BUYER'SGUIDE
W
e are a power-hungry
lot.
Exhaust upgrades,
engine mods, synthetic lubricants, special additives, and a
host of other aftermarket products are added to our vehicles in
hopes of making them just a little
faster, a little more responsive,
and wishfully a little more fuelefficient than they are stock.
Those in construction trades
are some of the most tenacious
of this power-seeking group,
always looking for ways to get a
little more efficiency and performance from their work trucks.
One area where pickups can
be made more efficient is under
the hood. To be more precise,
modifying the air-intake.
By Bruce W. Smith
TAKING ADVANTAGE
OF THE MODERN …
COLD RUSH
AIRINTAKE
THEORY
An engine is just a big air pump.
So the easier it is for it to move air
from the radiator to exhaust tip,
the better it's going to perform.
It's a simple matter of physics.
The other factor is air density.
The cooler the air charge going
into the engine, the more dense it
is, and the more power the engine
makes. (That's why intercoolers
are used on our diesel pickups.)
The common theory among
engine builders is for every percent change in the density of the
intake air-flow, there's an equal
change in the engine power/efficiency: If the air intake is 2-percent cooler, then the engine's
capable of making 2-percent
more power.
Why does an aftermarket air
intake perform better than the
OE intake? Because aftermarket
products don't have to meet the
corporate constraints placed
on the OE's powertrain/engine
designers.
Ford, Ram and GM have budgets to meet and a number of
"consumer" parameters that limit
Today's aftermarket air intake systems bring
more power and efficiency to gas and diesel
pickups of all makes and models
what can be done in the way of
maximizing performance.
Among those parameters is
minimizing interior cab noise to
make the trucks sound like the
interior of a car.
So the OE air intakes have
twists, turns and baffles designed
in them to reduce the noise from
the air intake, and, where applicable, the whine of the turbo
spooling up/down.
From the cost perspective of
the OE, there has to be a balance
between "performance" and cost
of the product.
If the OE can save a few dollars
– or even e a few cents – on parts
like an air filter or air-filter housing without compromising the
warranty life cycle, then they can
save hundreds of thousands in
costs over the life of that vehicle's
production.
Sure, they can make any engine a huge power maker – but at
what cost? And that's the key.
Aftermarket manufacturers on
the other hand, don't have those
types of constraints; if they can
make a profit on a air intake that
is street legal, flows more cooler
air, grabs denser air, and provides
better air filtration, then off to
market they go.
That's why one of the very first
performance upgrades you see
when a new model truck hits the
market is – cold-air intakes.
28 PROPICKUP October 2013
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9/5/13 11:07 AM
