Cold air intake recommendations for 5.0 GT

[Byote4]

i am thinking about getting a cold air intake for my 5.0 but i cant decide its between AFE Momentum GT , JLT (the no tune one) i saw STEEDA and K&N but they are a bit more expensive and there are no dealers in my country and shipping is not available.
i am getting one for looks and sound i might get it tuned later but now it will be untuned , any help will be appreciated

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[AZ_Ryan]

There's lot of threads on this if you do a search.

Cold air intakes on the S650 are pretty much for looks only. Even with a tune the gains are almost nothing. If you are doing it for under hood esthetics just pick the one you think looks best. Otherwise its a waste of money.

 

[Wiley Marmot]

What Ryan said. If it were me; I'd pick the one I liked the most appearance wise and was in my budget range. Good luck and let us know what you get!

 

[fredm666]

I agree with what AZ_Ryan and Wiley Marmot said.


If you want some decent air filters (and keep the same housing) have a look at this thread: 2024+ Mustang GT Air Intake Filters | Mustang7G - 2024+ S650 Mustang Forum (Dark Horse, GT, EcoBoost, GT500, GT350, Mach 1)

 

[Byote4]

There's lot of threads on this if you do a search.

Cold air intakes on the S650 are pretty much for looks only. Even with a tune the gains are almost nothing. If you are doing it for under hood esthetics just pick the one you think looks best. Otherwise its a waste of money.

oh okay thanks for the help

 

[armyGT]

Save your money on cold air and buy good cleaning products for your car. All the items added will not get you a return on your money. A clean well-maintained car is the route to go. If you want something faster, then you bought the wrong car!

 

[Byote4]

Save your money on cold air and buy good cleaning products for your car. All the items added will not get you a return on your money. A clean well-maintained car is the route to go. If you want something faster, then you bought the wrong car!

I already have a closet full of cleaning products and the car is well maintained and i am getting smiles per dollers + it lost 35k in value now in just over a year i didn’t buy the car expecting to get a return i bought it to drive it

 

[MAT1955]

@Byote4 ...... as said you will get no measurable gain from changing the intakes. Ford oem is the best you can do without major modifications. For LOOKS I bought the Roush clear top intake boxes with AFE NON oiled air filters. I have also ordered the Corsa completely clear box tops now that they are finally available and will use my AFE filters with them. Corsa also offers smooth intake runners as part of another kit that MIGHT offer some slight gain but very, very marginal IMO. So, just for looks

 

[Byote4]

@Byote4 ...... as said you will get no measurable gain from changing the intakes. Ford oem is the best you can do without major modifications. For LOOKS I bought the Roush clear top intake boxes with AFE NON oiled air filters. I have also ordered the Corsa completely clear box tops now that they are finally available and will use my AFE filters with them. Corsa also offers smooth intake runners as part of another kit that MIGHT offer some slight gain but very, very marginal IMO. So, just for looks

Corsa might be a good option i just looked them up they look good especially the air ducts

 

[ZXMustang]

I had a guy I tuned a few weeks ago. We did back to back WOT logs with the corsa intake vs stock intakes (carbon traps out), at speed 2-3-4-5 gear WOT pulls, the stock ones flowed a bit better/more measured air across the maf in Lbs/min and the IATs were almost 20*F less. This was on a 24 10R80 DH. He sold the corsa and went back to the stockers. Ive seen similar results with all the other CAIs in logs. Nothing really getting past the stock measured maf airflow. Which on a healthy tuned/mechanically stock gen4 is around 52-54 lbs/min combined side A and B.

Which by comparison is quite a bit more than even a gen3 with a JLT. I've only seen the PMAS CAIs flow more on a gen 3 than any gen4 with a stock intake I've seen logs for. Stock gen3 is around 42-44lbs/min flow and with something like a JLT I see 48-50lbs/min. PMAS on one I saw was close to 65lbs/min. That was also with ported TB and ported CJ manifold and headers/no cats. Its crazy how well the gen4 with stock airboxes flows in comparison.

And remember those stock airboxes might not help in a dyno scenario, but out on the road when IATs come into play, the stock airboxes are giving you that bonus heat protection.

 

[D/\rK•650]

I had a guy I tuned a few weeks ago. We did back to back WOT logs with the corsa intake vs stock intakes (carbon traps out), at speed 2-3-4-5 gear WOT pulls, the stock ones flowed a bit better/more measured air across the maf in Lbs/min and the IATs were almost 20*F less. This was on a 24 10R80 DH. He sold the corsa and went back to the stockers. Ive seen similar results with all the other CAIs in logs. Nothing really getting past the stock measured maf airflow. Which on a healthy tuned/mechanically stock gen4 is around 52-54 lbs/min combined side A and B.

Which by comparison is quite a bit more than even a gen3 with a JLT. I've only seen the PMAS CAIs flow more on a gen 3 than any gen4 with a stock intake I've seen logs for. Stock gen3 is around 42-44lbs/min flow and with something like a JLT I see 48-50lbs/min. PMAS on one I saw was close to 65lbs/min. That was also with ported TB and ported CJ manifold and headers/no cats. Its crazy how well the gen4 with stock airboxes flows in comparison.

And remember those stock airboxes might not help in a dyno scenario, but out on the road when IATs come into play, the stock airboxes are giving you that bonus heat protection.

20 degrees is quite a bit id say. I bet alot of the manufacturers would disagree LOL. Are any kits on the market flowing as good or better that stock? Do you have any more information on this?
This is very interesting

 

[rbuike]

i am thinking about getting a cold air intake for my 5.0 but i cant decide its between AFE Momentum GT , JLT (the no tune one) i saw STEEDA and K&N but they are a bit more expensive and there are no dealers in my country and shipping is not available.
i am getting one for looks and sound i might get it tuned later but now it will be untuned , any help will be appreciated

Have you looked where the air comes into the intakes? How much colder will it get?

 

[mattman]

I put the RAH Performance filters and clear air box covers. Looks great and won't break the bank.

 

[MAT1955]

It makes no sense to me that there could be a 20 degree difference in the intake line between the air box and the engine air ports - UNLESS - someone had removed the snorkles that direct air in from the grille fronts. Also the physics of air ducting wherein a smooth intake line (Corsa) vs a corrugated line (FordOEM) are 6 times less drag per foot with a 6 iknch diameter so let's say a factor of 3 per foot. Thus IMO even with the corbon traps removed, which still leavers some crap in the intake line of the Ford OEM, the smooth interior of the Corsa intake runners should flow better but NO WAY does that Corsa kit raise any intake temperature 20degrees. That is simply not possible.

 

[ZXMustang]

It makes no sense to me that there could be a 20 degree difference in the intake line between the air box and the engine air ports - UNLESS - someone had removed the snorkles that direct air in from the grille fronts. Also the physics of air ducting wherein a smooth intake line (Corsa) vs a corrugated line (FordOEM) are 6 times less drag per foot with a 6 iknch diameter so let's say a factor of 3 per foot. Thus IMO even with the corbon traps removed, which still leavers some crap in the intake line of the Ford OEM, the smooth interior of the Corsa intake runners should flow better but NO WAY does that Corsa kit raise any intake temperature 20degrees. That is simply not possible.

Your napkin math might make sense to you, but you forget that these open box intakes generally seal to the hood. Which is basically an upside down hot plate. Its as hot as the outside air, and then some. So the top of your sealed enclosure has a hot plate lid super heating the air before it even enters the filter.

As for flow number differences, I cant answer that. I can only tell you what I see in the thousands of logs I look at. The stock boxes are not perfectly sealed, but the lids are thick and arent going to be super heated like an open top box sealing to the hot hood.

You also might not realize that Ford has spent probably a billion dollars in R&D on these intakes vs corsa's maybe a couple thousand. And in most cases, Ford knows what they are doing. Assuming because you smooth out a tube, means "THERE IS NO WAY" that the ford factory intake flows the same or more than that pretty CF smooth intake is turning a very big blind eye to the tremendous amount of testing and development that went into the factory intakes.

As a tuner, I am reminded time and time again as I try to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak, that in most cases Ford knew better but was held back by some policy or regulation preventing them from making the most efficient power delivery that these engines are physically capable of.

What I've learned over the hundreds of s650s and thousands of previous gen coyotes I've tuned is that less is more. Rather than forcing the PCM to do what I think is best, its more moving out the guard rails to allow it to do what it thinks is best in the given DA and fuel octane its working with. Keeping Ford's logic in place, but moving or removing those ultra conservative guard rails gives the PCM the headroom it needs to take the already very smart and well engineered package and push it way past where ford set its limits not based on anything more than keeping it safe for grandma at 14k feet of elevation running 85 octane chocolate milk to be able to drive it for 100k miles.

And in the case of these stock intakes, less is more especially in a MAP controlled engine. They are not MAF dominated anymore and cold air intakes make little to no difference. Not because of the speed density configuration, but because the stock intakes are already that good. You dont need a fancy red air filter. You dont need a smooth and pretty $600 carbon fiber intake tube. You know why? Because the intakes arent the restriction. Neither is the stock TBs.

Thats what you eventually come up with when youve seen enough of these. You realize that the biggest restriction for the gen 4 isnt through the intake, its the factory cats. Headers are what you should be spending your money on. From that point just save your money for a supercharger.

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