There are many ways to boost your truck’s performance, but not all modifications are equal. Some are tricky and don’t help your truck much, while others, like a new cold air intake, are simple and will give your truck a massive performance and horsepower boost. A new cold air intake adds a lot of horsepower to your truck. Let’s discuss how much.

What Is Horsepower?

Before jumping into how much a cold air intake will boost your truck’s horsepower, it’s important to understand what horsepower is. Horsepower (hp) is a measurement of power, also referring to the rate at which something is doing work. One horsepower unit is about 745.7 watts, equivalent to a horse lifting 550 pounds with one foot in one second. It’s an abstract way of looking at things, but essentially, horsepower refers to how much power your engine produces. Higher horsepower means your engine can go much faster than an engine with a lower horsepower.

What Is a Cold Air Intake?

So, what is a cold air intake? A cold air intake is like a standard air intake but brings in colder air with higher oxygen density. Standard air intakes are smaller to save room under the truck’s hood and decrease the noise that the air intake would create. Alternatively, cold air intakes are beefier and have a washable air filter that keeps the heat from the other components under the hood away. Because it’s colder, it gets a higher density of oxygen, and that oxygen helps the engine burn fuel much easier.

How Do They Work Together?

As mentioned, a cold air intake helps the engine burn fuel easier. Unrestricted airflow, combined with upgraded air filters, prevents the air from getting too hot, and the engine can get more out of the same amount of fuel. When your engine works this way, you’ll typically get a horsepower boost of about 5 to 20 hp. It varies depending on your engine and other components under the hood, but that boost is pretty normal from a new cold air intake.

A cold air intake adds a lot of horsepower to your truck, but you need to find the right air intake for your truck’s specific make and model. Going with the wrong cold air intake won’t get you the same performance boosts, and they could even hurt your truck. Be sure to work with us at Norcal Diesel Performance to find the right cold air intake model to get you the horsepower boost you need! We supply a variety of air intakes, including the 6.7 Cummins cold air intake, so you can get better airflow to your engine and a higher horsepower in no time at all!