A friend brought this to my attention the other day.
We all know you see new high flow air intake systems that claim more mileage out of a truck or car right?

Well even if you removed the entire filter system and piping, the main restriction is the throttle plate itself!
So the only thing a new intake could even help, is wide open throttle HP.

Maybe exhaust could help a bit, for MPG, but intake seems like total snake oil.

Thoughts?

 

It's always seemed to me that intakes and exhaust systems are so expensive for what you get that they aren't worthwhile. And if they do anything for your fuel economy -- which is debatable -- it'll take you a lot of miles to recover the costs.

On the 6.0 at least, the factory intake is the best thing you can get. There is no aftermarket solution that is better.

 

Agree with flainn..

Most gains in MPG are seen through modified driving technique.. The best way to tell if something actually works is to log 10+ tank fulls and mileage, then make the change and log again. It will still be weighted in favor of modified driving technique. Would be better yet if you made the changes and never told the driver...

As I have built a number of engines over the years, I have had the opportunity to do some comparative dyno testing. Of particular interest was the comparison of a 4" tall K&N "factory oiled" filter to a 4" tall paper filter. The K&N only performed as well as the paper filter on the third pull and never exceeded that of the paper filter. Indeed the K&N type filters are nice because they can be cleaned and reused, but that's about it.. The cost of entry is sometimes steeper than the price of a half-dozen paper filters..
The Cold Air Intakes are another subject. They actually do provide a little more power, but it's no where near what the claims are. We have to test these on a chassis dyno on a car/truck that is fully up to temp. On my 2500 Avalanche we saw a grand total of 10 ft lbs of torque increase. Not really enough to offset the cost, but what the heck...
CAI can also have negative impacts when it comes to cold climate drivability - so don't toss the original housing and intake..

Regards - Randy

 

the response would be different for EFI models vs carb models.

carb models would respond to variences in intake air flow resistance related items but not necesaryily increase in ecnomy


efi models are less effected by gadets and widgets since the o2 sensors and other devices continually make adjustments to keep the AFR (air fuel ratio) at the targets set by the manufacture. You want better MPG, run a hotter engine by lowering the AFR. You want a cooler more powerful engine...raise the AFR.