Are cold air intakes worth the money?

[blainhar]

Was wondering if cold air intakes are worth the money. I have a sct tuner and 5inch exhaust. Will and intake make that much of a difference?

[van-boy]

psd already come with cold air intakes. the filter is upfront and the scoop is positioned infront of the grill. imo, cant get any colder than that.

bailey

[DoubleDpsd]

imo, nope. Offers a little more 'sound' from turbo area and under the hood looks.

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[mazsecond]

I would never put a aftermarket intake on my truck. Their are plenty of treads on here stating how the factory air box can flow enough air to support up to 500hp. Plus aftermaket intakes that have higher flow also don't filter as well, which in the long term could casue your turbo to be "dusted". The one thing ford did do right on the 6.0 is the intake for Ford on that one!

[Chanzfx4]

Lots of people change them cause of ease and price compared to replacing stock. Different strokes for different folks kinda.

[NYC F-350]

Originally Posted by blainhar

Was wondering if cold air intakes are worth the money. I have a sct tuner and 5inch exhaust. Will and intake make that much of a difference?

My answer:

NO

[Loubell]

Lots of people change them cause of ease and price compared to replacing stock.

Really? My 6.0 is 9 years old, 150,XXX miles, and is on its second filter. The original one showed only 25% restriction on the filterminder, but I changed it out at 120,000 anyway, $50.

Have you seen the price of the cold air intake kits? How is this saving money? I guess if the aftermarket kit allows me to not change the filter for 900,xxx miles it would eventually pay for itself, but thats about 25 years from now.

[PGreenSVT]

There is no performance advantage to a cold air intake and as pointed out they are not as capable of filtering as the stock filter. That said, they do allow the engine to breathe easier and they sound better.

Also the snorkel on the filter box does not sit in the cold air stream. Look up the Zoodad mod to open the area in front of the snorkel.

[TooMuch03]

Originally Posted by blainhar

Was wondering if cold air intakes are worth the money. I have a sct tuner and 5inch exhaust. Will and intake make that much of a difference?

That depends on how you define worth it, and what you want to do with your truck. It is well documented that no cold air intake will filter as well as the stock donaldson filter. I used to be firmly be in the "air intakes are useless until 500rwhp" camp. Then, one of our members put her truck on the dyno, once with the stock intake and once with a cold air intake. After running both, she saw a consistent 20hp and 20ft-lbs gain with the cold air intake. The truck was stock with exhaust and SCT like yours. So is there a performance advantage to a cold air intake? I think yes. Is it worth the reduction in filtration? That is something only you can decide.

[Dirty_Stroke]

What brand CAI did she install? I'm leaning toward the S&B myself.