A fuel Economy story I would like to share

[Sales @ CAI Inc]

Hey guys, just wanted to share a quick fuel economy story that involved our Cold Air Intake system for your GM Trucks. We all know that a properly designed CAI can improve fuel economy among other things such as HP, TQ, Throttle Response and Exhaust tone. Fuel economy is a little bit difficult to test for when we develop a new CAI, mainly because it depends on so many different factors such as: fuel grade and quality, tire inflation, temperature, elevation, the speed and gear in which you drive, transmission type, acceleration rates, engine maintenance and oil grade, excessive idling, cruise control, and of course, the condition of your air filter.

That being said, when we test our CAI on a stock vehicle we take it for a considerable drive and monitor fuel economy among other things. During testing for our truck system we did some mixed driving on various platforms and seen about a 2.5 average mpg gain with our CAI on an otherwise stock truck. The driving was mostly 55 mph roads with an occasional stop light or sign, and a good mix of city driving thrown in as well.

Recently the owner of the company had a family member drive up for a visit, we are in Michigan and his relative was coming from the middle of Kentucky. While here, we installed our Near Chrome CAI (part# 512-0101) on his truck for him, he has a 2013 quad cab 4x4 Silverado with the 5.3L

After he got home he called up here and told us that he was AMAZED by the improvement he seen in his fuel economy after installing our CAI. We asked him for the details and he told us that on the way up he averaged 15.5 MPG with the sock intake system. On the way back with our CAI installed he averaged 20.1 MPG! That's a 4.6 mpg increase in fuel economy during the course of his trip home!

Initially I felt that the pre CAI fuel economy was a little low, but considering that much of the drive was through the mountains it makes more sense.

I asked him for the details and here is what he told me:

2013 Silverado Quad Cab 4x4 with the 5.3L bone stock
Ran Regular 87 Octane fuel entire time
Had the truck mainly kept on Cruise Control in the range of 70-75 mph
Trip was about 510 miles one way
Fully loaded truck with his family of 3 and luggage
He reset the mpg calculator before leaving both times

We did not run this test, or even ask for this persons findings. It is simply what we were told without any alterations from a family member that had nothing to gain by reporting this to us, nor was he even asked to report it to us. I thought that many of you would like to hear it, and that it could be useful for those of you considering a CAI and wanting better fuel economy.

As always, let me know if you have any question!

 

[soulsea]

Interesting info ... although without verified logs it might trigger more skepticism than anything else, especially when claiming this degree of mpg improvement by simply swapping one part. Second hand anecdotal evidence by a company selling the product will do that.

Thankfully it seems you inserted more than enough caveats and qualifiers in your OP to cover yourselves.

 

[Sales @ CAI Inc]

Interesting info ... although without verified logs it might trigger more skepticism than anything else, especially when claiming this degree of mpg improvement by simply swapping one part. Second hand anecdotal evidence by a company selling the product will do that.

Thankfully it seems you inserted more than enough caveats and qualifiers in your OP to cover yourselves.

Like I made a point of mentioning in the thread, this was in no way a scientific test done by us, just something reported back to us by someone who had no idea at the time that we would be sharing the information. Also as I mentioned in the post which you pointed out, there are way to many uncontrolled variables and differences in every truck on the road for us to test and be able to say that everyone would see the same gains. Gains range, and we hear anywhere from about a 1.5 mpg improvement all the way up to what this person seen which was over a 4 mpg improvement. Even if we provide logs for a specific vehicle, there is no end all # that we can say everyone will see, which is why we share these stories for people to compare to.