kkm (or k&n) w/o other mods....why bother?!

[GR899V8]

Is there anyone on this site with access to a chassis dyno? We'd all know the real truth!

 

[paul_c_nicols]

maybe i won't fire my mechanic just yet. he really believed that a kkm wouldn't do anything but make noise (unless adding the exhaust & other goodies).

i 2nd GR899V8.......whoever has the dyno, get to work! and keep us posted!


also, is there a common link here? are the V8 people not noticing the gain, but the 6ers are? i wouldn't think there would be a difference, but maybe the exhausts are different? (5.0 more restrictive???)

 

[99explorer5.0]

Trust me on this one .... i am not trying to degrade anyone here on this site or bash them in any way but when people buy something they like to believe that things work and when they make a change they "feel" a difference but in reality there isnt one there.

I have put a K&N Filter in my Mustang when i had one and my moms Crown Vic. I bought them both the same day. You know what i noticed performance wise with both of those vehicles? Absolutly Nothing. No gas millage increase no nothing.

If There is a difference it would only be noticeable if you were made out of 100% nerve endings and you are so sensitve to movememt that you can feel a 1 centimeter per mile difference in acceleration.

I also have a slip on exhaust on my motorcycle. Everyone was tellin me how much more power i would have. Reality .... i had more noise which is what i was looking for anyway not performance.

In order to make a difference that you can feel you will have to do more than just a filter change. You will have to do the whole system .... intake and exhaust and a few things between if you really wanted performance.

But as far as the KKM filter goes ... Like i said before ... if your jooking for a little more intake noise around 3k rpms under acceleration and want a filter you can clean whenever you want and reuse it then this is the filter for you. I am very pleased with mine.

If you want to burn through a set of rear tires every week you will need more mods and you will have to start somewhere.

 

[Fischer]

YUP!

Exactly...

you will notice a difference enough to make you happy that you did buy the intake, either in sound or placebo horse power gains...haha

Also keep in mind that the KKM is not the same as a K&N drop in..

I think the combo between the KKM and Exhaust got me a Little bit better gas mileage, and it sounds neat..

 

[james t]

has anyone here ever looked at the "air horn" on the stock 5.0 airbox? that thing is like 2 inches in diameter. very restrictive. i do not have the KKM, but i used a drop in K&N and cut my stock airbox in half. this was the first mod i did. i did not notice MUCH difference, but you can bet it will be much greater with exaust and chip. if you plan on exhaust later, go ahead and get it. it will probably only add 2-5hp now, but the stock airbox with exhaust and chip will be a HUGE restriction.

 

[Tarron]

OK, here is the "dino results sheet" that was included with my K&N FIPK. Notice that it says typical, as every vehicle is different. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was unable to get this information when I called K&N and specifically asked just how much hp the FIPK would give me. Also the "big" hp gain is in the upper rpm range where it isn't used all that much. Around 3000 rpm it looks like the increase is a more modest 2 hp.

I feel that my 4.0 SOHC runs better with it installed and I get a 1 or 2 mpg increase but it is worth the $230 I paid for it......well maybe.

 

[Jason_25]

Tarron, let me ask you this. How do you feel that you get that much of a gas mileage increase when the HP is increased above 3000 rpm? How much time does your truck spend above 3000 rpm?

 

[Tarron]

When I'm cruising at 77 mph on the Interstate. It comes back to question which system is more restrictive, the intake or exhaust. IF it was the intake, then replacing it with a less restrictive system and resetting the computer will give a hp and mpg increase. Then it becomes the exhaust system that is operating at maximum capacity and thus the bottleneck to further performance increases. Since our little V6 engines have 1 liter less air to move through it per complete cycle, it's possible that the stock exhaust is not at it's capacity until we change out the intake system. Sounds like a great study for an engineer who I'm sure can get a grant from the Federal Government to fund it.

 

[Texan01]

Ya'll have to remember the 302(5.0) has GT-40 heads so it's gonna have better flow, so therefore the stock exhaust(I'm assuming the V-8 uses the exact same exhaust system) is going to be at maximum flow without much being changed.

The pushrod 245(4.0) V6 does have a restrictive intake system, but on that note I have pulled my air box apart and left the filter attached to the MAF sensor and a basically open element filter set up and then drove it from Dallas to Stephenville while climbing 600 feet in elevation.

Now with a box stock setup the tranny would downshift to 3rd gear because it couldn't pull OD on some(most) hills. with my experiment it'd go a bit longer before downshifting, sometimes not even having to kick down where it would before. Seat of the pants feel was nil, I never noticed a significant increase in power, just more noise. I also noticed it the MPG did pick up by 1 over the 410 miles I put on the tank, and that was a mixture of city and highway driving.

And the gas mileage will vary from person to person, my GF driving my old '86 Pontiac 6000STE could get 30 mpg out of it, I'd get 23. and it had a 3 speed slushbox.

Sorry, been doing an engine buildup for a friend, a Cadillac 500(8.1 liter) V8 to stick in his 78 Impala.

 

[paul_c_nicols]

easy question for most of you but...?

does the 4.0 SOHC and the 5.0 have the same exhaust system (that is from the header back?)

Maybe Tarron's right? (about the amount of airflow....not the Fed. Govt' paying for the research! )