Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Cold Air Intake Question.

I have done the Flowmaster Exhaust converrsion to a Ford F150 (and yes I did get about 2mpg better gas mileage, plus it sounded cool).

But I have sold my little Ford, and moved into a family rig. I just bought a 4x4 Chevy Suburban 1500 with a 5.7LT V8 (the last year of the 350). It is rock stock, and has been babied up to this point. I have already checked on the 3" cat back exhaust, but was thinking of a cold air intake. Either Air Raid or K&N.

Any input on the cold air intake systems and which of these is "better" ?

I have read more debate about this on the truck websites..........

The factory setups are designed to keep water out, bring cold air in, is set up for factory air mixtures on the injection systme, and still provide enough air to the factory engine. If one is modifying the motor, more air may be required, but otherwise I'm not so sure.

That can include cat converter and high flow mufflers. some particular features in a particular factory engine set-up can be improved a tad with a cat back exhaust, many don't see much improvement.

I do recall some tests of the aftermarket air filters not showing much improvement--some even showed a decrease in air flow, or letting heat in. The K&N oiled filters in several test demonstrated to filter less.

Short of modifying the EFI unit and headers, the aftermarket intake air and exhaust systems generally don't help.

The GM TBI and Vortec 350 motors may be some of the longest lived American V-8's ever produced. Taken care of, the rest of the rig will probably give out before the engines do.

Casey

Easy answer-----Cooler air is denser now the second part is non turbulent air flow-----you want more of it -- smooth and cooler! Been running these on my oil burners and gas engines for over 20 years and they do help the trick is to get one that works.