Thread: Air intakes and chipping it

Let me get this straight... Your buddies are telling you to supercharge a motor that's already turbocharged? I don't mean to be rude, but that's ridiculous. You already have forced induction so a supercharger would over boost the internals and blow it up.

As far as the intake and tuner (chip) you will gain a little economy with each one if you drive for economy, but if you like to play at all and do so often you will lose some economy. It all comes down to how you drive when you're looking for more mileage.

stock intake flows more CFMs than the engine will pull. All aftermarket units do is change the sound and add some underhood bling. If you want power, you can open up those turbos with a programmer and gain +60rwhp in a matter of seconds. Keep in mind if you blow something, Ford will look for a reason to blame it on your programmer and deny your warranty. As for mileage, you would be taking one step forward and three steps back. Yeah you might gain a tenth to half a mile more per gallon, but the $400 you will pay to get it will mean you would have to drive for several years to pay if off. So if you want more power, get a programmer. The EcoBoost is already pretty much maxed out in terms of mileage. Just keep your foot off of it.

Ever hear of the placebo effect? Intakes are all marketing and trickery. At 60 mph, your truck is turning so many RPMs and sucking in so many CFMs of air, adding so much amount of fuel to keep the stoichiometry correct. Adding an intake is not going to lower the RPMs, nor is it going to change how much air is being sucked in or the fuel being delivered. I've played with filter mediums versus stock airbox in both my airplane and truck. I've never seen anything over a +3rwhp gain (which is negligible in my book and can be accounted to atmospheric changes if anything) and after 250,000 miles on my K&N, my mileage is exactly the same as stock. Not to mention these newer engines are A LOT more efficient than my generation of powerplants. Ford has squeezed just about everything they can out of stock parts. I installed a AFE stage 2 intake on an EcoBoost a month or so ago. He got a whopping .65 rwhp gain! And after driving 5,000 miles, his mileage is exactly the same.

tl;dr- Keeping your foot out of it is going to not only increase the mileage you think you'll get with the intake, but it'll save you the initial cost of buying that plastic tube and magical filter. If you want power, get a programmer. If you want sound, get an exhaust. If you want some underhood bling and the accompanying sticker, get an intake. There is not much you can do to improve the already impressive mileage of these new trucks.

I could charge you $250 for this post and you would still come out on top cost-wise versus buying one of those things.

I agree with Alex. However, I bought the airaid intake for my EB for the added turbo sound that the stock box keeps in. If you're a gear head and understand what all that whistling and swooshing means it is worth the $200 if you're into that sort of thing like I am.

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You're right in saying I can't justify the purchase in a fiscal sense, but I can justify it in the fact that I have enjoyed driving my truck more and more since installing the intake. That may not be justifiable to some (like my ol lady) but I'm of the mindset that if you wanna spend a lil $$$ to enjoy anything more than if you spent nothing on it then go for it and the only person you have to answer to is yourself.

^^ exactly. That would be the reason to get an intake is to remove the silencer that is inside the mandrel, and hear those puppies SING!