Cheap upgrades to a stock vehicle


Recommended Posts

Been a while since I've made a thread in here. After reading snapper's thread of selling his cold air intake I thought I'd give a bit of insight on them.

They're a fairly cheap upgrade to your vehicle no matter what it is. Factory air boxes/air intakes often include a bunch of stuff like dampener boxes that disturb the flow of air into the intake. Their main purpose is to block the sound of the intake when you hit the throttle.

Cold air intakes usually have an open air filter which minimize air restriction, and also have a straight tube to the throttle body which provides direct flow to your engine. You will hear a noticeable difference when you stomp on the throttle. You'll hear more of a "WHOMMMP" as the engine gasps for air and sucks in as much as it can, thus giving you more power. Fuel economy also will increase a bit under normal driving conditions. Won't be much but anything helps nowadays with the ridiculous fuel prices.

If you want to accent your vehicle breathing in well, accent it breathing out well with a cat-back exhaust system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While these intake systems do work well on some applications, others not so well.

The mass air flow sensors are finely calibrated and the increase of air flow and the faster speed of the air can actually trick the sensor into thinking the engine is getting more air than it needs and the sensor will actually richen the mixture to compensate for this. The consequence could actually result in poorer fuel mileage.

On the newer Dura Max even changing the airfilter element to an aftermarket filter can set a MAF code. I believe GM has a bulletin out on this. I have had two cases in my shop where this happened. Changing back to an original AC air filter did correct the problem.

Lynn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point Lynn. I've found the non-oiled air filters didn't effect the MAF sensors, the oiled filters did sometimes screw up MAF readings and flagged SES lights and cause driveablility problems.

MUDRUNNER- Programmers can be good and bad, they can increase shift points and power, increase fuel economy etc, but take your vehicle to a dealership when an aftermarket software is installed in the ECM will void warranty. From what I've heard on throttle body spacers, they made a bit of a difference on carbureted engines but on the modern fuel injected engines they don't do much good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.