You will not feel the gains in the CAI, just not worth the money.

 

Sidewinder, The V8 throttle body is too large for the I6. My good friend is a true 4.9 fan. He tried it and lost power.

 

Even with a nice bore, port n polish on the head, and a HECKUVA port on the intake? I mean the runners too....

 

He thinks its still too large unless its cammed etc and really built up.

 

Well, I'm planning on a pretty good build.....

A full port n polish of the head, a heckuva port on the intake manifold, headers, a cam....The whole shebang....

 

That should be cool.

This may tell you something. He plans to rebuild it in the future and do alot to the motor and still use the stock throttle body. He gave me the V8 one as a spare.

He used to have a mid 80s step side with the I6 and was built up and it would eat most V8 trucks from stop light to stop light.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

I think the OP all ready made his choice....

 

This. Many people don't realize that oiled air filters come over-oiled from the factory so they don't dry out and rot on store shelves (many are a cotton-based material). Proper procedure is to clean the filter, and oil according to directions- with a K&N, apply just enough oil to make the filter have a red tint, that's it. When I had my '93 SHO (a MAF car) it had a K&N, and I (stupidly) over-oiled it. Car ran like crap after a while, and I knew what it was. Popped off the airbox cover, sprayed some brake parts cleaner on the MAF, let it dry and I was back in business. The advantage I see to a K&N panel filter is that it is re-useable, so there may be some savings if your truck works/plays in dusty areas.

Someone here mentioned attaching a Donaldson gauge (or restriction gauge) to the air intake system- while it works well for turbodiesel engines, it doesn't work well on N/A low displacement engines. GM began putting them on all the trucks and SUV's and I've never seen one actually work as intended.

Simply put, here is what I would do:

-Clean your throttle body and upper intake via IV-style system (vacuum line). Seafoam even makes a spray one now. Get all the PCV and EGR buildup out of there.

-Insulate the ducting going from the throttle body to the airbox. Heat rises, and will become trapped near the hood and top of the engine compartment, moreso when the air is being heated by the radiator.

-Insulate/isolate the airbox itself. Metal has reflective properties, but transfers heat well (hence the use as a heatsink). Quality intake systems are composite, which does not transmit heat as readily.

-Create an unobstructed means for air to get into the airbox. The 300/460 is the one to use based off of the consensus here. Insulate that ducting too. Make sure it's unobstructed, however, don't let it become a vacuum for water and large debris. Many import guys have hydrolocked engines due to the "cold air intake" drawing in air from behind the front bumper. Great spot for cooler air, but it's also a great spot to suck up water from that puddle you underestimated.

-Ensure the rest of the truck is healthy. I used to own a Typhoon, and the first rule to making them fast was to make sure they ran perfect in stock form. You'll pick up lost power and mpg by changing plugs, wires, cap & rotor, and the fuel filter. No binding pulleys or broken catalyst either, lost power there. Low tire pressure makes you slow too. (and kills mpg)

-Uncork your exhaust as well. It'll only breathe in as much as it can breathe out. Make sure there's still a convertor or some sort of device to create some backpressure and create a scavenging effect. I have a 70 series Flowmaster on my truck, and like the article reads, I can tell where the hotspots are. I sprayed down my new parts with 500* engine enamel....it wasn't enough. Burned off and left white ash on everything from the O2 to the back of the muffler. (I don't have a cat).

 

So the restriction gauges don't work so well on a gasser huh? I thought that would be cool to have, and was thinking about doing it to mine.

I don't consider the fact that KN is reusable to be an advantage. Its more of a hassle. The cleaning, drying, reoiling, etc. I'd much rather just replace it. If I ever did get a high flow filter, it would be AEM or AFE dry flow. Those just need to be rinsed out and allowed to dry, and require no oiling.

I think that wrapping the intake tubes to create a thermal barrier is a decent idea, but I never got around to trying it.

I completely agree with the intake cleaning, tune up, fuel filter etc.

Do not use carb cleaner.

Your so right. If its not running optimally in stock form, modding it won't do much.

 

Amen.


more letters to post ... And an happy face for good measure

 

Whoever said that an air filter restriction gauge doesn't work on a gasser doesn't know what they are talking about! All it is is a differential pressure sensor that latches at the highest pressure difference that it sees (so if you are experiencing a restriction at WOT, it will latch or 'remember' what the maximum restriction reading was).

The real reason why this person probably thought that they don't work is that it TAKES FOREVER for the filter element to get clogged enough for there to be a significant pressure drop and make the gauge indication move. One of the large shipping companies (Fedex or UPS, can't remember which) was finally talked into installing Filterminder air filter restriction gauges on their trucks back in the 1990s. The discovered, with the commensurate significant cost savings, that on average you could get 100K miles or more on the same filter element.

Unnecessary filter changes are one of the biggest profit centers in the automotive service business today! I ran the same filter on my 1988 Buick for about 120K miles (paper, OEM), and when I finally changed it, I noticed no power or fuel mileage improvement (meaning that the old filter was still working just fine).

You can get an air filter restriction gauge for under $20 (less than the cost of one filter these days) and install it on your airbox in a half hour or so. Here's just one of many available out there:

Amazon.com: Wix 24801 Air Filter Monitor Kit: Automotive

Heck, even K&N sells one:

K&N Filter Minder

 

I would not use brake cleaner to clean the MA meter , use electrical cleaner....Lew

 

I believe it is a perfomrance enhancer to force as much air into the engine as possible. A filter that flows more air is therefore a component of this process.
The filter alone won't do much. The filter needs to be combined with a forced air induction system that takes outside air from the radiator support area, and forces it into the throttle body, much like a passive supercharger.
My truck used to have such a system from the factory, until it deteriorated from the sun and/or heat. Now I'll have to fabricate something to take its place. The Arizona sun eats plastic, cloth, and rubber. But, I guess not having a spec of rust anywhere compensates for that.

 

IMHO those gauges are worthless. My Cummins had one on it and it never moved so I finally started the truck, lifted the top of the filter box off and plugged it completely up until the truck was smoking like a chimney and it was affecting the idle and that gauge never moved. Obviously your filter minder let you run your filters much dirtier than they should have been without informing you. I don't need to buy a gauge to neglect vehicle maintenance, I could do that on my own if I wanted to.

I put a K&N cone filter on that Cummins and it was a much better running machine, throttle response was improved. I ran it to 243k miles and never had a problem with oil getting into the air tube (I checked for it) even though that truck had a turbocharger on it about a foot from the filter sucking air through it faster than our gas engines ever will.

 

...A bigger and better filter will help air flow , the tube that brings in air from the radiator support area is not even close to force induction.....