I am sort of going about this backwards but when I purchased the truck I put a K&N "Turbo Diesel" filter in which is simply a replacement filter but one that is more cone shaped and not the panel filter.

After doing several other things I finally decided to see about upgrading the air intake. I have put a boost tube from aFe on and was amazed at the difference. Thus, I am not going to put in a stage 1 of somebody's but not sure if the factory box vs. the different manufacture's boxes really makes that much difference. For example, you can get an aFe that replaces the whole box or one that uses the bottom portion and replaces the top.

In reality does this make much of a difference? I've heard that the factory boxes are junk and others say they are just fine. Wondering what the opinions out there are?

 

Many aftermarket boxes take input from the same fender hole as stock. How much better could they be while using ultimately the same restriction?

Intake systems are notoriously oversold and judged/touted by butt-dyno alone.

 

I wonder how much the intake coming through the fender restricts? I've heard of all sorts of ways to increase that part of it but to me the filter is still going to restrict it as it's pulling "cold" air from the fender. I am pretty sure you don't want to pull "hot" air from the engine area so I'm not sure what options would be viable there. I don't like the idea of drilling holes in the bottom of the box because I want to keep it as dry in there as possible.

Ideas?

 

TDR did a study on airboxes for 3d Gens in issue 56. Ill post up their findings when I get home.

 

I cut a 4 inch hole in the bottom of my stock airbox. Attached black tubing to it, and have not got the inside of the filter wet. Have driven through some long periods of rain back in June 2007 (4 hours worth of driving) and no hint of water in the stock airbox. I have a drop-in Amsoil filter in my stock airbox.

 

Appreciate it, that will be a help and valuable info.

 

thx, i'll be anxiously awaiting test data instead of seat of the pants data.

 

I read that article... although it essentially agrees with what I said (not much difference between the intakes), I stil question the analysis. Why? Because there are other articles by the same folks that claim great HP increases with the same intakes they said didn't have much effect. it's hard to tell between advertising and fact on this one.

 

it's usually pretty hard to tell with air intakes, sometimes I think people think the reason their air intake works better than the stocker is simply because it's louder so they assume it flows a whole lot better, etc etc. The only data I really want to see is volumetric filtering efficiency, flow rate, and how the flow rate is affected by particle buildup over time.

 

Of the tests I've looked at before, this is the best one I've been told about ...

http://duramax-diesel.com/spicer/index.htm

 

I totally agree.

S&B quotes the ISO testing but if you read it, it only test up to 1000 CFM, thus for diesel trucks this really doesn't tell anything unless it can be extrapolated to the flows we get/want/need. Also, they are testing an 8 layer filter and not testing a compatible filter from the others. Thus, of course theirs filters out more but for their standpoint it does flow well. As usual, the mfg's are sending out what makes their looks the best so some actual test data will be a welcome relief!

 

Exactly!


8910

 

Dwin, what kind of CFM numbers are the 3rd gen 600/610s pulling anyway? I really have never seen this posted and it would be nice to know the range for a stock and modified truck ...

 

I have pretty much the same setup, and I never noticed the truck starving for air. I only have mild mods, and I seriously doubt an intake would make any difference in performance.

 

i did the exact same thing with same filter no problems with water yet