should first understand the role of air in making the engine louder before knowing what does a cold air intake sounds like.
A car engine uses fuel to create a spark which makes combustion possible. Further, the combustion process takes in oxygen from the air. However, here the situation is cold air in your case. This is the reason all firefighters carries oxygen cylinder while working.
However, the car engine uses the air intake to feed oxygen to the combustion chamber. The amount of oxygen the car takes depends on the engine. A powerful engine will require tons of air intake. This is because your engine needs more oxygen to feed the large combustion chamber.
Let’s dive into details about how the cold air intake works.
How does the cold air intake work?
We all know that the density of cold air is greater than the hot air intake. Further, cold air has high concentration level than hot air. The theory applies to the air conditioners as well. We place an air conditioner on the top so that the cold air can circulate all through the room to make the room cooler.
A stock intake inside your vehicle has less capacity to take hot air inside the vehicle. This is because they are placed much closer to the engine which is hot too. Further, we know that hot air contains less oxygen than cold air. Thus, the penalties are less performance.
Now, we come to the point. This is where the cold air plays a huge role. Remember hot air reduced the performance of your vehicle? Now, the cold air will increase the performance of your car.
The engine is hot. Therefore, it is in need of cooler air to minimize the temperature and operate at an optimum level. Thus, the performance of your vehicle increases rapidly as cold air has more oxygen than hot air. The denser oxygen level increases the rate of combustion. We all know that more combustion will increase the level of power to the engine. Thus, the engine gets its maximum power.
Further, cold air intake such as K&N comes with an in-built heat shield. The heat shield haunts the entrance of hot air inside the vehicle’s engine. Moreover, cold air lets more air intake inside the vehicle engine.
Therefore, as your vehicle contains cold air thus more oxygen, a higher level of combustion will produce excess power to the vehicle wheel.
Now you know how the cold air intake works. However, what does a cold air intake sound like? Let us dive into details.
What does a cold air intake sound like?
Now you will know what the cool air intake sounds like. Your vehicle will have an improved performance level along with better sound from the exhaust system with cold air. The aggressiveness will increase and the loudness will be higher. Further, the most interesting part is that you will start to hear a very uncommon sound from the car engine.
Moreover, the sound becomes more audible when you shift the gears. However, your vehicle will shift the gears on its own if you have an automatic car rather than the manual one.
But why do you hear this kind of cold air intake whistle sound? There are tons of reasons behind the improvement in exhaust sound.
An increased air flow rate
Colder air means more airflow through the air intake inside the combustion chamber. Further, the air intake has a large surface area to assist a higher rate of colder air inside the engine. This enhances the sound of the engine thus enhancing the sound of the exhaust.
More exposure
You will fail to find the location of air intake if the intake is stock. However, you will not be able to find it because the stock exhaust is enclosed inside the hood. Further, the position is intentional as the manufacturer tries to minimize the sound of air intake to its level best.
However, cold air intake is properly exposed. Therefore, the sound increases because it is not hidden. You hear a better-enhanced sound of the vehicle engine.
Emission Safety Cap
Governments across countries made tons of emission regulations along with exhaust sound regulations. Further, the manufacturers have to follow them in order to sell their vehicles in countries. Furthermore, vehicle manufacturers even make the engine sound silent to stay safe from all regulations. Sadly, intake system sound is also included.
However, it doesn’t matter with the cold air intake. Moreover, the only point is to bump up the performance in this case. Therefore, manufacturers can maximize the sound and performance of cold air intake. Furthermore, this increases the sound of the engine too.
These were some of the reasons behind the increase in sound and performance of your vehicle due to cold air intake. Furthermore, now you know what does a cold air intake sounds like?
Let’s dive into the conclusion now.
Conclusion
We have discussed above the answer of what does a cold air intake sounds like. Further, the sound is not done without any reason. There are tons of reasons behind the increase in the sound of your vehicle engine. It might sound simple but it is not in reality.
The regulation cap made the manufacturers dampen the sound of air intake of the engine. However, there is no regulation for cold air intake as the normal operating temperature is not cold but normal. Thus manufacturers maximize the performance and sound of the engine for cold air. This is risk-free from getting banned by the government.
However, there are several more reasons too like more exposure to air means better oxygen intake inside the combustion chamber resulting in a bump in performance. The flow rate also increases which also increases the oxygen intake. Furthermore, we all know that cold air contains more oxygen concentration levels.