Intake Tube Swap Out?

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NMBurb02

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I do not really want to invest at this time in a full CAI kit for my Burb, especially because the stock setup is a cold air intake due to the location of the intake box, but was thinking of swapping out the intake tube for a bit more throttle response.

The stock intake tube has this funky Oklahoma mirror shaped silencer, which I am guessing messes with the airflow, particularly under WOT:

56484668.jpg


I was thinking of going with an Airaid Jr. air intake kit, mostly for the intake tube. However, it is still $160+.

200-712-LG.jpg


Another option would be to do to a junk yard and pull an intake tube from a Silverado with the same engine, which doesn't have the silencer. Guessing this would be less than $30.

57510624.jpg


Your thoughts?
 
Why the difference in intake tube designs between the Suburban and Silverado if there are no performance differences? I would assume the Silverado intake would provide a bit more oomph at the cost of some additional intake noise.
 
Herein lies your problem...

Until you know for sure, you should not change it.

My opinion, Jim

Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
I am guessing messes with the airflow, particularly under WOT
 
Originally Posted By: AstroTurf
Until you know for sure, you should not change it.


Using that logic, nobody should change anything on their vehicles, including oil brand, weight, etc.

The reason I asked the question was to get input from those more experienced or knowledgeable on the topic regarding the possible effects of such a change. I could easily go into each post where someone asks a question and say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and if it is broke, don't fix it because you don't know the outcome", but that doesn't add much to the conversation, does it?
 
Last edited:
I'm not looking to get into oiled cotton filters yet. I plan on sticking with a paper filter for now, so even if I went with the Airaid system, I would just put the filter on the shelf until I decide to use it, if ever.

The plan is stock air box and paper filter, just looking to change out the intake tube. I would consider a K&N tube, but they don't sell them on their own.
 
Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
The power increase will be so minimal that you will never notice it.


Not really looking for significant power increases, but maybe more throttle response, particularly when flooring it to get up to 65 mph quickly when getting on a freeway via a short on-ramp.

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
BTW your engine is cleaner than the interior of my car.


Hahaha! I wish! That was a photo I found using Google image search. I have three kids under the age of five, so I barely get time to clean the interior and exterior of the Burb (in fact, it has been a few months), much less the engine bay.
 
I think the Airaid kit your looking at is the best way to go to get power out of your intake. The airaid air filters are about as good as it gets in the buisness for filtering. All you need is to modify the tube that goes from the air box, to the fender to open it up a bit more.

I have a kit like it, but mine was from the late TrueFlow intake company. Their is also the Airdoc kit for you truck that is similar.

http://www.airdocintakes.com/product_five.htm
 
The truflow kit for your truck is the model # 10501. If you look around, you might be able to find a good deal on one of those. I only paid $30 for mine.
 
I have the airaid intake tube on my truck and I like it. I didnt notice a power increase but it makes a nice noise now under heavy throttle. I liked it because it still uses the stock airbox and filter.
 
If anything, do the junkyard option. The power difference will be negligible. Only increased noise. Which some people like, including me. But dont kid yourself that this will be a magic bullet.
 
In my opinion, this style of performance intake kit is the best by far. As per my scanguage, my air intake temps are almost dead on with the outside air temp. With the K&N style intakes, there is no way you can keep the engine bay temps from increasing you intake temp. In real world performance, the Airaid kit will out perform a K&N style kit.
 
Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
Why the difference in intake tube designs between the Suburban and Silverado if there are no performance differences? I would assume the Silverado intake would provide a bit more oomph at the cost of some additional intake noise.


Extremely platform specific. Based on my experience with several Silverados in my fleet I can tell you that a properly designed CAI can add both mileage and power, also noise.

You really need a tuner to optimize it best, but even 'barefoot' the CAI can benefit your truck. Just remember, the gains are very small and they vary wildly from one brand to the next brand. They are NOT all the same.
 
*Headscratches, coughs*

Sorry, the way physics works, a CAI will never give you mileage. Ever. Period. Unless the stock air intake is for a Yugo and was designed by someone on a wet napkin. It can give you mileage if your cold air intake is actually causing warm air under the hood to get into the engine, which is less dense, and therefore takes less fuel to reach a stoichometric charge.

The only reason CAI manufacturers can get away with saying they increase mileage is if you're driving at WOT. Constantly. If you're not at full throttle the biggest restriction in your intake will always be the throttle plate.
 
The Airraid MIT DOES make a difference!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/55742651/Intake...g%20Results.pdf

That is the test results of 5 different systems compared against OEM on a Silverado with the 5.3L. Notice the Airraid is one of the best performers, and a clear "bang for the buck" champ.

I believe the testing was done by black bear performance if you want to look it up yourself. I don't know why they would have any preference of one system over the other.

I personally run the Airraid MIT (just the tube with stock paper filter). It has a slightly higher sound level, and I would say a noticable increase in power. My truck has the 6.2L and it breathed through the same small tube as the 5.3L, so my increase may be even larger?
 
You could also order JUST the intake tube (MIT) by googling the part number below. Runs $113.90 on Amazon. That way you can stick with the OEM filter.

airaid 200-912
 
That's a very nice presentation and appears to be a well done apples to apples test.

BUT:

DId anyone else notice that the gains are all at very high rpms? The tests don't even start until 2765 rpm. At 3500 rom they are all within a coupla HP of each other. They don't really diverge much from stock until after 4,000 rpm. And all that is very typical from what I've seen. My conclusion is that if you are questing 5500+ rpm numbers, you would get them from any of these products. If you have a daily driver and drive it as such, you get no real benefit for whatever these systems cost. That's one reason why I removed the AEM CAI from my truck. The other was an obscene amount of noise. Dyno results were there, but again all at 4-5K rpm. In a very short term, it seemed like I got a slight mileage bump but after a year or so of averaging, that was not truly the case.
 
You will get a mileage gain. If, for some reason you are running over 70% throttle or thereabouts a large amount of time. Like if you were pulling 5000lbs up a mountain everyday or something so the engine is wrapped out over 4000 rpm.
 
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