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Cold Air Intakes

5K views 26 replies 18 participants last post by  85_305 
#1 ·
I'm trying to decide which brand of cold air intake to go with, K&N or Airaid. I'm leaning towards the K&N because they seem to be the most common and because I am a little skeptical of Airaid's claims to boost horsepower by 25 hp. Does anybody have a preference here?

Thanks,
Jake
 
#2 ·
Airaid is awsome ive ran it on all 3 of my diesel's ive tried Banks,and also AFE but its kind of ur prefrence Banks wisled 2 much like a supercharger on a gas
 
#4 ·
K&N is bad news for 7.3's I got one because it was cheap and now I'm payin for it. The problem with them is that they let alot of dust through, which will wear your turbo down and worst of all damage internal engine components. I would go with Banks, Volant, or S&B because they filter really well and they actually draw air from outside the engine compartment creating more colder and denser air.
 
#12 ·
The Banks intake uses a K&N filter, so its just a different name and symbol on the tube:nod:

I personally have a K&N system which has a great fit in the compartment and looks good and clean. I have the 6637 filter instead of the K&N junk filters.
 
#8 ·
Nothing will filter better than the AIS, filter good for 50K, and 30% more airflow over stock. It always scores at the top in filtration tests and my UOA reports prove how well it works, My silicon levels are constantly below 5.

NCH
 
#10 ·
diy for 60$. K&N has oil which will cause your filter to cake like crazy. Look at my thread I made where I posted a picture of it. Solid black gunk.

Do the Tymar
 
#11 ·
AFE stage 2, it is pricy but i love it
 
#13 ·
^If you truly believe K&N is so great on our diesels, well, I just hope this doesn't happen to your truck like it did to mine



I had a decent sized thread on it some time ago if you are curious.
 
#14 ·
Im just curious who that was directed too? I know all about K&N sucking. I said that I have the K&N system (intake pipe and box) with a NAPA 6637 filter in it:thumb: No K&N filters for me:nod: Also that picture looks like a Fram filter not K&N:dunno:
 
#15 ·
I my apologies I thought you were saying they were good because banks uses them.

Yes, it's a fram.. same garbage :p
 
#16 ·
Its cool man. I was saying that because somebody else said that K&N is no good and they reccomend a Banks.....well Banks uses K&N filters, so its the same thing.

As My sig suggests, Im not a Banks fan at all....actually Banks products from the previous owner have F'ed my truck badly in the past.
 
#18 ·
Intake info:Copied from another forum..read before making a decision.

Sorry for the late response. caryt asked me to comment on a few threads, this being one of them, a while ago and I’m just getting around to it. However, on a new computer (yea!… sort of… depends if you like Vista).

Anyway, I don’t monitor all the different forums anymore, but am always willing to comment if anyone would like to link me to the conversation you are having. Since I am a bit late, I’ll respond to the posts as they appear and hopefully it won’t be too confusing.

quote:
“have a used AIS…couldn’t find a filter for it…got a FIPKI K&N system cheap…should I put a tymar on or put the AIS back on??? I was thinking of mounting a tymar to the K&N tube…what do you guys think”

The K&N element should probably be avoided in turbo-charged applications. The initial filtration efficiency is not high enough to protect the compressor impeller.

The phrase “mounting a tymar” sounds kind of like Tymar is a filter. The filter we use is a Donaldson B085011 and Tymar is a company name. Tymar Performance makes all sorts of items, one of them being the open element intake kits.

That said, the element we use would not fit on the end of a K&N FIPK system. I guess you could technically modify things to get it in, but you wouldn’t have minimal radial clearance around the filter, which should be considered very important to providing low restriction air to the turbo. Without supplying minimal radial clearance, you won’t get the positive benefits the open element system should create.

The AIS will provide excellent filtration efficiency, but will not improve overall restriction or allow much additional air flow in the configuration that Ford uses. The Tymar Intake will provide excellent filtration efficiency as well as decrease restriction to the turbo and add significant air flow.

quote:
“Tymar is going to give you better flow but AIS is going to give you unmatched filtration…the AIS plus it will last a LONG time, like 60K miles…”

Although the AIS will give better filtration efficiency, you are only talking about 1/10 of a percent over the filter Tymar Performance Intakes use at initial filtration efficiencies. Not enough of a difference to really differentiate between the two.

For the longevity, you have to start talking about restriction ranges in both stock and aftermarket applications and how dirt will affect them. AIS has a larger capacity, but not across the restriction ranges once installed on the truck. Because of the configuration you are not lowering restriction significant over stock levels, but you are receiving better filtration compared to the stock intake.

The Tymar Intake will allow lower restriction levels and lasts approximately 15K miles in a restriction range LOWER than stock. If you want to go with longevity of filter, you can continue using the same filter and will simply not experience the positive benefits of lower than stock restriction levels.

We supplied the intake systems for Granite Construction and used them as a severe duty use test. They were rebuilding Power Stroke engines at approximately 60K miles because of the fine silt in the mining beds. After changing to our system they were using the same filters with 28K mile change out intervals and only experiencing 32”h2o of restriction (yellow on your stock restriction gauges) and they eliminated the necessity of engine rebuilds and were selling the used trucks with over 180K miles on them.

quote:
“I'm using a tymar because it's cheap to setup and offers good filtration.”

Although I agree with you, your listed intake is a DIY 6637, which is neither a Tymar nor a recommended system by us. The WIX/NAPA 6637 is not a hydrophobic (water resistant) element and using it as an open element should be avoided. There are other concerns such as providing minimal radial clearance, isolating engine vibration, positioning away from rain drip channel, etc. But, I just wanted to draw a clear difference between copies, DIY efforts, and our product.

quote:
“…be sure your Tymar-type filter includes the PowerCore filter media and not some lesser media material.”

Although the PowerCore ® media is far superior to most other media, there is not a PowerCore media filter available for use as an open element. They are inserts for intake boxes and are not configure for use as filter alone applications.

The filter media is not the main attraction, but the filter configuration. It is NOT true that you cannot get the same filtration efficiencies or flow rates from other Donaldson products. It will just simply have to be larger. The PowerCore configuration allows for compact applications that have flow rates and filtration efficiencies of filters much larger. So it is the compactness of the element and not that the media processes some magical qualities.

quote:
“IMO, the FIPK tube with the heat shield and the Donaldson (aka #6637) filter combination is hard to beat for the money.”


I would probably respectfully disagree. The problem is the thickness of the stacked gauze media will not allow for a high pleat count and severely restricts the available surface area. A typical RD-1460 that is used in a FIPK system only has about 44 pleats. The Donaldson we use is not only a larger filter overall, but the thinner media allows for 202 pleats, leaving us over 5 times the surface area to pull from. This is why we can outflow and out filter a re-usable element as long as minimum radial clearance is maintained.

The problem with heat shields and routing air through intake boxes is that whenever you direct air flow, you increase restriction. Low restriction is the goal, so using a filter that has the ability to flow large masses of air and then enclosing it in a box yields very poor results. Heat shields do literally nothing. Air flow under the hood is dynamic and not static. It is moving all the time. Hot air will move right around a heat shield at the same temperature and be ingested and the only thing you have caused is turbulence.

Aside from impeding minimal radial clearance and isolation of engine vibration, a serious cause for concern is placing the filter, especially a 6637 element, under a rain drip channel for the hood. Beyond the ambient moisture that will cause restriction as it is absorbed into the non-hydrophobic media, you will be directing water towards the filter anytime the rain drip channel flows more rain than it can hold or spills over the retainer during left turns.

I’ll try to check back in and address further comments in the days to come and can hopefully shed some light on why we do what we do using the configuration we did.

Peace to all, enjoy those rigs!
__________________
 
#20 ·
Thank you very much for posting that info about the difference in the intakes. I currently have a k&n intake on the truck I just bought, and it looks like a tymer is near the top of the list for things to do to increase engine and turbo life.
 
#21 ·
And gas mileage. And turbo noise.
 
#22 ·
CAI

DON'T GO WITH A DIY OR A K & N
...YOU DON'T WANT TO DRAW HOT ENGINE COMPARTMENT AIR INTO YOUR TURBO..
YOU WANT A VOLANT WHICH DRAWS COLDER AIR FROM OUTSIDE OF ENGINE COMPARTMENT ie-FRONT GRILL AREA AND DRIVERS SIDE FENDERWELL...
OR S&B GRILL AREA ONLY..:icon_ford:
 
#23 ·
Your a dummy if you think a "cold air intake" is going to do ANYTHING on a turbo motor. The second the "cold air" hits the turbo it's superheated to insane numbers anyways
 
#26 ·
What about two sources of air?



I'm trying to determine the best intake system for my money and that Volant system with its two sources of intake seems like a good idea. Very good point about the air being heated by the turbo, something I never thought about. Then again, I'm a turbodiesel cherry so there's a lot I haven't thought about yet. Right now I'm looking at the Volant, Airaid, and Quadzilla intake with AFE filter. Do any of these three really seem to have a noticeably better reputation with the TD crowd? I know everybody has their preferences, but there seems to always be one or two brands of a given product type that more people choose. Thanks for any comments on this.
 
#25 ·
My truck is a 2wd buddy ;)
 
#27 ·
Diy. Or the ais is a big superduty favorite
 
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