Cool air Intake for 2011 Chevy Tahoe.

[Marky Dissod]

Would you recommend replacing the MAF sensor to an aftermarket sensor?

To my knowledge, this NEVER helps, except to separate people from their hard earned money.
Even using a larger OE MAF sensor does nothing for an engine that still has OE heads & cam.

Source an OE pickup truck intake tube from a junkyard.
Trim off the dead ends / resonators.
Seal up the holes.

(Censor? Choose the 1st or the 5th Amendment before censorship every time.)

 

[iamdub]

I've been tempted to get one and then I talk myself out of it, since the truck never sees wot or much over 3k rpms, I don't know that any of them will improve flow over simple stock setup how this truck gets driven.

You are correct. Their biggest changes are appearance and you hear the engine sucking in the air, making a growling sound. You don't use enough throttle to even get that. Talking yourself out of it is a wise move.

 

[mikez71]

To my knowledge, this NEVER helps, except to separate people from their hard earned money.
Even using a larger OE MAF sensor does nothing for an engine that still has OE heads & cam.

Source an OE pickup truck intake tube from a junkyard.
Trim off the dead ends / resonators.
Seal up the holes.

(Censor? Choose the 1st or the 5th Amendment before censorship every time.)

I keep hearing aftermarket intakes can introduce turbulence messing with the MAF reading a little. Trimming the resonators might cause that that as well. (seems logical if there is resonance)

Im sure it's not terrible, but in the interest of keeping it as quiet and smooth as possible, I stick with the factory intake.

OTOH, a 10 hp increase might well be worth it for some.

 

[iamdub]

Hi all.

I am interested in a cool air intake on a 2011 Chevy Tahoe LTZ 4x4 5.6 /320 with 149 thousand miles. If you have seen The Grey Beast it’s clean and runs well. More problems with internal cab and no problems ,so far, with engine and transmission. It idles and runs well with new fluids and new spark plugs. However it’s an engine with 149 thousand miles.

I would like Pro’s and Cons of having one. What make of ait intake you recommend regardless of price. I will NOT be doing this by myself; unless you think this rookie could.

A recommend shop or dealer do the job would appreciated. Generally speaking of course. With any and all advice would be appreciated as well.

I have posted a lot lately but thank you for the invaluable advice.

Thank you

Ken

Pop your hood and admire the "cool air intake" you've already purchased along with your Tahoe. If you don't like the way it looks, get an Airaid MIT to replace the ducting between the filter box and throttle body. Simple 30- to 60-minute job if you're a total novice. Don't expect to feel any power gains, but expect it to have a performance muffler sound when you're hąrd on the throttle. It'll sound 100% stock at any other time so your quiet and comfy cruising quality won't be diminished. Your engine will still be breathing air ducted in from outside the engine bay and cleaned through a more-than-adequate filter.

Many people call those pretty angled tubes with a cone filter stuck on the end a "cool (or "cold") air intake" just because that's how they've always been marketed. A filter draws in air from around it. In an enclosed engine bay, ~16" from an EXHAUST manifold, I can assure you that engine isn't getting any "cool/cold" air. "BuT, iT cOmEs WiTh A hEaT ShIeLd!" Okay, so, at best, a feeble attempt to isolate the filter from engine heat. How about not exposing it to the heat in the first place while saving your dollars?

Of course, you could spend $300-$400 on a really nice intake setup that has the filter fully enclosed in a box, fed with outside air. It'd look really cool. If the looks are worth hundreds of bucks to you, knock yourself out.

There IS a fail point with the factory filter box: That sorry excuse of a seal between the box and fender. With age, it usually just falls in and is almost useless. I just learned that there is a snap-on repair/upgrade for it. @swathdiver recently installed one and posted pics.

I bought an ~$8 pack of A/C foam and hot-glued it to mine to make a really solid seal: https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/growing-up-doesnt-have-to-suck.93510/post-1451015

 

[j91z28d1]

You are correct. Their biggest changes are appearance and you hear the engine sucking in the air, making a growling sound. You don't use enough throttle to even get that. Talking yourself out of it is a wise move.

so here's where I'm at.. and I know this is mostly dumb but I for some reason still kinda want it.

so on another board specific to these hybrids. old thread and mostly dead board. but guys installed the Volant Cool Air Intake Kit. it's basically the only one that fits these things, but also they have 3 filter options, one being the paper power core. I do like those filters and I believe it's just a bigger version of the one the zo6's use, flows great and straightens the air better than any cone style. so no worries about maf ripples. I sold off a k&n and a Corsa on that car before putting the stock z06 on it.

so those guys, how much you can believe them, but they are all freaks for mpg, or you'd not buy one of these new, had fuely accounts and stuff to track mileage. hybrids were very expensive at the time. they basically all agree nothing but sound around town, but 3 to 4mpg more on interstate. which is mostly unbelievable when already getting 24-25 out of a big wind brake of a truck. but, what I watched on the tq app of peddle % vs throttle body % and vac to when the tranny increases the ratio to rise rpm, which it does pretty actively. so anything that could keep it holding mph say up and down over passes and stuff in high gear would go a long way toward mpg.

the other reason I think it might help is they have a add on ram air that from the pic might actually help a touch at high mph low are usage. but the down side is my wife drives this thing 90% of the time, and this city/state can't be bothered to lay a culvert and build a road over it like the rest of the 1st world states and countries. so low water crossings all over the place, she's smart enough to not try to drive thru them, but shit happens. so a low mount ram air on a truck makes no real sense haha.

so basically, I know it won't work. but I do like the look of it on pics, I like the option of filter type the Donaldson power core and ram air would be cool to try. but is any of that worth 500$? do I even need to justify 500$? I never justify any of the other car mods I do lol. why am I with this.


blah.. torn.

 

[iamdub]

so here's where I'm at.. and I know this is mostly dumb but I for some reason still kinda want it.

so on another board specific to these hybrids. old thread and mostly dead board. but guys installed the Volant Cool Air Intake Kit. it's basically the only one that fits these things, but also they have 3 filter options, one being the paper power core. I do like those filters and I believe it's just a bigger version of the one the zo6's use, flows great and straightens the air better than any cone style. so no worries about maf ripples. I sold off a k&n and a Corsa on that car before putting the stock z06 on it.

so those guys, how much you can believe them, but they are all freaks for mpg, or you'd not buy one of these new, had fuely accounts and stuff to track mileage. hybrids were very expensive at the time. they basically all agree nothing but sound around town, but 3 to 4mpg more on interstate. which is mostly unbelievable when already getting 24-25 out of a big wind brake of a truck. but, what I watched on the tq app of peddle % vs throttle body % and vac to when the tranny increases the ratio to rise rpm, which it does pretty actively. so anything that could keep it holding mph say up and down over passes and stuff in high gear would go a long way toward mpg.

the other reason I think it might help is they have a add on ram air that from the pic might actually help a touch at high mph low are usage. but the down side is my wife drives this thing 90% of the time, and this city/state can't be bothered to lay a culvert and build a road over it like the rest of the 1st world states and countries. so low water crossings all over the place, she's smart enough to not try to drive thru them, but shit happens. so a low mount ram air on a truck makes no real sense haha.

so basically, I know it won't work. but I do like the look of it on pics, I like the option of filter type the Donaldson power core and ram air would be cool to try. but is any of that worth 500$? do I even need to justify 500$? I never justify any of the other car mods I do lol. why am I with this.
View attachment 403287View attachment 403288

blah.. torn.

So, that on a Hybrid returns an additional 3-4 MPG at highway speed, making it average 27-29 MPG? It's gotta be reduced pumping losses coupled with that 6.0's TQ at that RPM and speed. I don't see there being that much gain on a regular, ICE-only truck. Even if that intake made a 2MPG difference at highway speeds, how long would it take to recover its $500 cost with the fuel savings? Unless it was driven a LOT, it'd probably never be justified financially during the present ownership or engine life. Someone that does a lot of driving in a short time isn't gonna have one of these vehicles and use it for that at 150K.


The MAF has that "honeycomb" mesh upstream of it to straighten out the airflow for more accurate reading. But, I can't help but to wonder if there is any improvement to be had with filter style and/or orientation in regards to flow. The intake waves and pulses do play a part in flow characteristics, helping or hindering. It's one of the wonders of the Porsche GT3's engine achieving boosted power levels while being NA. Engineers routinely sacrifice peak potential to satisfy NVH, user-serviceabilty and packaging constraints. The stock filter box is a rather neat package. I'm wondering if its design is one of those sacrifices. Such as, if it was more like the Volant, would we see any appreciable gains (MPG and/or HP)? If the Volant's effective design could be "cloned" really cheaply, then those gains would be much more justified.

This geeking out should probably be in its own thread.

 

[j91z28d1]

So, that on a Hybrid returns an additional 3-4 MPG at highway speed, making it average 27-29 MPG? It's gotta be reduced pumping losses coupled with that 6.0's TQ at that RPM and speed. I don't see there being that much gain on a regular, ICE-only truck. Even if that intake made a 2MPG difference at highway speeds, how long would it take to recover its $500 cost with the fuel savings? Unless it was driven a LOT, it'd probably never be justified financially during the present ownership or engine life. Someone that does a lot of driving in a short time isn't gonna have one of these vehicles and use it for that at 150K.


The MAF has that "honeycomb" mesh upstream of it to straighten out the airflow for more accurate reading. But, I can't help but to wonder if there is any improvement to be had with filter style and/or orientation in regards to flow. The intake waves and pulses do play a part in flow characteristics, helping or hindering. It's one of the wonders of the Porsche GT3's engine achieving boosted power levels while being NA. Engineers routinely sacrifice peak potential to satisfy NVH, user-serviceabilty and packaging constraints. The stock filter box is a rather neat package. I'm wondering if its design is one of those sacrifices. Such as, if it was more like the Volant, would we see any appreciable gains (MPG and/or HP)? If the Volant's effective design could be "cloned" really cheaply, then those gains would be much more justified.

This geeking out should probably be in its own thread.

well it is a thread about intakes lol. but yes that's a bit deep and I doubt any engineering went into this intake besides making it fit. so anything having to do without 3rd or 4th order waves giving a tq boost at a interstate rpm would probably be dumb luck at best. only person I honestly think buts any real modeling into intakes is maybe gale banks?

you know I've had the intake off more than once and didn't look at the maf to see if it has the honey comb. my 02 ls1 had that, but I thought gm switched away from that style maf a lot time ago. the 08 c6 has just a little plastic thing that sticks in a hole on the intake for maf and temp. they are very bad about turbulence. mainly that almost fully closed throttle but not 100% at interstate speeds just floating, right where you'd feel a little drive line slack on a manual car. with a aftermath filter and or any kinda of ram air it's very annoying. but 95% of people never do that or notice. they say good tuners can tune around it but it drove me nuts. the zo6 box doesn't have the resonators on it like the base did, and had a delco branded power core filters with its weird design that looks like cardboard if viewed from the side, but I guess it still filters well.


but yes, I don't see how you can get 29mpg out of this thing. now they were new so I'm sure afm was still active, and with the electric motors all the gm promo stuff talks about to being about to use v4 mode much longer because of the assist. all that is turned off on mine anyways and I'm fine with 25 for what it is. I was thinking more about the 13 I got towing a car trailer at 70.

as far as return on investment, there's not one, I'd never recover 500$. but that's never stopped me before haha. honestly if you tried to justify any kinda of mod as to when you made your money back we'd never do any of it haha.

you know, I'm probably going to buy one at some point lol. my filter looks like a no name and one of the 4 bolts is stripped. at some point that's probably enough to justify atleast the box. still not sure about the ram air tube, unless I could keep up higher. or maybe just use it for my tow trips. hmm

 

[iamdub]

well it is a thread about intakes lol. but yes that's a bit deep and I doubt any engineering went into this intake besides making it fit. so anything having to do without 3rd or 4th order waves giving a tq boost at a interstate rpm would probably be dumb luck at best. only person I honestly think buts any real modeling into intakes is maybe gale banks?

you know I've had the intake off more than once and didn't look at the maf to see if it has the honey comb. my 02 ls1 had that, but I thought gm switched away from that style maf a lot time ago. the 08 c6 has just a little plastic thing that sticks in a hole on the intake for maf and temp. they are very bad about turbulence. mainly that almost fully closed throttle but not 100% at interstate speeds just floating, right where you'd feel a little drive line slack on a manual car. with a aftermath filter and or any kinda of ram air it's very annoying. but 95% of people never do that or notice. they say good tuners can tune around it but it drove me nuts. the zo6 box doesn't have the resonators on it like the base did, and had a delco branded power core filters with its weird design that looks like cardboard if viewed from the side, but I guess it still filters well.


but yes, I don't see how you can get 29mpg out of this thing. now they were new so I'm sure afm was still active, and with the electric motors all the gm promo stuff talks about to being about to use v4 mode much longer because of the assist. all that is turned off on mine anyways and I'm fine with 25 for what it is. I was thinking more about the 13 I got towing a car trailer at 70.

as far as return on investment, there's not one, I'd never recover 500$. but that's never stopped me before haha. honestly if you tried to justify any kinda of mod as to when you made your money back we'd never do any of it haha.

you know, I'm probably going to buy one at some point lol. my filter looks like a no name and one of the 4 bolts is stripped. at some point that's probably enough to justify atleast the box. still not sure about the ram air tube, unless I could keep up higher. or maybe just use it for my tow trips. hmm

I completely forgot about the newer stick MAFs. These started in '09 for the SUVs and trucks.
I can see how those would be much more sensitive to intake tract mods. So, that's yet another point about the aftermarket CAIs- Even if they're the expensive/sealed ones, the duct is significantly different than stock so the MAF's tuning could (likely?) be adversely affected.

 

[swathdiver]

so here's where I'm at.. and I know this is mostly dumb but I for some reason still kinda want it.

so on another board specific to these hybrids. old thread and mostly dead board. but guys installed the Volant Cool Air Intake Kit. it's basically the only one that fits these things, but also they have 3 filter options, one being the paper power core. I do like those filters and I believe it's just a bigger version of the one the zo6's use, flows great and straightens the air better than any cone style. so no worries about maf ripples. I sold off a k&n and a Corsa on that car before putting the stock z06 on it.

so those guys, how much you can believe them, but they are all freaks for mpg, or you'd not buy one of these new, had fuely accounts and stuff to track mileage. hybrids were very expensive at the time. they basically all agree nothing but sound around town, but 3 to 4mpg more on interstate. which is mostly unbelievable when already getting 24-25 out of a big wind brake of a truck. but, what I watched on the tq app of peddle % vs throttle body % and vac to when the tranny increases the ratio to rise rpm, which it does pretty actively. so anything that could keep it holding mph say up and down over passes and stuff in high gear would go a long way toward mpg.

the other reason I think it might help is they have a add on ram air that from the pic might actually help a touch at high mph low are usage. but the down side is my wife drives this thing 90% of the time, and this city/state can't be bothered to lay a culvert and build a road over it like the rest of the 1st world states and countries. so low water crossings all over the place, she's smart enough to not try to drive thru them, but shit happens. so a low mount ram air on a truck makes no real sense haha.

so basically, I know it won't work. but I do like the look of it on pics, I like the option of filter type the Donaldson power core and ram air would be cool to try. but is any of that worth 500$? do I even need to justify 500$? I never justify any of the other car mods I do lol. why am I with this.
View attachment 403287View attachment 403288

blah.. torn.

That Volant/Corsa setup works, especially with the air scoop on the bigger, higher horsepower engines. BlackBear validated this years ago. After the overhaul on the white Sierra, this is what we're going to put on it. Like you, we're leary of the air scoop sucking up water even on the lifted truck. We had these scoops on our Buicks way back when and did go through standing water slowly without issue.

 

[K2 Kaiju]

Cold air intakes are snake oil. Don't waste your money. You already have a cold air intake under the hood.

Cone air filters look cool, but "less restrictive" means more crap inhaled into your engine.

And the only reason the Air Raid shows improvement is because of the tube, not the filter. The tube is smoother and air flows better through it than the stock tube.

Definitely get a tune like Blackbear. While it won't give you much of a power bump per se, you can adjust torque management and throttle settings to make it much more respons

Cold air intakes are snake oil. Don't waste your money. You already have a cold air intake under the hood.

Cone air filters look cool, but "less restrictive" means more crap inhaled into your engine.

And the only reason the Air Raid shows improvement is because of the tube, not the filter. The tube is smoother and air flows better through it than the stock tube.

Definitely get a tune like Blackbear. While it won't give you much of a power bump per se, you can adjust torque management and throttle settings to make it much more respon

True - its probably the MIT tube, although the "high flow" filter may give something? I got the Jr kit on sale for the same as the MIT so I figured WTH (this was on my 13 Avalanche). Also make sure you get the DRY filter. I got another on my current rig but I don't think it adds any HP like on the 900s, although I do dig the whooshy sound (and the lifetime filter). It was a little over a hundy at the time so not too put out by it...