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Aftermarket Cold Air Intake- worth it?

Dakar09

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TopOMichXL

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I always get excited for every new, “Should I get a CAI”, thread.
They really bring out the best in people.
Some darn good reading.
Stock intake here.
 

Aonarch

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Ford F-150 Aftermarket Cold Air Intake- worth it? 1763304156930-ix


I am anti CAI, because the factory intakes now are well designed and the filters, filter well and flow enough for the OEM calibration.

With that said, I went with the Volant intake, but I am running a Donaldsons Powercore G2 filter, the best filter money can buy at 99.99% efficiency. I go off-road and see a lot of dirt and dust. Donaldsons invented air filters. This isn't for performance, but rather for extra filtration. I have a tune as well.
 
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FaaWrenchBndr

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I always get excited for every new, “Should I get a CAI”, thread.
They really bring out the best in people.
Some darn good reading.
Stock intake here.
so here’s my take on it. I have a GT momentum with the dry filter that I bought for my powerboost. I pulled my first oil sample just under 15k miles. USPS lost it so I pulled another one at just under 20k

The results came back and I was a bit surprised with the silicon levels. So I removed the AFE and have went back to the stock intake set up and Motorcraft filter.

I’m going to run that for right at 5000 miles and will reevaluate.
 

Shane150

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I installed the Roush intake and ended up ripping it out. There was a big gap around the filter and filter removal was a pain, and I noticed zero gains. I moved on to an AFE next and after a year I pulled that one out too. I guess I like wasting money. The AFE was definitely better but filter removal was still annoying. In the end, I reinstalled the OEM intake. Performance is the same, and changing the filter is a breeze.
As others have said, you won’t see any real benefit unless you’re tuning the truck and racing it. Even then, I’d probably still stick with the OEM box—and I’m not tuning it anyway, because that feels like another waste of money. Same story with catch cans. Just use the best engine oil you can get and change your oil and filter more frequently instead of spending money on placebo mods.
 

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FaaWrenchBndr

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I installed the Roush intake and ended up ripping it out. There was a big gap around the filter and filter removal was a pain, and I noticed zero gains. I moved on to an AFE next and after a year I pulled that one out too. I guess I like wasting money. The AFE was definitely better but filter removal was still annoying. In the end, I reinstalled the OEM intake. Performance is the same, and changing the filter is a breeze.
As others have said, you won’t see any real benefit unless you’re tuning the truck and racing it. Even then, I’d probably still stick with the OEM box—and I’m not tuning it anyway, because that feels like another waste of money. Same story with catch cans. Just use the best engine oil you can get and change your oil and filter more frequently instead of spending money on placebo mods.
I did an oil sample and thought silicon levels were a bit high. Put the factory filter system back on. Will run the paper filter for one OCI. Will see the difference in silicon levels between factory and the AFE dry filter with the GT Momentum
 

Dakar09

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I'd be interested in the results as I run the same CAI and filter
 

FaaWrenchBndr

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I'd be interested in the results as I run the same CAI and filter
so I originally pulled an oil sample at just under 15k. USPS lost it.
So I pulled another sample just before 20k
I’ll get a copy and post it.
Silicon was shown to be 15ppm
Not super excessive, but seems high.

I will pull another sample at 25k
Amsoil SS, 5w30
Sticking with a 5k oci
 
 







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