Cold Air Intake (CAI) on 2013 6.2L - worth doing?

[iamdub]

Fueled by impatience, I just ordered the K&N kit for $300.. Their brand is still very strong after all these years, so I expect satisfactory results. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Oh. Well, never mind. lol

 

[Nautilus571]

I’ve heard a lot of good things on using the airraid MIT tube with the stock “box” as stated above any open cold air intake will actually suck hotter air then the factory in closed box.some company’s make sealed off intake box’s maybe corsa is one? I can’t remember. I’ve ran the cheap spectre ones from advance auto and I got a k&n on my Tahoe and a k&n on my Silverado and I’ve never had any problems out of them!
But again if you can find a closed box intake or even just using the stock box with a k&n drop in filter with the air raid tube has been proven to make great gains

I installed.a Cold Air Inductions CAI on my wife's 2021 6.2l Yukon Denali. I immediately noticed a better response and obtained a couple of more MPG. I average 16 city where before installng was barely at 14. And yes, it does sound more robust even with stock exhaust. I installed one on my 2019 Sierra Denali with a 6.2 and a Borla catback exhaust. And simply wow! Sound is awsome and increase in performance/response is more than noticable. They are both closed box systems. I am more than happy with the install on both trucks.

 

[YaCat]

My 2007 6.2 came with a K&N already installed and this custom(?) air box. It works well enough. I’m not sold on adding any more ponies to the operation but it does add a satisfying rumble when accelerating.

 

[sdsuburb06]

I ran a k&n setup on a 5.3 powered sierra years ago and had nothing but issues. I will say spending a lot of time on dirt roads in that pickup with that setup turned me off from wanting to go their again. Truck just never ran correctly and I spent more time trying to keep that filter and the MAF sensor clean than any so called performance gains I never saw were worth, to me. On pavement all the time, might be a different story.

 

[Marky Dissod]

Generally, I no longer trust aftermarket air filters unless they prove that they filter BETTER than OE filters.
Usually, they 'outperform' OE filters by filtering LESS.
They let more detritus into your cylinders, leading to increased rates of engine wear.

I prefer BETTER filtration for longer engine life.

 

[iamdub]

Generally, I no longer trust aftermarket air filters unless they prove that they filter BETTER than OE filters.
Usually, they 'outperform' OE filters by filtering LESS.
They let more detritus into your cylinders, leading to increased rates of engine wear.

I prefer BETTER filtration for longer engine life.

Agreed. Although, after running it for 80K miles, I approve of the AEM DryFlow.

 

[intheburbs]

Ok, let's talk about facts and unreasonable mileage/power gains "claimed" by the manufacturers and users of aftermarket filters.

CAFE, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, requirements by the US Government have essentially killed the low-hanging fruit of easy power gains. In the never-ending quest to improve economy of their fleets, the manufacturers have done/investigated all the easy things. And the manufacturers have billions of dollars they spend on R&D and testing. And hopefully we can all agree that increasing MPG is the same thing as increasing power, right? You're either making more hp while using the same amount of fuel or you're making the same power while using less fuel.

Therefore, there's nothing out there for a modern engine that's going to substantially improve power or efficiency that's cheap and/or easy. It's all been tested and rejected.

Example: The Chrylser/Fiat/Stellantis corporate 3.6 motor was originally designed to use 5w30 oil. Always chasing MPG improvements, testing revealed that 5w20 provided the same protection but the thinner viscosity oil was easier to pump and improved mileage by a tenth or two. So guess what? Stellantis now recommends 5w20. Why? Because when you build 500,000 engines, and can improve their MPG by a fraction, it makes a difference in your CAFE.

If there was an air filter that could improve mileage by a huge amount, say 2 MPG, don't you think the manufacturers would all be using it? And given their buying power and the sheer numbers of units, wouldn't they be able to buy them much more cheaply than in the aftermarket? Stellantis changed oils for a few tenths of a percent increase in MPG. You think they wouldn't JUMP at a chance to increase their fleet MPG by 14%?

CAIs are snake oil. Sure, they make the engine sound better, but that's all they do.

 

[Marky Dissod]

If there was an air filter that could improve mileage by a huge amount, say 2 MpG, don't you think the manufacturers would all be using it?
And given their buying power and the sheer numbers of units, wouldn't they be able to buy them much more cheaply than in the aftermarket?
Stellantis changed oils for a few tenths of a percent increase in MpG.
You think they wouldn't JUMP at a chance to increase their fleet MpG by 14%?

I almost completely agree with the above, EXCEPT for the fact that most aftermarket engine air filters don't protect the engine as well as OEM.
The only aftermarket air filters that I bother to consider outperform OE in terms of particualte filtration and retention.

Take a look at

Maxogen - Induction Technology Group

Cylindrical filters used on single throttle body and turbo applications.

www.itgairfilters.com

Soon as I recover from xmas spending, I'll be figuiring out which of these filters fits my Tahoe.
To keep costs down, I'll wrap that filter in pantyhose.
If I lose a couple horses or MpGs, then that's the price I'll pay for my engine to last longer.

 

[easymoney]

I wasted money on my 04 with a k&n cold air intake. I can tell you calling this cold air compared to the factory one is a scam. Maybe less restrictive i could see but it makes you hear the motor sucking air more which some people like that. Its really a waste of money for an inferior product. 8 years later i get codes because it does not seal as good as the original so unmetered air gets in when i stomp on it. What will really help is a programmer to remove all those pesky things that make it efficient. I dopped2-3 mpg but it has a lot more torque which had nothing to with the k&n. Its tunning. Really happy with the programmer but dont expect more power and keep the same mpg they are selling snake oil. If it was true gm would just build one just like it and not spent millions on development

 

[LurkingLuke]

The kit arrived yesterday; I don't have the heart to not install it. Either I'll be happy or I'll be in a position to be able to do what some of you tried to do, which is to inform me of the Cons that go along with my decision. As I said earlier, I'll keep the forum posted.

Side note: the kit came with a dyno graph, HP & fylbs. K&N makes the bold claim---a shocking claim, even---that one of these on a bone stock 6.2 made a max increase of >12ftlbs at the wheels! I really have my doubts. But as I said, even if all I get is a deeper induction sound, I'll be content with the purchase, just more wary next time.

 

[Nautilus571]

Ok, let's talk about facts and unreasonable mileage/power gains "claimed" by the manufacturers and users of aftermarket filters.

CAFE, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, requirements by the US Government have essentially killed the low-hanging fruit of easy power gains. In the never-ending quest to improve economy of their fleets, the manufacturers have done/investigated all the easy things. And the manufacturers have billions of dollars they spend on R&D and testing. And hopefully we can all agree that increasing MPG is the same thing as increasing power, right? You're either making more hp while using the same amount of fuel or you're making the same power while using less fuel.

Therefore, there's nothing out there for a modern engine that's going to substantially improve power or efficiency that's cheap and/or easy. It's all been tested and rejected.

Example: The Chrylser/Fiat/Stellantis corporate 3.6 motor was originally designed to use 5w30 oil. Always chasing MPG improvements, testing revealed that 5w20 provided the same protection but the thinner viscosity oil was easier to pump and improved mileage by a tenth or two. So guess what? Stellantis now recommends 5w20. Why? Because when you build 500,000 engines, and can improve their MPG by a fraction, it makes a difference in your CAFE.

If there was an air filter that could improve mileage by a huge amount, say 2 MPG, don't you think the manufacturers would all be using it? And given their buying power and the sheer numbers of units, wouldn't they be able to buy them much more cheaply than in the aftermarket? Stellantis changed oils for a few tenths of a percent increase in MPG. You think they wouldn't JUMP at a chance to increase their fleet MPG by 14%?

CAIs are snake oil. Sure, they make the engine sound better, but that's all they do.

Just providing my personal experience using the CAI unit. About 2mpg improvme y in city. Again, just my personal observation.

 

[Marky Dissod]

Just providing my personal experience using the CAI unit.
About 2MpG improvment in city. Again, just my personal observation.

What year make model and engine size (since it's not in your sig)?
Which cold air intake, specifically?
Are you using the OE air filter, or the filter that came with the cold air intake?
Any other variables we should know about?

 

[Doubeleive]

my results of a CAI are it makes a nice ruimble so it sounds good so I push the pedal more because I like the rumble = decreased mpg. just how it goes.
95% of how many miles per gallon you get are based on how you interact with the big pedal
I can take your rig getting 25 mpg and bring it down to 8 mpg by simply driving it and making no other modification of any kind......
and if you want to bet on it i will take anyones money

 

[Marky Dissod]

my results of a CAI are
it makes a nice rumble so it sounds good so I push the pedal more because I like the rumble = decreased mpg. just how it goes.
95% of how many miles per gallon you get are based on how you interact with the big pedal
I can take your rig getting 25 mpg and bring it down to 8 mpg by simply driving it and making no other modification of any kind ...
and if you want to bet on it i will take anyone's money

It's so funny, because it's so true.

 

[Doubeleive]

things you can do to increase mpg are
lower it, as much as possible
run really hard tires, infltated properly
increase aerodynamics-any way possible, remove roof rack, etc
decrease weight-remove seats, run aluminum wheels etc
drafting
ease up on the big pedal and roll as much as possible

 

[intheburbs]

Just providing my personal experience using the CAI unit. About 2mpg improvme y in city. Again, just my personal observation.

Specs on a 2021 Denali:
14 MPG city
420 hp

You're saying you saw an MPG increase of 2. So 2/14 is a 14.3% increase in efficiency. That may not be easy to visualize, so let's look at it another way....

Improving the efficiency of an engine means it's doing more work for the same fuel usage, or the same work for less fuel usage. So instead of an efficiency gain, let's pretend it's a power gain of 14.2%. A 14.2% increase on 420 hp is 480 hp. So if I said, "I put this CAI on my truck and now it's making an extra 60 hp!" would you believe me?

I see two possibilities:
1) It's such a crappy filter that it basically has zero restriction and all kinds of crap is getting into your engine
2) Because you're hoping for a mileage gain, you've changed your driving habits.

 

[Marky Dissod]

things you can do to increase mpg are
lower it, as much as possible
run really hard tires, inflated properly
increase aerodynamics-any way possible, remove roof rack, etc

'Lower it as much as possible' @donjetman, did you ever bother to record any MpG improvement?
I won't lower my Z71. I like being able to have enough room to change my oil just by driving onto some 2x4s.

'Run really hard tires, inflated properly'
My tires actually wear pretty well @ 40psi.

'Increase aerodynamics any way possible, remove roof rack, etc'
Hypermiler aficionados attest that the 05-06 front underbumper (with the pill-shaped foglights instead of the previous round ones) reduces drag.
How much it improves MpG, I don't know - but GM obviously did it for some reason.

I recently affixed a rather large coroplast sheet to my Tahoe's underbelly (think plastic impersonation of cardboard) with the express purpose of reducing undercar turbulence.
If it improves MpG, I'll let you know - but since I always drive like I'm in a bit of a rush, it's probably just a partial defense against rust.

 

[Marky Dissod]

You're saying you saw an MPG increase of 2. So 2/14 is a 14.3% increase in efficiency.
That may not be easy to visualize, so let's look at it another way....

Improving the efficiency of an engine means it's doing more work for the same fuel usage, or the same work for less fuel usage.
So instead of an efficiency gain, let's pretend it's a power gain of 14.2%. A 14.2% increase on 420 hp is 480 hp.
So if I said, "I put this CAI on my truck and now it's making an extra 60 hp!" would you believe me?

No, because you skruewd up the maths.

The following statement is true
"A 14.2% increase on 420 hp is 480 hp"
at or over 5000RpM.

Comparing overweight housecats to jaguars, or MpG gains to power gains, is not like comparing oranges to tangerines.
More like oranges to lemons.

Since MpG gains typically occur UNDER 2400RpM, a gain of 6 horses would be difficult but not impossible to believe.

 

[donjetman]

@Marky Dissod , I never said anything about lowering?

Over the yrs I've posted here all my mpg findings trying 87, 89, and 91/93.
I may have eeked out a little more mpg running 0w-20 oil.

I haven't tried anything else in search of mpg.

 

[Doubeleive]

'Lower it as much as possible' @donjetman, did you ever bother to record any MpG improvement?
I won't lower my Z71. I like being able to have enough room to change my oil just by driving onto some 2x4s.

'Run really hard tires, inflated properly'
My tires actually wear pretty well @ 40psi.

'Increase aerodynamics any way possible, remove roof rack, etc'
Hypermiler aficionados attest that the 05-06 front underbumper (with the pill-shaped foglights instead of the previous round ones) reduces drag.
How much it improves MpG, I don't know - but GM obviously did it for some reason.

I recently affixed a rather large coroplast sheet to my Tahoe's underbelly (think plastic impersonation of cardboard) with the express purpose of reducing undercar turbulence.
If it improves MpG, I'll let you know - but since I always drive like I'm in a bit of a rush, it's probably just a partial defense against rust.

Ya doing all those things is not for everyone but for those that want to hyper it sure it works, I noticed a huge drop in mpg on my Silverado when it went from a 4/6 drop to a 4.5 lift.
I push the gas pedal too much so mpg goes out the window, my average is probably 9 lately, regardless of the vehicle driven
silverado right now is probably at 8.1 and the yukon is around 9, nothing wrong with either one, they run perfectly, it's the driver......