Vent: I was dead wrong about cold air intakes being a waste of money

For years I argued that the stock intake on my 2018 F150 5.0 was plenty good enough. I figured aftermarket ones were just noise makers with no real gains. But last month I finally swapped to a S&B kit after my buddy in Austin kept insisting. I did a before and after run at the local drag strip in Graham. My 1/4 mile time dropped from 14.2 to 13.8 seconds. That's a legit 0.4 second improvement on the same day with the same weather. I also picked up 2 mpg on my daily commute to work. I still think some mods are overhyped but the intake actually did something measurable. Has anyone else had a mod they thought was snake oil that surprised them with real results?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie_ellis8d agoMost Upvoted

gotta call this one out. a single mod dropping 0.4 seconds in the quarter mile is INSANE and that's basically unheard of from just a cold air intake on a modern truck. either your stock box was seriously choked up or there's something else going on like the weather shifted between runs. i'd run it back a few more times before declaring it snake oil redeemed.

avery_lopez8d ago

Buddy of mine put a cold air intake on his 2018 F150 a few years back and swore it picked up almost half a second in the quarter. Turned out his stock airbox had a mouse nest and a bunch of leaves blocking the filter. After he cleaned that out and ran the intake again, the difference was more like a tenth of a second, maybe less. So yeah, I think a lot of these big gains are just fixing a restriction that shouldn't have been there in the first place.

the_laura8d ago

@charlie_ellis makes a good point about the math on that kind of drop, but I do think cold air intakes get oversold more often than not. Half a second is crazy, sure, but even the basic tenth or two most people claim still feels like a lot for just swapping a plastic tube and a filter. Every dyno sheet I've seen from aftermarket brands shows like 5-10 hp on a stock tune, which works out to maybe 0.05 in the quarter if you're lucky. The real gain is usually the sound and maybe a tiny bump at high RPM, not some instant drag strip hero.