I currently have a K&N 77 Series CAI installed. I do have my original factory intake. I want custom tuning. I want what is best for my truck health and performance. Should I leave K&N with custom tune or go with factory intake with custom tune?

If I left the CAI or HAI in with the tune would I get better performance with a gryphon tune or stock air intake with gryphon tune?

 

If you want the best filtration, stick with the stock intake.

If you want 5-7 more hp at 3500+ RPMs, keep the K&N and get custom tunes.

Note that some owners experience intake drone with warmer-air-than-stock-under-the-hood-bling intakes. It can be reduced with a custom tune, but you will loose most of the gains.

 

lol what would you do? The filter cone on the K&N seems pretty good. I know some people say they are inferior but this looks like it filters pretty good. I am leaning on going back to stock. Go with a K&N drop in filter?

 

For $15 every 30k miles (per my 09 maintenance guide), I'd stick with MC.

How much $ are you REALLY saving over the life of the truckby using a re-usable filter?

 

Do the Gotts mod and sell the cai. I did the Gotts and got a custom tune for it, much better power and mileage than my cai with custom tunes and with no drone. My .02

 

I have witnessed far too many dyno pulls involving the AF1 CAI to agree that power is only realized at 3500 rpm and higher, or that they all produce the dreaded "drone" that so many speak of.
I will be deciding whether to install a SC, or just a CAI and Mikes custom tunes in the Spring. Making the trip to Covington just as soon as I decide and we gather the parts for which ever route I choose to take.
Just my opinion, however it it is based on real time data....all CIA's are not equal. Several members here were at Mikes when we proved that a few years back when we did a comparison between the Volant and AF1. ( I believe it was on Rust Buckets truck)

 

Whatever you want.....just be warned that a droning noise can occur with a Cai.....

 

I'm gonna do gotts mod and sell my CAI

 

I personally think those HAI's have advantages. Everyone goes on about it being a hot air intake and what not but lets face it, at highway speeds its likely not going to make a difference too much of a difference. In cold wintery climates like here where 8 months out of the year its well below freezing it may be an advantage in fuel mileage even.

I also have a hard time with how high end performance cars always seem to have these supposed garbage HAI's installed (the GT500KR for example, a $100K car here anyways, strange isn't it?).

Again though, some of the intake's power gains are derived by the fact that they just don't filter as well as the stock filters (less losses across the filter), I've never known anyone to have issues due to poorly filtered air.

Stock intake provides sufficient air for the engine, true, but the less effort the motor has to use to pull air in directly translates to more power. In addition the stock intake system has higher friction losses than these HAI's so you do the math.

I've never notice much of a drone from intake kits either, strictly speaking from a k&n and airaid standpoint, particularly while at cruising speed. They sound great on acceleration. I personally would get your truck tuned with the intake. Every HP and ft-lb of torque counts on these 6K lbs trucks. I'm sure someone will pipe up about not being able to feel 7-10 horse and what not but the more power your vehicle makes, regardless of whether you'll feel it by the seat of your pants, helps out a lot in general driveability.

Those are my opinions and I'm sure someone will argue about their validity. Just keep it in mind when you make your decision.

 

Thing is, a Gotts/DWV mod on the stock intake is darn near as effective for a lot lower cost and still lets you use a proper filter.

 

Altatruck -
Even trying to compare GT500KR to an F150 is futile.

Engines, intakes, and vehicles' purpose are (and were designed to be) completely different.

A 5.4L V8, given 90 percent volumetric efficiency, at 5500 RPM, needs 473 CFM of air. The stock filter easily flows this.

 

The primary and overriding intake 'restriction' is going to be the throttle plate, except at WOT/WFO. How often are you @ WFO for a protracted period?

For the >99% of the time the STOCK truck is running, Bernoulli handles the intake needs of a stock motor, using a STOCK intake, without ANY undue penalty, using the STOCK paper element. For the remaining <1%, a simple intake mod (Gotts, et al) will handle the last <~ 5hp difference.

The KR has a volumetric efficiency approaching ~150%. It's intake needs are voracious, as is the case for any FI motor. They require intake mods to safely accomodate the additonal intake charge andl fueling needs under boost. This, plus the tendency of high-perf vehicles to spend more time "high-perfing" .... Apples to oranges.

Your point concerning IAT's at speed is well-taken. If it wasn't for the fact that I spend most of my time in stop&go / gridlock .... well I may have reconsidered, lol. Honestly - heat-soak will still occur even with the OEM setup, given certain conditions. No much can be done about it, so I don't really worry overmuch about stuff I can't control.


MGD

 

Well after I installed the intake I actually did notice a difference in my truck. Before my intake my MPG was stagnate at 13.2 MPG and my truck had horrible lag time when trying to pass someone. After installing the intake, my mpgs went up to 14.9 mpg instantly. Plus my truck responded better to acceleration (No the best but better). I know some would say you will never know a difference of a 7hp increase, but I swear I did noticed a difference. The truck wasn't working harder to suck air in.

I was on the fence with this, but what made me want to remove it is that my K&N 77 is illegal in NYS. I just found out about it on K&N's website. I wish I knew that before I bought it(I bought from streetsideauto.com and they did not have anything about that). I did get my truck inspected with my CAI at a ford dealership and it did pass, do they even do emissions testing during inspections? I just don't want the hassle if I get pulled over and a cop decides to be an *** and ticket me, like what happened to a member here.

i just hope I still have all my factory parts for my factory intake.

 

Better tell Ford that they can instantly boost their F150 CAFE numbers by ~10% You'd be rich!

If you did a KAM reset after the swap, (which is recommended by K&N) be advised that truck will feel 'peppier' for a bit - it'll dumb back down in due course, though, as adaptive returns.

I'd tell you to NOT to run that thing without a custom tune - there WILL be detrimental MAF TF effects - but I don't do that schtick anymore - no one listens, and it ain't worth the headache.

If you do happen to trip over any of my archival posts that attempt to convey/explain the above, just disregard them ALL. I just haven't gotten around to deleted all of them useless posts yet. You go, girl.

I'll reiterate - the STOCK truck has ZERO impediment or difficulty 'sucking' air through that STOCK intake under +99% of a typical driving regime. No efficiencies or power to be gained here. Sorry. Bernoulli was one smart dude!

MGD

 

I know
I listened
And I keep reading your brilliant posts....
Also a wideband doesn't lie.....