Like Brian said, in Ca. at least. Pretty much anything pre-turbo is good to go, but I would go with the added approval of a "CARB approved" (in CA. at least) sticker just to be sure that there is no question.

 

Donaldson blue 6637 from Riff Raff.

 

Damn Y2, Where you Albert Einstein in a previous Life?.......

 

Joe, neither of the two concerns you expressed should be of any concern whatsoever.

Of all the "aftermarket" air boxes, the AIS is the least aftermarket, because it is not only approved by the OEM, it was developed and manufactured by the OEM. In fact, it has Ford Powerstroke embossed into the airbox lid, and looks every bit like a Ford part... because it is a Ford part. It is sold at Ford dealerships, has a Ford engineering number, a Ford customer service part number, as well as a Motorcraft part number, and even has a brochure (which you can download in .pdf form online) that describes and recommends the system for replacing the production airbox and filter.

No worries about passing inspection there, even if pre-turbo equipment was regulated. Yet we know that pre turbo air filtration is NOT regulated, not even in the Southern California Air Quality Management District, which is ground zero of the strictest CARB emissions regulations in the United States. Only the presence of a filter is needed, without any regulation as to type or brand of filter or air box.

A restricted air filter is more likely to effect fuel economy than a freer flowing air filter. But a freer flowing air filter that is completely fed by heated underhood air will more likely deliver less net air density than a less freely flowing filter that is exclusively fed with colder, denser air from outside the engine compartment.

For your stock application, I don't see how you can go wrong with an AIS.

 

My friend's 6.4 failed because of an aftermarket airbox with no sticker. He got the CARB EO sticker mailed from the manufacturer, now he's fine. All gas motor air intakes are regulated also. If the rules are different for a 7.3 for some reason then I don't know about it.

 

My friend failed for an aftermarket airbox. There are many Ford parts that are not emissions compliant. I don't think an air filter is required, even if it is, it's never checked. There is no requirement for the filter to be compliant, only the housing & ducting.

 

double post

 

Not according to the BAR: https://www.bar.ca.gov/serp.html?q=d...e=UTF-8&nojs=1

Per CARB (in that first link) your friend shouldn't have been hassled. This is not new news though, as it seems each station has a variance in how they administer the smog check for diesels.

Stewart

 

 

Thank you. I couldn't find anything definitive on whether diesels were exempt from the airbox rules. Next time I see my smog guy I'll let him know. He was nice about it and didn't charge my buddy nor put a fail in the system, just told him he would't test it without the sticker or something stating it was approved.

And yes, each inspector does whatever he thinks he's supposed to, often not knowing. Some visual stuff is grey area, the airbox appears to be black & white. I've had at least three battles with inspectors failing my stuff because of their ignorance. Very arrogant SOBs 'till proven wrong.

 

Definitely have the CARB EO sticker or printed certification just in case. I had to go back to a canister wastegate controller (long story) and did not want to go back to OEM so I got the Bank Big Head wastegate controller. The tech knew Banks had OE certs for most of their stuff but his computer was not working. He was surprised that I carried a copy of the CARB OE certification. He made a copy for their records, I passed, and was on my way.

It's always good to be prepared.

He should not have failed. The tech was not familiar with the rules.

I ran into the same issue in the beginning (2010) of all this. I carried around the BAR inspection rules and showed them the requirements in writing and still got the "nope, you'll fail with that intake". I had the 6637.

VERY true. Some know the rules and some think they know the rules. "Friendly" shops are getting more scarce and they are always getting training on the older diesels. My underhood inspection this year lasted about 15 minutes (compared to about 5 minutes last time). Not only do they know more about what should be there, but they are checking for it too. Any violation that gets traced back to the shop/inspector detracts from both of their ratings with the state. Too many and their smog careers in CA are done.

I also found out recently that (at least in CA) a shop is expected to have failures. If they do not meet a certain threshhold then the shop's license could be in jeapordy. A glaring deficiency is an easy chance for them to make their failure quota.

 

I too discovered this fact about 15 years ago when a dedicated smog shop failed my Crown Vic. The owner told me they have to fail a certain percentage of vehicles or they get in trouble with the state, so because so many vehicles pass, they look for the smallest thing to fail a person so they can make sure to keep their failure rate high enough.

Stewart

 

Well my AIS arrived. Looks like it's good quality and as was mentioned in the thread it looks oem. Too dang hot to install it tonight so hopefully get it in on Saturday.
Seems like an easy install but as a facility guy working in an old building I'm always leary of breaking something while doing a simple repair!
For the heck of it I called the state emissions lab guy. He was polite and said the filter/air box won't cause a failure .

Thanks

 

 

I, and perhaps others, would be interested in any observations/comments you have after using the AIS for a couple of months.