Worth the Scat to Hellcat cai air box upgrade?

I have a 2020 WB Scat pack auto with 700 miles.

I’m considering the headlight intake to Hellcat air box upgrade.

Anyone else done this?

Worth it, or just mostly bling?

My understanding is, the hardest part is removing the inner headlight cap torx screws, especially the outermost one.

Mostly bling I would think. Would be cool to have if you got one for nothin. I'm still holding onto mine.

I opted to go for it.

Got the lower Hellcat air box and 2020 headlight tube from Speedlogix for $150 delivered.

Certainly can’t hurt anything, and any cooler air is a good thing.

A pretty simple mod to give me something to do!

https://youtu.be/vcqw-pT6Qu8

If you get the car to a good tuner, they can maximize the motors performance for the cold air intake beyond what the factory tune gives. If you really want to improve performance, think about adding a water/methanol injection set-up and a cat-back exhaust before getting a chassis dyno tune.

Thanks JBC... I’m just tinkering around a bit.

I’m too old to swim deep!

To really find out the true effect of a CAI it is a big job.
You need at least two vehicles,
and need to swap the modification between the two vehicles
either at a dragstrip over multiple passes,
or even better with the two vehicles doing side by side wide open throttle steep hill climbs, preferably in one gear.
Manifold Air Pressure sensor and Intake Air Sensor readings would ideally be recorded too.

Owners routinely underestimate the effort to correctly test either CAI or MPG.

The car hobby is all about tinkering and modifying. I say yes do it. You know it wont be like adding 100hp but many many mods are done to old and new cars that do not necessarily increase power. Big ole Accel super coils, 8mm plug wires- aftermarket electronic distributors and ignitions, chrome valve covers Moroso chrome air cleaner etc did not make more power on old iron but they were fun to install and look fantastic!

Well said! That’s where I’m at...

My Scat is about 80 % garage art, 20% pleasure driving (I’m retired).

Will never be raced or abused (not to say I won’t pounce it once in awhile to keep it awake!)

I watched the video and I like the idea of putting the small tube in first (behind the light), even though no one has done it. I think it would be easier too, if you trim down that tube on the side it goes into the air box. It looks like a good 1/2" of plastic could be removed on that outside of the tabs. That would give quite a bit more room to install it.

I think there’s several brands of these two parts, and there is likely some small tolerance variances.

The one’s coming to me are Mopar OEM, so I’m hoping for no issues.

I bought a used one (take off) a few years ago for my SRT 392. I don't recall installation being difficult at all. Did it give a noticeable difference...not really but the intake air temps did drop a few degrees.

When thinking about engine air intakes remember that the hottest air is down near the pavement and cooler air is way up high.
There is a reason you see high snorkel style air intakes on old 18 wheel trucks. That high air has less dust and grit too.

The Ford Lightning had an air conditioned air intake several years ago that made more net horsepower despite the AC load, and reduced detonation.

I added a second PCV valve that sucked in air conditioner condensate drainage (47 degrees F) to a 1995 Magnum 5.9V8 and it reduced pinging on hot days.
This seemed to hurt MPG iin part throttle driving.

It is easy to add “bling” but harder to modify an air intake that adds true net power.

Spraying a mixture of 50% water/Methanol can have very noticeable effect.

If you're buying the OE Hellcat stuff you'll need to trim the large end of the fiber tube where it mates to the headlight (maybe 3/4" or so...), and remove the blockoff plate in the headlight. There's also a foam gasket on the bottom of the airbox they don't give you, that's on the factory 392 box. Some foam weatherstripping from Wally World will work fine. Plenty of YouTube videos for this install...

Thanks! Got “er done last week. No modifications needed. The headlight tube is 2019/2020’specific so no trim needed.

I did apply weatherstrip to those areas not provided.

Removing the two T10 (tiny) torx screws on the headlight cap was kind of a pain, and the only real hard part.

Using a 2mm hex to back them out (after getting the screw unseated) helped a lot.

Worth the upgrade? Dunno, haven’t even driven it yet. But surely won’t hurt anything.

Now have a catch can on order. Can’t decide whether I’ll install it or not.

Lots of debate on that subject.

My catch can is usually about 3/4 full at each oil change...