I've been looking at the Ford AIS unit for a while and just read up on the AIRAID system. So now i'm torn because it says it can flow 1000 cfm. I don't have any mods yet. I want to improve my intake airflow + poss 5 in exhaust in future. for better mpg and power when i pull my fifth wheel. Any input would be welcome.

 

AIS is the best.

 

i don't know anything about the airaid system, but i do not believe you can buy a better filtering system than the AIS... as for the cfm of airflow... i don't believe you could ever build a 7.3 psd that would use 1000 cfm, so what is the point... as for the K&N style of filtering, lots of guys in here don't think that those types of filters do a good enough job actually filtering the air... and when you have a compressor wheel in your turbo spinning at up to 100k rpm, thoroughly filtered air is a must... i'll trade a little cfm that i don't need for much better air filtration anyday...

 

The AIS will flow plenty of air for your application especially if you install a foam fender sleeve to bring in additional air from the fender. Here is some information http://www.dieselpowerproducts.com/air I have this system on my truck and it works great with the best filtration available for our trucks.

 

im not argueing but just saying what i experianced. i ran the ais with fendersleeve and went to the afe stage 2 and on a test i run with each mod going home i run the truck in od at 45mph and i have an incline to go up for about a mile well in stock setting with ais truck would kick out within 100 yards and with afe it pull all the way up the hill in od no shifting and it seems after installing the afe i get a little more boost and less black smoke (practically no smoke) on the performance settings. i think there is defiately a flow difference between the 2 setups and i love the afe 2.

 

Yes. The only significant restriction in the AIS is the single snorkel. The filter flows great, and it filters as good or better than anything you can buy - its design also allows it to hold many, MANY times more trapped contaminants while still being functional than any other filter out there.

I have a Tymar (like the Kwik). I've considered changing to the AIS, but that is a lot of money for a marginal improvement in filtration. Right now, I can't justify spending the money to go from 'very good' to 'slightly better'.

If I were buying one right now and wanted a big improvement in flow and filtration, and I was planning to spend a couple hundred $$, there is no other choice than the AIS (with a heavily modified air inlet, anyway).

If I wanted big improvement in flow and filtration and couldn't spend much money, the Kwik mod is the way to go.

Just remember - oiled foam filters get their improved flow with big holes in the filter medium. The oil is supposed to catch the grit and crap as they get sucked through the big holes. THe oil is partially successful and does trap some of this material.

But ask yourself a couple of questions - Do you want to leave the welfare of your $1500 turbo and $10,000 engine to a filter that tries to catch grit with oil-coated pathways through the filter? Or, would you rather rely on a filter that has breathing pores smaller than most of the harmful grit and relies instead on huge surface area to flow well?

 

i seen a test in a magazine for the ais in a stock 6.0 and i flowed almost 1000cfm but the filter used in the .0 ais is completely different than the 7.3 ais so im really wondering how good the flow really is with this setup when you can defineately feel a difference between the ais and the afe stage 2.

 

The filter for the 7.3 flows great. The problem is the airbox. It was designed to fit in the same space as the rather restrictive stock 7.3 airbox.

If (when?) I switch to an AIS, it will be after I move the batteries out of the engine bay (to a cool location - what idiot thinks a blistering hot engine compartment is a good place to put heat sensitive devices like batteries?) I'll work out modifications to the AIS box, which will include cold air induction.

I'll tell you right now - a problem with the AIS air box is its size. When you look at the pre-filter volume, it is pretty small. Besides that, the snorkel is also small and convoluted. Some people are fixing the snorkel problem by cutting a hole in the fender side of the airbox and connecting the box to the inner fender, thus giving much larger intake cross-sectional area.

But there are motorcycle engines with larger airboxes than the AIS. Japanese, Buell, and other moto-engineers discovered that an airbox that is too small will empty too quickly and form a partial vacuum under heavy load. This leads to inefficiency and power loss.

I know there is a formula for figuring optimum airbox size for a given engine CFM flow - I'll look for it when I'm ready to build an airbox for my truck. First I'll build a cold air supply box for the Kwik-style filter, then I'll play with the AIS. This is at least a year away - if work and house ever give me the time to play like that.