I was thinking the exact same thing!!

I wonder if the OP ever checked his A/F ratios. I'd be willing to bet that his ~1mpg increase is due to a fuel-lean engine, and maybe the tonneau cover helped a tad.



- NCSU

 

i did almost the exact same thing to mine except i didn't make a new snorkle piece. zero gain or noticeable difference in anything, just a crappy looking intake tube under the hood.

 

Show us some other pics of that intake and where did you buy it from?????

 

That's the best pic I have of it right now. It just snaps into the filter box and has one mount bolt in the middle of the tube to a brace on the engine. I like how it goes completely under the front radiator shroud. You do have to trim it just about half an inch so it doesn't rub when the engine is on. Then I just put a drop in AEM dryflow filter in the box. It has no drone but you can hear it suck in air at WOT. I believe I got it from AutoAnything.

 

I don't see from where the cold air comes. Just in front of where that pipe goes is the radiator support wall. There's a hole, but it's about two inches lower and closer to the fender. Just under the radiator shroud is solid and no source for cold air.

Please explain or take more pics. I'm curious.

 

The tube angles down below that support wall. The mouth of the tube really opens up and flares out towards the bottom. It gets air from behind the the head light assy. right to that opening you are seeing. Does that help?

 

With a drop in AEM dryflow filter does the Airaid Jr require a tune on the A/F ratio like some of the other CAI's out there? I kinda like this being it's not an exposed filter and it's inexpensive.

 

I haven't noticed any ill effects with mine so far and have been using it for almost two years now. I don't have a tuner on mine just the intake and a cat-back exhaust. If I had free access to a dyno I'd tell you for sure what the ratio was. I will say I'm not thinking it's leaning it out any if at all.

 

ST Grey, thanks. That was the detailed answer I was seeking.

None of the CAIs change the throttle body so I don't see how they could flow more than your set up anyway. Plus, I feel your setup gets more cold air. It seems other CAIs either pull unseperated air from the engine bay. Or, they pull air from the fender wall hole. Heck, your set up may even have a slight ram air affect because there's certainly more air being pushed in that frontal area then inside the fender.

Hmm, so if all of that is the case, then why wouldn't it affect A/F? Maybe because it doesn't expose the MAF sensor the way other intakes do?

Don't know enough about these things. So far I think it's an equivalent solution at a much better price. Can anyone else with more knowledge comment?

 

Although now I'm thinking about something my home hvac guy said. "Every bend is like an additional 3 feet of ducting." Your set up, with the stock air filter/box, has plenty of bends, versus the two typical in most CAI systems. Also the stock box requires the air to turn and flow up and then drop down.

My head hurts...

 

Like I said, I don't believe I'm doing any harm to the engine. It could only help it with a better flowing tube and a better air filter. Also, it definately beats the stock one in the looks department if your the kind who looks at that. It works for me anyway. Happy hunting!

 

The MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor can only detect a certain range of air flow. If you put on a new intake that decreases resistance, or as you said "Better flowing" you can exceed the high end of the MAF detection ability.

What that means is that you're really pulling (for the sake of discussion I'll use simple numbers) 3 cubic feet of air per second. However, the MAF might only be able to register up to 2 cubic feet of air per second. So, in this situation the computer that adjusts how much fuel to use thinks there's only 2 cubic feet of air to mix with fuel, when in reality there's 3 cubic feet. So you now have less fuel than required and you run lean.

Running lean can cause increased engine temps, which can cause premature failure of a whole list of parts... O2 sensors, valve gaskets, CCs, not to mention the engine itself.

This is especially true with 2004-2008 F150s. It has been discovered that some of these trucks come straight from the factory and are on the lean side of the A/F range. When you add an unknown intake to this situation you would greatly increase the risk of running lean.

Those who tune cars/trucks know this and can adjust for different intakes with various custom computer tunes.

At the end of the day it's your truck, but please, do some real research before putting your $25k-40k truck at risk by using a Do-It-Yourself intake, which might only save you $100-$200 over a real, properly designed and tested intake.


- NCSU

 

Just to be sure, you're not saying that "properly designed" CAIs would only flow the equivalent of the upper limit of the MAF, right? Because then what's the point? You wouldn't be putting more air in the cylinders.

What I think you're saying is that any CAI needs proper software tuning. So, ST Grey's intake with a tune, if it flows well, could be just as good as another intake with the same flow and a tune. It's just that no tuner has dynoed ST Grey's yet and written a proper tune for it.

ST Grey's intake looks like it could flow very well.

 

Not exactly.... My Air Force One intake has an internal diameter of 3.25" and that large of an opening requires a custom tune or you will run lean. Air Force One has replaced the 3.25" intake with a 3.5" intake to allow for even more power. Again, you must have a tune to compensate for this intake.

Other intakes may or may not increase the total amount of air. Those that increase it just slightly, at WOT, like the 3.0" inner diameter Air Force One or the Airaid intakes, can add an extra HP or two, and still keep the engine with safe operating limits. I really see those types of intakes as more or less of a marketing gimmick. I know people swear by their K&N drop-ins or whatever, but I'll bet those people never put their vehicle on a dyno before and after the intake.

Additionally, the vehicle's computer can adjust some for the additional air when in closed loop operations. When you go into WOT, the computer goes to a table to find out how much fuel to inject. This is the time when you can do the most damage. If you do have additional air in the engine at WOT, the computer cannot compensate for that and you run lean again.

Exactly right. Which goes back to why I think intakes that don't require custom tuning are a waste of money. You aren't getting much, if any, additional power.

Mostly true. I'd alter your statement slightly to "any CAI needs proper software tuning to take advantage of any additional ingested air". If you aren't adding fuel to the additional air, you aren't going to gain power.

So yes, ST Grey could take his truck to a tuner and get it dyno tuned and it might make more power. Without testing, he doesn't really know if he's actually got a "better" intake that is less restrictive or not.

- NCSU

 

The intake ST Grey has is using the factory airbox with mass air meter in the stock location. He essentially removed the tapered snorkel from the inlet of the air tube which is upstream of the mass air meter. Any changes made to the airflow which is upstream of the meter has no affect on the measurement abilities. Basically because he is still using the resrtictive stock airbox, the only improvement he will see is purely cosmetic.

Think of it this way, when you fill a small funnel with water from a soda straw or a garden hose it will only flow so much water out of the bottom of the funnel. Now replace the factory airbox with the funnel, and the tapered snorkel inlet with the soda straw and the ST Grey intake with the hose. Well, you get the picture.

Knowing how the system operates, I would be very suspect of any intake that claims they don't need any custom tuning to prevent a lean out condition. If the claims were true, then that would mean that the intake does not flow anymore than the stock one does. I would also be suspect of an intake that produces less than a 10 hp increase. I've seen back-to-back dyno pulls with no changes made vary as much as 5-7 hp so that tells me any gain less than 10 can just be the variabilty of the dyno.

Finally, any intake that does not require custom tuning, is basically an overpriced glorified soda straw.