I've had this truck since March of this year and I've finally decided to do some slight modifications nothing major. Bought an ebay intake, but I plan on putting my own personal touch to it as well. Going to make a more permanent means of securing it so that it doesn't jar itself loose. Then I plan on wrapping the whole thing with the material in the attached picture. I did the same thing on the 4.7 intake and i believe it helped to keep the intake temps from getting too hot. This thing is a lot louder on the 5.7 than it was on the 4.7 that I use to own.

 

first thing clean your rad. all those bugs can't be good. as far as mods the ebay intake get a real filter on it i would not trust those cheap filters they use on them. next look up the e-fan. that is gonna be the next thing i do because i think its an all around good mod frees up a little hp, puts less stress on the motor and gives you a little in mpg.

 

Think I'll wait on the e-fan until the factory warranty runs out. I'm waiting until I get my day of to get another filter. I did the same thing to my other ebay intake I replaced it with a spectre. I do in fact need to clean my radiator, but the funny thing is that it wasn't like that until about two days ago. Thats from one 50 min trip to my folks house and back. Bugs are terrible around here. You can't even ride out on the lake at night or even late afternoon, because they are so bad. I guess i should just hose the radiator of with a garden hose right? Those fins are so soft I don't want to bend them.

 

i pressure wash my rad but do it from about 2 feet away with the car tip

 

I just use a brush, works alot better

 

This is how I had my intake wrapped when i had my 4.7. Not sure if it alot, but I think it helped to keep the temp of the intake from getting ridiculously hot. Was wondering if it was worth doing again?

 

I don't think I could open up my hood to that lol umm it might help but I don't know how hot the usual IAT is...someone with a SC could tell u I think

 

I don't care about the looks of it. If its going to get hot and hurt the performance of my truck then I want to do something about it. Might even still build a 4 inch homebrew and see which is better.

 

I bought an SBC Composite CAI- works great.

 

Not sure that I've heard of that brand. Got pictures? I like the way the ebay special sounds. Its really loud. If I'm not mistaken i believe that the composite tubes aren't as loud, but they are not prone to heat soak like the metal ones. If i get some time I'm going to put together the homebrew, but I'm just worried what the dealer will say when I bring it in. I don't think it will void the rest of my warranty?