Cold air? Ram air?

Originally posted by Leets
... in theory, a cold air system will yield more horsepower than a short ram system. However, this has been constantly debated. In actuality, the horsepower gains from real world use of a cold air system are minimal at best (compared to the short ram). You have to remember that whether you're using a short ram or cold air system the intake charge still has to travel the length of that pipe running to the intake manifold under the hood. That pipe, being under the hood along with the heat producing engine, has a tendency to absorb heat... just like everything else under the hood. That means all that cold air you're sucking up from outside still has to travel through a warm/hot pipe before it gets into your engine. Now granted the air from a cold air system is still a few degrees cooler, but after getting the engine to operating temperature it isn't that significant. In my opinion, save the cash and go short ram.

wouldent it heat up a short ram just the same, therefore a cold air would do better since it starts off colder then the short ram and gets heated up around the same so in my opinion it would be better to go cold air