I've heard that a cold air intake can have minor improvements in gas mileage for trucks. I have a 2005 ford f150 with about 35000 miles that I plan on keeping until it dies. Would adding a cold air for like $150 be worth it since I'm keeping the truck for like the next 10 years?

To get the best results, you need to tune for the larger amount of air, or else most newer ECUs will readjust the A.F ratio according to the stock settings.

It's basically a noisemaker at this point, meaning sans tune. It MIGHT help, but that's questionable. In a lot of formats, a vehicle with a CAI alone will be SLOWER (not that it's what you're worried about, per se') than one without.

Thanks bigrob!

Yes agreed. Useful if you tune for it. If you just bolt it on, it's worthless or harmful to performance/ gas mileage.

I've put one on a couple different cars. They mostly make it louder and make you feel like you are going faster. Manufacturers claim 5-15 HP gains, but not sure if they just make it up or have some weird test scenarios that make the claim "legal". But the car will not be noticeably faster, the "seat of the pants" gauge will say it's faster just due to the sound.

I would never get it for MPG gains - most think it will make the car faster, not more efficient.

The main reason I do it with knowledge of the above is the fact it's a fairly simple install that I can do, it's fun to work on the car, and when done you feel like you've personalized the vehicle. I like to bond with the cars.

Makes induction noise sound sportier. Not likely to make meaningful performance gains in a modern car. 15-20 years ago when ECUs were simpler, a CAI was the best bang/buck upgrade available.

You might make a tad of power at first, but a modern ECU will usually dial gains out pretty quickly, depending on how adaptable it is. Could also lead to lean condition and throwing codes unless the CAI is pretty well designed.

Appreciate all the good advice guys!

You do not tune an ecu for an air filter change

Humidity will make a bigger difference

yep. Ford Mod V8 seem to very susceptible to running lean with CAI without appropriate tuning. if it was me, i would definitely not do it.

I bought a CAI and subsequently had my 5.3L silverado custom tuned about 6 months ago. The throttle response is improved and I have seen noticeable gains in MPG. The real selling point for me has been the slight torque gains I made with the combo. I regularly tow a 4000lb boat and the truck is able to maintain cruising speed and climb hills much better than before.

Stupid question here. How does one go about getting a "tune"?

That's not a stupid question. It all depends on which kind of vehicle you have, some you can tune through the diagnostic port, some you have to remove the ECU and either hook it up to a proprietary device or send it to a professional tuning business where they then hook it up to their equipment and tune it.

[This message has been edited by bigrobsa (edited 4/21/2014 6:05p).]

TommyGun: I have a 2010 with the 5.3, I'd like ti hear more about this.

TommyGun: I have a 2010 with the 5.3, I'd like ti hear more about this.

Those of you who claim a CAI made your car run lean, how did you draw that conclusion?

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yep. Ford Mod V8 seem to very susceptible to running lean with CAI without appropriate tuning. if it was me, i would definitely not do it.

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Ford drive by wire engines have a hard time accommodating for the additional airflow with a CAI. A tune easily fixes this. The fuel tables are set for a stock airbox and the DBW setup is unable to accommodate for the change.

As far as tunes, it depends on what you drive.

I had Nelson performance tune my company truck, 4.8L Sierra Crew Cab, and while I imagine it maybe got 5-7 "real horsepower" the throttle tip in makes the "butt dyno" feel like a lot more HP. The speed limiter was also removed and the tuning to accommodate from the 245/70R16 is 265/70R16 tires I put on it.

OK. I have 2006 Silvy with a 5.3. I put a CAI in it a couple weeks ago. Kind of got caught up in the hoopla other folks were bragging about. What do I need to do to get a custom tune?

Sounds vaguely familiar to when I used to flip the breather lid on Dad's Chrysler Cordoba. Sounded bad ass...still a Chrysler Cordoba (without the "fine, Corinthian leather).

A lighter to set your money on fire

I'm surprised to see 1ags believing the hype

The air is still metered, there isn't any additional air entering the engine. At best it may eliminate a slight pressure drop on either side of the filter at a really high RPM that you'll never really be at when driving like a regular human.

If it made any difference in engine efficiency they would have built it like that from the factory.



[This message has been edited by robertf03 (edited 4/21/2014 9:41p).]

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I'm surprised to see 1ags believing the hype

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Where did I say there were any power gains from a CAI?

I simply stated that if you add a CAI on a drive by wire ford, you need a tune to accommodate the air flow difference.

As far as tunes go, I didnt add a CAI to my GMC, only the tune.

CAI's are great for Cars and Coffee and parking lot pimpin, and cool intaker noise, but real world results are low for naturally aspirated applications.

Watch listed!

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Where did I say there were any power gains from a CAI?

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Ford drive by wire engines have a hard time accommodating for the additional airflow with a CAI.

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TommyGun: I have a 2010 with the 5.3, I'd like ti hear more about this.

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DiabLew Tune is who I went with for mine. Look him up. His website will tell you everything you need to know. I've heard good things about Blackbear Performance as well.

It's not going to turn your truck into a hot rod or give you some ridiculous MPG gains, but it will provide some noticeable improvements and it will be much more fun to drive. Also if you're worried about your warranty, you are able to keep a copy of the original factory tune files.

Did I say power?

A marginal increase in airflow confuses the fuel tables in the PCM and its unable to command the car to run at stochiometric. So a tune is necessary to accommodate accordingly.

how would the additional air not be detected by the air sensor? (hint, it's a trick question)

It is detected. The Mass air flow function is maxed out due to the fuel tables that are written by the OEM powertrain engineers are not set up to accommodate anything but the stock airbox.

AFRs are SUPER lean and and the MIL light is thrown.

huh?

if it is detected it will provide the proper amount of fuel based on the lookup table

How was this super lean condition verified? Gas analyzer, or running like crap and assumed to be lean?

The reality is the engine is oblivious to the air filter, other than a very narrow RPM band of resonance tuning that the OEM may have thrown in there. You can throw a tune at it all you want and pretend it runs better, but the airbox had nothing to do with it, even a bumped up timing only mail order tune like the ones mentioned here.

14 means its running as it should.

Most using zirconia based o2s should run at 14.7:1 but your nissan may use titanium o2s (the smaller uncommon o2 bung and the really expensive sensors) that show lambda 1 at around 14.3 instead.

Plenum spacers are a bad idea without appropriate cam swaps on a later model car that likely had an intake designed with some fluid dynamics in mind. It would be like welding a spacer to your trumpet to make it louder then wondering why it won't hit the notes it used to be able to.

[This message has been edited by robertf03 (edited 4/22/2014 8:32a).]

I've dyno'd CAI on turbo'd VW engines, stock to CAI'd and seen REAL gains; sans tune, then with tune. I've also dyno'd non-FI'd engines and had the dyno AFR and an installed AFR gauge on the vehicle show lean (10-11ish) from just throwing a CAI on a GM LS engine.

I also verified it with my DashHawk in the TBSS, a plug-in dash diagnostics/PID Display system that was around for a couple years.

I put a CAI on my 04 Mustang GT without a tune, then with a tune. Never tested for lean, but adding even the canned Hypertech tune really made a difference.

The TwinTake I have on my GTI adds a sh/t ton of air flow, and I've seen a friend's GTI dyno'd pre-CAI and post. Forge claims +17hp at the wheels. I personally saw my buddy's car throw up a +16. His ECU was tuned already, though.

10-11 is rich, really rich.

Maybe I'm misremembering then.

Or remembering some other time. I dyno'd the truck a couple times and went to several "dyno days" where I didn't do mine.



Either way, I've seen a CAI leaning out (not to dangerous levels, though) LS engines even if I have a case of the "blonde" on the number.

keep in mind nitrous is unmetered going in the engine, thats why you have to tinker with that stuff to get it right. By the time the o2 reacts the nitrous is out of the system, and some systems ignore the o2s at WOT anyway.



edit: as far as the turbo, OEMs use the smallest injector possible. The larger the injector the larger the needle, the more momentum, the slower it reacts. If you've ever seen a turbo bomb with 40 pph+ high Z injectors you've probably noticed how crappy it idles.

The computer compensates with the feedback and measured increase in air, but hits a mechanical limit so these tiny injectors max their fuel flow rate in no time. This is all moot, if you throw a turbo on something that didn't have one your stock ignition config is junk and you should be redoing everything anyway.



[This message has been edited by robertf03 (edited 4/22/2014 9:31a).]