Cold Air Intake Issue

[arellialloy]

This may seem like a dead issue of people asking but I would like to get an intake for my '05 sport trac xlt. I have looked at the forums and parts listed as available on this site but none other than the K&N and KKM are actually meant for the 4.0 sohc 6-cyl engine. I went to the actual manufacturers websites and called their support lines for all the intakes listed. Below is in short what I was told by the companies:

Volant - not for model years '04 and newer due to fit and placement issues
Airmax - not for 6-cyl engines

Now I'm no expert and I've not purchased either one so I'm really only going on other peoples experiences but from all the reviews everyone is saying to get the Volant and Airmax. I'm not going to spend a fortune on the K&N so i'll end up going with the KKM unless anyone has advice. Does the Volant and Airmax fit? Everyone just gives their review but I don't know what models/years/engines they were installed on.

THANKS FOR ANY AND ALL HELP! I'm new to all of this as you can probably tell.

 

[celly]

Make your own. It's just some tubes and a filter and they all work the same. Home made kits save you mucho $$$ (the margins on those kits must be huge). Don't skimp on the filter. Lots of people on the site have rigged up ingenious intake setups. Search around and welcome to the best Explorer resoure on the planet.

 

[jesus]

I bought one from E bay, I was impress by the price and improvement, i posted a thread about it with pics

 

[arellialloy]

Ended up going with KKM intake. Only took 15 minutes to install with NO modifications and NO flaws...up to this point. Prior posts were right, took longer to get out old airbox than to install new system (those damn rubber grommets!). You can hear a decent tone for the price and I'm still waiting to see if there is any noticeable difference in performance. Went on my '05 ST SOHC 4.0 6 CYL

 

[ncranchero]

Maybe it can be explained to me WHY it's called a CAI, Cold Air Intake when it draws HOT air from under the hood :scratch: and the OEM draws COLD air from under the fender....... And I seriously doubt that your stock engine needs more air than can be drawn through a quality OEM style filter.

Just sayin'

High speed muffler bearings may be more beneficial..........

 

[Clusterpup]

Yeah people are confused, that would be more of a high flow air filter or low restriction air filter. In my case it would probably be a hydrolock my engine filter. A CAI on our trucks would be best to be under the front bumper.

 

[bdmaash]

it's more of a I can hear my motor sucking air now. They do help out in the upper rpm range.
My nephew's viewpoint used to be "more noise = more power".

 

[jesus]

Yeah, thats what i can tell about air flow, it a lot more about clod, i can touch the pipe and the heat is not that much, so we can call it some how in my case some sort of cold intake....

 

[GAZH13]

Ended up going with KKM intake. Only took 15 minutes to install with NO modifications and NO flaws...up to this point. Prior posts were right, took longer to get out old airbox than to install new system (those damn rubber grommets!). You can hear a decent tone for the price and I'm still waiting to see if there is any noticeable difference in performance. Went on my '05 ST SOHC 4.0 6 CYL

Where did you get the pre-filter. I have the same filter and have seen the pre-filters but did not know what size to order.

 

[rokr1292]

Has anyone made their own intake heat shields?

 

[JohnnyO]

A cold-air intake without a heat shield is actually a hot-air intake. The Zabteck unit was probably the best because it tucked the cone filter inside the inner fender panel, but it is discontinued. You might find a used one somewhere.

As nc said, the stock intake IS a cold-air intake. Pull the silencer out, get a K&N replacement filter, and call it good.

 

[dgonz]

A cold-air intake without a heat shield is actually a hot-air intake. The Zabteck unit was probably the best because it tucked the cone filter inside the inner fender panel, but it is discontinued. You might find a used one somewhere.

As nc said, the stock intake IS a cold-air intake. Pull the silencer out, get a K&N replacement filter, and call it good.

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb question. But I'm thinking of heading over after work and getting a K&N filter. What is the "silencer" and where is it? How hard is it to pull it out?

 

[rokr1292]

What material(s) would be good to use to make a custom heat shield?

 

[JohnnyO]

What is the "silencer" and where is it? How hard is it to pull it out?

Cone-shaped tube that directs the air into the airbox. I never did get the one out of my old '05 Trac. You need to pull the airbox out first. I ended up using a 4' crowbar and foul language and the fender flange started bending before the airbox would pop loose, so I gave up. Other people have said they were just able to yank it out bare-handed but the one on my truck wasn't going anywhere. Creative use of a Dremel or coping saw might get it off if you can't pull the airbox out. Then just leave the hole.

On my '08 the silencer is pretty wide open so I just left it and put in a K&N.

What material(s) would be good to use to make a custom heat shield?

I would go to Lowe's or Home Depot, get some roofing metal, cut/shape/rivet it to fit, and cover the outside edge with a piece of door edge guard. That's what it looks like under the hood of a new $50,000 Shelby Mustang anyway. :

 

[dgonz]

Hm, interesting. I'll have to take a look at it. Thanks for the tip!

 

[ncranchero]

CAI's look slick. If they're left sucking in HOT air from the engine compartment then you show me anything "cold air" about it. If you have a stock engine I doubt seriously that it is being restricted by the amount of air flow through a stock filter. I've never seen documentation that a stock good quality clean air filter isn't flowing ample air to feed the engine. Without a restriction gauge you'll never know if it's restrictive or not. That's my $.02 worth.

 

[rokr1292]

I would go to Lowe's or Home Depot, get some roofing metal, cut/shape/rivet it to fit, and cover the outside edge with a piece of door edge guard. That's what it looks like under the hood of a new $50,000 Shelby Mustang anyway. :

Sounds like a good idea. I see everybody with just a bare cone, sometimes I wonder if im the only one that wants some kind of box around my filter. Has anyone used spectre parts like the ones you can get in autozone? There's no premade kits, but im sure one could be made, just wondering if anyones tried it.