Topic: Is there a best?

[mEYEscndfvrtluv]

I've seen all brands of cold air intakes;is there a best one for HP and gas mileage?thinking of adding one to go with a ram air hood. any suggestions on a brand?-Jeff

[KY_BOB]

Jeff, I've read posts on everything out there and have heard that each of them is the best at one time or another.

IMO, there is no unbiased data on it.

I have seen some before and after dyno runs on the ProCold that were pretty impressive but it is the most susceptible to water.


FWIW, I have the stock air box with a K&N drop in and the homemade cold air mod (a 4" hole cut into the bottom of it).  Of course the rest of my intake tract is specific to the supercharger.

 

[mEYEscndfvrtluv]

thx for your input! :drink:

[bluedevil]

I have a FIPK K&N intake with a not-so-home made tube. This a 4" x32" extendable hose(vacuum hose) from the lower valance and behind the headlights to the intake. Does it help? I dont know.

[mEYEscndfvrtluv]

sounds like its all very subjective and no real clear winner!

[codysown]

There has been some talk on some of the other forums that you can gain a little horsepower, but your mileage will take a hit.  By the time you spend $300 on an intake, $500 on an exhaust, and another $450 on a programmer to take advantage of it all, you might as well have some head work done for better flow.  I had my mind set on getting a   AEM  Brute force as it has the Dry Flow technology, however after reports of it dropping the gas miles 1.5 to 2 mpg, I decided against it.  I found a high flow paper element that seems to work fairly decent, At $15 each I can deal with changing it out every 10k or so.

Cody

[TNAV]

I've seen all brands of cold air intakes;is there a best one for HP and gas mileage?thinking of adding one to go with a ram air hood. any suggestions on a brand?-Jeff

My .02
CAI's will help in the upper RPM band (usually 4800 and up) is where the dyno's usually show the CAI adds HP, however most of us won't constantly drive in that RPM range to notice the additional HP. 
If you read most posts concerning CAI's the majority of folks post about the sound that they here under accelration with the open element CAI's (K&N, AEM, etc.) last I checked sound does not equate to HP 
The stock system flows more cool air than is necessary to support the 5.3 and 8.1 engines.
Take the money you would spend on a CAI and get yourself a PCM Tune  :thumb:

[woof]

I noticed a slight mpg increase after I installed the procold.  The combined exhaust, CAI, Superchips and gearing did make a dramatic difference (but I can't name a singe item which was mostly responsible).  I had a similar topic over on denalitrucks.com and no one stood up and provided a clear answer as to which CAI is better, they actually recommended "outlaw".  The good news is, these can be exchanged easilly...

[mEYEscndfvrtluv]

thx for all the opinions! i think i will just cut a hole in the oem top and attach it to my hood! thx-Jeff

[justJR]

I realize that this is kind of an old post but I retained most of the stock parts on my truck and did before and after dynos and came up with some suprising results. I also cot a hole in the bottom of my factory air box and ran a hose from under the front cladding by the driving light on the right side and added a K&N drop in filter as well as a cheesy little Cyclone power charger thing that simply inserted in the factory air intake and pulled a 27 horsepower difference with the Gibson cat-back system added as well.
On top of the HP increase, I now get about 19mpg in the city and 21 on the freeway! I can afford to cruise around now! Whoo-Hoo!!!