Joe, believe me, it's plastic.

If it were metal, why oh why would they dip it in plastic.

you can tell it's plastic by tapping your fingers on it.

 

Certain years have plastic intakes...

Garrett

 

Wow really? You mean I might have a plastic intake? Wow, gee, well that really clears things up for me. What would we ever do without you!!!!!????

Tom

 

Probably sit on your butt, doing nothing, thinking up a ton of "ingenius" sarcastic remarks, but have no where to put them. Guess with out me, Tom, your like would suck.

EDIT: I found the years in which a plastic manifold were used, but then I keep reading a thread that has all the noob crap that made me wanna stay away.

 

Huh? .... Huh? (double take)

 

The f150s for the past few years actually have the same intake manifolds as the older f150s. For instance, mine is metal, year 2000. The 2003/04heritage have the same metal intake manifold, but its plastic coated, like dipped in hot plastic. The reason they do this is because they've switched to a new metal casting procedure, which makes the metal chemically reactive with oxygen. When exposed, this metal starts to spark, creating the potential for all hell to break loose in the engine bay.

The reason this does not happen to the air on the inside is that when air passes through your filter, the oxygen is filtered out. Any oxygen not filtered out is neutralized by the mass air flow sensor. As far as the A/F ratio is concerned, the engines themselves have modified combustion chambers that run only on CO.

In May of 2003, Ford realized that CO was running the engines lower than industry standards, so they started using a gasket that was CO reactive. When the CO passes the intake manifold gasket, it causes a chemical reaction that results in producing molecules of oxygen. This returns the air to a normal balance of CO, CO2, and oxygen, just like normal air that we breathe. This all happens without single oxygen molecules being in the presence of the intake manifold, except in the form of carbon monoxide (CO).

I know this is true because my uncle works for Ford Intake Development Team. He is trying to get me a job as either a Motor Mount Analyst or a Hood Prop Engineer. Whichever position is open, really.

Armand

 

That is totally different than the intake on my 1999. Shape, style alll different. Also mine is deffinetly alum.