Intakes are: The Airaid, Volant w/Ram Air Scoop, AFE Stage 2, AEM Brute Force, TrueFlow, Injen, S & B and the stock intake and filter with the top cut off the collector that connects to the fender.
TBS: Helix Power Tower and Poweraid
My mods at the time of testing were as follows: 18* Timing advance, 116% air/fuel ratio (very lean), NO throttle body spacer for the intake tests, JBA ceramic shorty headers, JBA Exhaust system (single exit with 2.5" Y-Pipe flared to 3" on the drivers side bend, 3" dual collector at the Y, 3.5" tailpipe), 2.5" dynomax racing muffler bullets to replace rear resonators, intake manifold O-ring screen removed and with stock 18" 5 spoke wheels with Michelin 265/70/18's.
This is what I will say so far about the tests. I will not give the hp and torque total, just what the gain is over stock airbox with my current mods. The reason for this is because I do not want the numbers to be misleading and making people think that they will reproduce these numbers strictly by adding a CAI. Also, your gains could be less due to what else I have done to the ecm to maximize my mods. These numbers are peak to peak, NOT picked out at a certain rpm. I will also say that ALL of the intakes produced better gains in the mid range over stock and were almost all similar numbers early on.
Stock box: produced the lowest numbers just as expected. The stock box was starving the engine of air for the mods that I have done. My times were the worst with it and the power suffered greatly.
Stock Box with Fram AirHog: Sound is just like stock as expected. Gains are 2 hp and 5 lbs of torque.
Trueflow: Gains were very mild, but gains were present. So for those of you looking for the ultimate filtration without wanting top performance, this is your intake kit. Gains of 4 hp and 9 lbs of torque were the find.
Airaid: This is the system that I had installed in my truck for quite sometime. The top is open and it uses the stock intake tube, BUT the box does seal to the hood. This is evident by the worn spot on the insulation under my hood, so it DOES SEAL. This system did quite well with the testing. It also produces a sucking sound when feathering the throttle. I know that this system has even been called "A Joke" by some members, but that is not true. I think it could be better though if the intake tube were replaced. Gains were impressive though, 8 hp and 12 lbs of torque.
AEM Brute Force was the best so far. It had a more aggressive tone than the Airaid and produced a similar sound when feathering the throttle. You could tell that the tube was metal, it almost had a slight ringing to it. But it was not loud or annoying. For those worried about the tube being metal...DON'T. At 9 hp and 14 lbs of torque gain over stock, I don't think that the steel tube is warming any air like some have claimed. If it is warming air, I would hate to see what the gains would be with a plastic tube. LOL
The Volant is the generation 2 and I bought the ram air system separately. The install was very simple since I only had to put one bolt in the bottom of the box, the hardest part was stretching the new silicone connector over the intake tube. LOL Now then, the sound is very loud! It also had a pretty good vibration when accelerating a little faster than normal. Under WOT it had some serious volume and the truck responded quickly. Results: 10 hp and 14 lbs of torque.
The AFE was also a very easy install. There was an extra bolt to put in, but at least the windshield washer fluid reservoir did not have to be removed to get to it. The sound was not as loud as the volant, so I think that the volume may have a lot to do with the intake tube and a resonator box similar to the factory box. There was a slight vibration around 2900 rpms but not as bad as the Volant. Results 9 hp 13 lbs of torque.
Injen: It is right there with the Volant and the AEM. It was 9 and 14. However, it did produce better 0-60 times than the Volant which was the previous best of them all in 0-60. That means that the production of power is in the lower rpm range below where the dyno picks up.
S & B intake. Add one more to the mix guys and girls! I bought one a short while back and have been using it for about 3 weeks now. I am going to go out on a limb and say that this intake is awesome.
UPDATE ON S & B: I have now dynoed the intake and have have results on the 0-60 and 1/4 mile runs. S & B wins it all. S & B now has the lowest 0-60 time and 1/4 mile time of all of them. Now do keep in mind that I do have a 75 mm throttle body on it now that helps out tremendously. The only two intakes I have used with the throttle body have been the Injen and S & B. Here are the gains...12 hp and 14 lbs of torque.
The noise level is much quieter quieter than the volant but not as quiet as the Injen. I had some slight fitment issues but about 10 seconds wtih a bench grinder and that was taken care of. One of the edges would not sit down on the lid perfectly so I rounded it off so it would go down in there.
A couple other things to mention. The MAF sensor placement is in a bad place. Either attach the MAF sensor before you attach the tube to the throttle body or make certain you have a stubby screwdriver. The lower screw puts you almost up against the intake manifold about 4" away from it.
On a very good note, it has cut out places for the a/c hose so you do not have to bend the a/c hose to get it to fit in there properly.
S & B with Universal "big" filter (courtesy of robexploring): Did not dyno this set up but I did gain a little bit in the 0-60, .03 seconds. But the temp was quite a bit warmer than the previous 0-60 run (11 degrees I think) but humidity was less.
I have dyno'ed these now and there wasn't enough of a gain to say that they caused it. So I tested these by 1/8 and 1/4 mile times. It is a toss up. They both produced similar times. The 1/4 mile was .04 seconds faster with the Airaid and the 1/8 ws .03 seconds faster with the poweraid. But such a small difference could be caused by an outside factor. I did the runs in the same place at 6:45 and 6:50 in the morning on two separate days and temp was within 5 degrees of each other. The main difference was the sound. The Helix has considerably more "whistle" than the poweraid. At normal acceleration, it whistles very loudly. At wot they are both the same. So for performance sake you cannot go wrong with either.
TBS: Helix Power Tower and Poweraid
My mods at the time of testing were as follows: 18* Timing advance, 116% air/fuel ratio (very lean), NO throttle body spacer for the intake tests, JBA ceramic shorty headers, JBA Exhaust system (single exit with 2.5" Y-Pipe flared to 3" on the drivers side bend, 3" dual collector at the Y, 3.5" tailpipe), 2.5" dynomax racing muffler bullets to replace rear resonators, intake manifold O-ring screen removed and with stock 18" 5 spoke wheels with Michelin 265/70/18's.
This is what I will say so far about the tests. I will not give the hp and torque total, just what the gain is over stock airbox with my current mods. The reason for this is because I do not want the numbers to be misleading and making people think that they will reproduce these numbers strictly by adding a CAI. Also, your gains could be less due to what else I have done to the ecm to maximize my mods. These numbers are peak to peak, NOT picked out at a certain rpm. I will also say that ALL of the intakes produced better gains in the mid range over stock and were almost all similar numbers early on.
Stock box: produced the lowest numbers just as expected. The stock box was starving the engine of air for the mods that I have done. My times were the worst with it and the power suffered greatly.
Stock Box with Fram AirHog: Sound is just like stock as expected. Gains are 2 hp and 5 lbs of torque.
Trueflow: Gains were very mild, but gains were present. So for those of you looking for the ultimate filtration without wanting top performance, this is your intake kit. Gains of 4 hp and 9 lbs of torque were the find.
Airaid: This is the system that I had installed in my truck for quite sometime. The top is open and it uses the stock intake tube, BUT the box does seal to the hood. This is evident by the worn spot on the insulation under my hood, so it DOES SEAL. This system did quite well with the testing. It also produces a sucking sound when feathering the throttle. I know that this system has even been called "A Joke" by some members, but that is not true. I think it could be better though if the intake tube were replaced. Gains were impressive though, 8 hp and 12 lbs of torque.
AEM Brute Force was the best so far. It had a more aggressive tone than the Airaid and produced a similar sound when feathering the throttle. You could tell that the tube was metal, it almost had a slight ringing to it. But it was not loud or annoying. For those worried about the tube being metal...DON'T. At 9 hp and 14 lbs of torque gain over stock, I don't think that the steel tube is warming any air like some have claimed. If it is warming air, I would hate to see what the gains would be with a plastic tube. LOL
The Volant is the generation 2 and I bought the ram air system separately. The install was very simple since I only had to put one bolt in the bottom of the box, the hardest part was stretching the new silicone connector over the intake tube. LOL Now then, the sound is very loud! It also had a pretty good vibration when accelerating a little faster than normal. Under WOT it had some serious volume and the truck responded quickly. Results: 10 hp and 14 lbs of torque.
The AFE was also a very easy install. There was an extra bolt to put in, but at least the windshield washer fluid reservoir did not have to be removed to get to it. The sound was not as loud as the volant, so I think that the volume may have a lot to do with the intake tube and a resonator box similar to the factory box. There was a slight vibration around 2900 rpms but not as bad as the Volant. Results 9 hp 13 lbs of torque.
Injen: It is right there with the Volant and the AEM. It was 9 and 14. However, it did produce better 0-60 times than the Volant which was the previous best of them all in 0-60. That means that the production of power is in the lower rpm range below where the dyno picks up.
S & B intake. Add one more to the mix guys and girls! I bought one a short while back and have been using it for about 3 weeks now. I am going to go out on a limb and say that this intake is awesome.
UPDATE ON S & B: I have now dynoed the intake and have have results on the 0-60 and 1/4 mile runs. S & B wins it all. S & B now has the lowest 0-60 time and 1/4 mile time of all of them. Now do keep in mind that I do have a 75 mm throttle body on it now that helps out tremendously. The only two intakes I have used with the throttle body have been the Injen and S & B. Here are the gains...12 hp and 14 lbs of torque.
The noise level is much quieter quieter than the volant but not as quiet as the Injen. I had some slight fitment issues but about 10 seconds wtih a bench grinder and that was taken care of. One of the edges would not sit down on the lid perfectly so I rounded it off so it would go down in there.
A couple other things to mention. The MAF sensor placement is in a bad place. Either attach the MAF sensor before you attach the tube to the throttle body or make certain you have a stubby screwdriver. The lower screw puts you almost up against the intake manifold about 4" away from it.
On a very good note, it has cut out places for the a/c hose so you do not have to bend the a/c hose to get it to fit in there properly.
S & B with Universal "big" filter (courtesy of robexploring): Did not dyno this set up but I did gain a little bit in the 0-60, .03 seconds. But the temp was quite a bit warmer than the previous 0-60 run (11 degrees I think) but humidity was less.
I have dyno'ed these now and there wasn't enough of a gain to say that they caused it. So I tested these by 1/8 and 1/4 mile times. It is a toss up. They both produced similar times. The 1/4 mile was .04 seconds faster with the Airaid and the 1/8 ws .03 seconds faster with the poweraid. But such a small difference could be caused by an outside factor. I did the runs in the same place at 6:45 and 6:50 in the morning on two separate days and temp was within 5 degrees of each other. The main difference was the sound. The Helix has considerably more "whistle" than the poweraid. At normal acceleration, it whistles very loudly. At wot they are both the same. So for performance sake you cannot go wrong with either.
