I've had my S&B cold air intake for 4 yrs and over 60K. Never had a problem and I needed a filter I could easily maintain. I go 4X4 a lot on some sand dunes and the front of the stock one would get covered in sand. I checked out K&N but went with S&B which have a 99.81% Efficiency/filtration rate (@653 cfm) and are
(ISO 5011:2000) certified. It has easily saved $$ over replacing the stock filters. My OEM filter housing is a little warped and was not sitting right so it made my decision easier. Just sharing my experience.

 

well, once again thanks for the advice but i certainly wasnt attempting to argue with anyone. I'm sure Ford has tested and tested. But my take is as great as this site is,, most of the advice is based on "what you need". We probably dont "need" half the stuff we put on these trucks. I know i didnt need any of the mods I now have. And why in the world would you install any tuner, when a tuner doesnt really go on the side of making the truck reliable but yet, everyone wants one and i'll have the SCT by Xmas and probably the wildest tunes i can find. Just like the lift kits and large tires. If i was to find an intake that dusts the motor in 30,000 miles, well maybe it sounded awesome while it was there. I guess the reason for my original question was,, i certainly wouldnt want to do it if something would crash the next time i started it.. but i'll take my chances on some things. You know,, if you want to dance,, you've got to pay the fiddler. I work pretty hard and only live once,, i dont mind paying to play. But thanks again.

 

Here is the difference between your SCT argument and the intake one.

If you are going to get a tuner, the SCT is the most reliable one you can get as long as you get a tuner(person) that knows what he is doing. Many people are still on stock componants with no issues that can be directly related to that tuner.

No matter what intake you get, you won't see benefits in performance. Sound maybe. Ability to reuse maybe, although you'll be cleaning that filter more times then you'll be changing the stock intake(on average, depends on where you live and work). However, there are quite a few issues that have been directly linked to a/m intakes, particularly on the 6.0. You'll be playing russian roulette. It might only cost you $400, but then again it might not. If there was an a/m intake that did both better then stock filtration and performance that would be another conversation altogether, but it isn't.

I don't advocate lifts, bigger tires etc, because those not only cost you on the front end, but also in the back end as well(typically by crappy mileage compared to stock). Also more wear and tear on stock parts more often then not.

 

Oh and I forgot to mention, it sounds awesome at WOT or when I am towing people out when they get stuck in the sand.

 

I have a terrific Volant CAI I am looking to find a home for! Shoot me a PM if you're interested, gm.

 

I have used K&N style filters for 35 years and have never had a problem. I have a Roush on my X, K&N on my ZO6, K&N on my Scarab and a AFE on my '09 Jetta TDI. I also drive a 2 mile gravel road everyday. I have never had the so called "inlet or turbine blade dust build" up problems I have read about on this site. That is a myth unless you drive behind someone constantly on a gravel. If you have that with a K&N, you have a leak after the filter. I had a '95 Chevy Suburban 2500 with 6.5LTD and installed a K&N in place of the OEM paper filter. Put 200,000 miles on it driving the same 2 mile gravel road and no dust build in the inlet between the filter and turbo or on the turbine blades. I cleaned the K&N every 25,000 miles whether it needed it or not.

I hate the OEM 6.0 filter. I have busted more knuckles and dropped those damn clips more times while changing the OEM filter then I care to remember. With the Roush I loosen one hose clamp and the filter is out. Also the tubes between the filter and the MAF are smoother turns then on the OEM setup promoting better airflow. And unless you do the Zoodad mod the OEM setup sucks hot engine compartment air vice ambient temperature like mine does. Have I noticed a performance improvement? No, but my knuckles and blood pressure are sure a lot better. And at 63 thats a good thing!

A ZO6 owner on the Corvette forum did have his dynoed with the same K&N steup I have on mine. The K&N gave him 12 more HP and 7 additional lbs-ft of torque over the OEM ZO6 airbox.

On my Jetta AFE airbox I remove 2 screws and one hose clamp and the filter is out. Not the 12 screws the OEM box setup has. Plus, again, no noticeable performance but 2 more MPGs with the AFE.

Just my .02 worth about AM CAIs!

DSMMH

 

So what? Just because something worked for 35 yrs, doesn't in of itself mean that it still works. What worked on diesels of old doesn't work on the newer diesels.

This is also the type of thinking that got people in trouble with the 6.0 in the early years. They didn't know the quirks of the 6.0 and that you really couldn't do the things to it like you could on the 7.3 or even some of the earlier diesels(depending on what you are talking about).



So really, the benefits that you can directly attribute to the a/m intake is ease of reuse? Is that a valid reason? Yes it is. Is it a reason to use the a/m intake? That depends. I have only swapped out my stock intake twice. That's roughly $100 dollars. I still have $300 (or $200 depending on what intake you buy new) before it would have been worth it for buying the intake. Now is that the same for everyone, no it isn't. But you really have to look long and hard to see if whatever is going on in your environment that might make it worth even for the ability to clean and reuse versus just swapping out. At the rate I'm going, I'm more then likely going to have a new diesel truck before I even cover the cost of one a/m intake.

I'm putting down over 500 horses and I still use the stock intake. No zoodad, no nothing. I'm running a 64mm turbo, quite a bit more then stock and it flows good. No problems with turbo spool, zero lag. That tells me that stock is good for 95% of the 6.0 owning population out there as far as performance. I don't have issues with swapping out intakes, but not everyone is so lucky(and I'm not a small guy with small hands either).


I'm sorry, but so what? K&Ns do wonders for 7.3s. Shift on the fly modules do wonders for 7.3s as well. I wouldn't put either one of them on a 6.0 unless I did some modifications to stock parts. Custom tunes, I wouldn't worry about those same modifications unless the tunes called for it. I would worry about that on any tune.

What works on one vehicle doesn't mean that it'll work on another one.



There isn't one person out there that can show conclusively that one mod caused an increase in MPG when there is a plethora of variables out there that affect MPG and quite a few of them we can't control. How do I know that you even took note of some of those variables?

At best your evidence is: "I did A, I observed B, so therefore, A caused B".

Maybe, maybe not, that isn't enough to say one way or the other. That's as good as most can do because you can't control all of the variables that need to be controlled to say one thing did or didn't make an improvement. You may not have even noticed you changed something when you did.

Bottomline: Does everyone that puts on an a/m intake have problems? No, just like not everyone that puts on a shift on the fly module blows a tranny or lift heads. The statistics are not in "your" favor though. You could get away without any issues, but then again, you might not. It also may take some time depending on driving conditions and habits for things to show. One thing I've noticed with vehicles is more problems take time to develope to the level that it really bites people in the ***. Usually by that time, the timing of that and the mod that they did is so far out of the mind that they don't make the connection, even though the connection should be made.

 

my intentions were not to start an arguement,, i really do thank the ones that have told me about their intakes. If anyone that has one for sale (long as it make noise) lol. please pm me.. i'm not great with private messages. And lastly, it seems that some on this site, dont expect or advise others to do anything. Kinda boring..

 

When it works, why mess with it? I have bigger injectors, bigger fuel pump, stouter tranny, bigger turbo, but I'm still running stock gaskets and stock intake, why because it works.

Now, nothing was wrong with those other parts, but I wanted more ponies and the stock parts didn't work for that.

I'd be the first to advocate custom tunes or anything like that, but when something could do more harm then good and all that is wanted is more sound? I can't go for that, I just can't. If that makes me boring, then so be it. I'm a boring person that has had far less break downs when his truck was stock then others that wanted to do something because it was too boring to stay stock. Since my mods, I've only had two things go out, FICM and a/c headunit, both replaced under warranty and both survived 5 yrs. For the FICM, that's pretty good. That's the kind of boring life I like to live, the one that doesn't cost so much unless it's for things that I want.

It's your money, but in the end, I think you wanted to do this from the get go and you were just looking for validation. I could be wrong, but that's the kinda vib I'm getting.

 

No busted knuckles in this how to video!
https://www.powerstrokediesel.com/index.aspx?PageId=417#

 

no,, to be honest i wanted a valid reason why something wasn't good for the truck instead of the answer, "you dont need it".. You gave me that valid reason and I thank you for it. now its up to me to take your advice and i probably will. but if i choose not to, i wont be on here asking anyone for money to fix my truck. People do things for different reasons cause people are different. you tend to your vehicle to give you long service, Long service is important to me too but if i wish to bend the rules and i'm willing to pay for it, then that should be my business. you will say that i made it your business when i asked the question,, if you go back and read my first post, it was about what harm when it cause? I wasnt asking for advice on how to spend my money or where to spend it.

 

No, I wouldn't have said that. The money angle was my adding it in there, not you. I did that, because statistically speaking that is the case.

If you are willing to live with whatever the consequences are, then that's all that matters in the end.

 

Back in 04 I bought my Excursion brand new. An exhaust went right on. After a few months, a K&N FIPKII went on. Then an Edge Juice with Attitude. The Edge came off quickly as the shifting sucked. After a few months the K&N came off also as I didn't get the gains I expected.

Now fast forward to 2008 when I started to goof around with my Excursion at the track. My times were decent for a 2wd SUV, but I wanted more. I've had that $400 intake sitting in the box for 4 years, maybe now I'll get that 15 HP they claim. I had all the supporting mods.

My truck ran 3 tenths slower with that POS K&N pile o' crap.

There's plenty of guys here who can show you how to make more power. More noise doesn't win races.

 

maybe i started this off on the wrong foot. I dont think (maybe i did) I ever said anything about expecting more hp out of this. I guess more noise doesnt win races. But i dont plan on racing my truck. As far as noise, as silly as it may be,, maybe thats all i'm interested in. And i do know a little bit about racing,,

 

and lets just end this for now,, i never meant for it to go in this direction. I said when i started this that i was sure i would hear some static over this and that certainly has been true. Everything from being made to feel stupid, to being told how to spend my money. I do thank the ones that answered my question in a sincere way. Yall feel free to carry on but this is all from me.. thanks.