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Video: Shelby GT350 Cold Air Intake

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By EditorTurner

Video: Shelby GT350 Cold Air Intake

Breathe Deep

JLT Performance’s cold-air intake adds over 31 horsepower to a GT350

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of JLT Performance

One look at the induction on the Shelby GT350’s engine and you know the Voodoo 5.2-liter is ready to breathe. The intake is built for flow, the throttle body inlet starts off at 90mm before tapering down a bit, and even the air box features an open-element conical filter. As we know, a high-revving engine loves to breathe, and apparently it loves breathing through JLT Performance’s new cold air intake.

Before the new Shelby GT350 even hit the streets, JLT Performance had designed its CAI (PN CAI-GT350-15; $349) for the car. It features a conical filter, roto-molded heat shield, a 5-inch inlet tube and the necessary couplers and clamps.
Before the new Shelby GT350 even hit the streets, JLT Performance had designed its CAI (PN CAI-GT350-15; $349) for the car. It features a conical filter, roto-molded heat shield, a 5-inch inlet tube and the necessary couplers and clamps. It is available in its natural black finish or paint matched.

Our friends at JLT have actually had this unit designed for months, but they were anxious to get their hands on a production Shelby GT350 to test the performance of its latest intake kit (PN CAI-GT350-15; $349). The heart of the system is JLT’s 5-inch inlet tube. It necks down to 4.5 inches at the throttle body which still leaves room to step up to a larger throttle body. This tube routes air from a roto-molded heat shield that mates with the factory fresh air duct in the grille. The kit is available with a disposable dry filter or a reusable oiled filter.

That opportunity presented itself when JLT main man Jay Tucker met up with Dennis Moore’s GT350 at DTP Racing in Chesapeake, Virginia, to install and test a paint-matched JLT CAI on the new Shelby.

Paint-matched in white to match this Shelby GT350, the kit was configured with the S&B dry filter, which flows well and is good for about 30,000 miles before needing replacement.
Paint-matched in white to match this Shelby GT350, the kit was configured with the S&B dry filter, which flows well and is good for about 30,000 miles before needing replacement.

“Tuning was done by Brent Hughes of DTP Racing and it was pretty straightforward. He spent a few hours looking over the file and about an hour on the dyno,” Jay explained. “The stock mass air is about 105 mm, which for a naturally aspirated car is huge. Our kit is 118 mm and as you can see by the graph the power comes on in the upper rpm range where the new 5.2 can flow some air.”

You can watch those dyno runs right here…

“So like we do on all our tests, we tuned it, then added the JLT and made only the adjustments for the mass-air size. So we can see the tune only gained 13 rear-wheel horsepower and the intake added another 18 rear-wheel horsepower,” Jay said.

First JLT tested the stock car on DTP Racing’s Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno and it put down 451.3 rear-wheel horsepower. With a custom tune from DTP’s Brent Hughes, it picked up 13 rear-wheel horsepower. By just tweaking the mass air transfer function for the bigger JLT and adding the CAI it picked up another 18.2 horsepower for a total gain over the stock combo of 31.4 rear-wheel horsepower.
First JLT tested the stock car on DTP Racing’s Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno and it put down 451.3 rear-wheel horsepower. With a custom tune from DTP’s Brent Hughes, it picked up 13 rear-wheel horsepower. By just tweaking the mass air transfer function for the bigger JLT and adding the CAI it picked up another 18.2 horsepower for a total gain over the stock combo of 31.4 rear-wheel horsepower.

Yes, adding the JLT CAI and a companion SCT Performance calibration added 31.4 horsepower over the stock GT350 intake and calibration.

“This car is a beast, 483 to the tire with an intake and tune? What?! It’s not a low-end torque monster like the GT500, but it’s smooth which is what you need coming out of a corner…” Jay added. “I have another car coming Sunday for the same test and our Comp Orange 350 coming late January and I can’t wait. Headers, JLT and a tune making over 500 NA? That’s bad ass!”

You can watch the second test here…

We’ll be covering several more GT350 projects in the near future, so strap in. It looks like the latest Shelby will readily gain power with a few mods.

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