just bought the whole set up. this is my only mod on my truck fr now. wondering what gains anyone got .

 

Never put one on a Dodge, but I put one on my avalanche and my in town mileage went down about 1mpg, and my boat towing mileage went down about 4mpg...

 

Unless you get an exhaust set up, your mileage will go down a mile or 2. You will need to allow the extra air going in to get out at the same or better rate. You will hear a difference with the new kit but once you get an exhaust, then you will notice a difference in power and mileage gains.

 

2005 Ram 1500 QC 4x4 4.7L

Pre-Airaid: 16.0-16.5 mpg
After Airaid installation (two tanks of 87 octane fuel): 14.5-15.5 mpg
Three weeks after Airaid installation: 18.3 mpg

No exhaust mods yet, but it's coming.

 

Don't blame the aftermarket air intake for not giving you a MPG increase.

There has been lots of careful scientific testing of all kinds of air intakes
and the result is that they neither increase/decrease MPG on gasoline engines.

But you can also reliably predict that if 1000 customers buy an air intake
that
DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
and then these customers check their next tank to see if it improves MPG,
then 500 of these customers will see an improvement,
500 customers will see a decrease,
and ONLY if you could collect and average all 1000 of the next tanks
of gasolines would you find a true average that would only be 'near' zero.

The same thing would be true if you flipped a coin 1000 times.

If less restrictive air inlet system improved MPG,
after the last 20 yrs of C.A.F.E. laws by the US Government
(Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
you would now see massive air intakes
with 2 foot high by 4 foot wide
openings - even on the smallest 4 cyl compact.

Honda,
in a spirit of fierce pride,
told its student engineers to do everything possible on the
Insight Hybrid to get the greatest possible MPG
- they were in a 'bragging rights' competition
with Audi CEO and Porsche's grandson Ferdinand Piech
who was having his Audi student engineers build the
four seat Audi A3 aluminum body/3 cyl diesel
as the world's highest MPG car,
called the '3 Liter Car'
because the Audi A3 only needed 3 liters of fuel to go 100 kilometers.
This is about 83 mpg.

Honda used every known trick in the gasoline engineering book to get over 70
MPG to beat Audi's fuel economy of 3 liters per 100 km on diesel. Notice that
Honda was starting out about 20% behind because they were trying to make a gasoline engine powered vehicle beat a diesel power vehicle for 'world
bragging rights.'

Go look at the air intake of a Honda Insight.
What do you see?

If you don't want to trust just the Honda,
go check out the Toyota Prius, Lexus 400H and Ford Escape Hybrid air intakes.

See a trend?

Check out the 2006 BMW M5 air intake for a 'ram air' design on a vehicle that
can reach 'only' 190+ mph. Note that the BMW engineers NEVER claim this intake
improves MPG, even though they list dozens of other engine features on the 5L
V10 that do improve MPG.

http://www.seriouswheels.com/2006/20...t-1024x768.htm

Got a buddy with a Dodge Ram with the overhead trip computer?
(His truck does not have to be exactly the same as yours, but the closer the
better)

Since you are making a modification with hopes of getting better MPG
why not do a "before & after" test?

Do a 'before test' with both trucks
* you and your buddy fill up at the same gas station and put the same air
pressure in all tires
* Pick a highway without too much traffic and hopefully where the wind is a
head wind or tailwind (side winds mess things up)
* Your Ram and your buddy's Ram follow one another staying at least 6 vehicle
lengths apart
* talk to one another with cell phones or walkie talkies
* drive at the same speed
* reset the overhead computers at the same time
* drive at least long enough to burn up 2.5 gallons
* exit highway, turn around, and continue the test in opposite direction
(this is to partially cancel out wind direction)
* write down average MPG on overhead computers at end of run
and compare this to the gas pump numbers and odometer mileages.

After doing your modification
redo the test the same way as above,
hopefully at a time of day where the temperature is about the same as the
'before' test and the wind speed & direction is not a problem - which you
can check here:

http://tribunewx.wunderground.com/US...WindSpeed.html

Note that in the above weblink you can type in your zip code and get exact
wind, temperature and other weather data.

The value of your buddy's pickup being along on is that on this 'after' test
if his MPG is greatly different you should suspect something has gone wrong
like strong cross winds, a change in temperature, tire air pressure, etc.

If you want to test two trucks against one another that are already modified
like comparing 3.55 differential gears to 4.56 gears
or an underdrive pulley, syn versus dino oil, tire air pressure, thermostat,
SuperChips, etc......
you can modify this test slightly for even better accuracy.
Swap two tires from one truck to the other.
Now both trucks have the same 'average' tires.
Weigh the trucks and add weight to the lighter truck to make them even.

If you really want 'gold standard' accuracy that you can trust
(or if you are measuring a small effect like a thermostat)
then swap the mod over to your buddy's truck
and do the tests another time with your truck as the 'control'.

If you are presently thinking:

"Wow, who would be that careful for a lousy MPG test?"

then just think about a dragstrip
which will have:
carefully measured distances,
highly accurate timing trigger by light beams,
know its altitude,
have a weather station,
and have a computer program to 'adjust' results for weather conditions.

All this type of MPG test is doing is applying the same standards to MPG
that is expected when someone brags about their vehicle's ET or MPH in the
quartermile.

By doing a test this way you are doing a simplified version of a
SAE/TMC Type IV fuel economy test RP 1109.

Here the SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers and
TMC stands for Truck Maintenance Council which is a group
of professional 18 wheel truckers who have banded together to share
information. RP stands for recommended procedure.

If you watched the 'Mythbusters' TV shows where twice they have done some MPG
testing, first on a pair of F150s and later on a single Dodge Dakota...then
you saw a 'flashy' version of the SAE/TMC Type IV test on the F150s, and later
a SAE/TMC Type I test with a calibrated FlowScan meter on Adam's Dodge Dakota.

Credit for inventing a 'reliable' MPG test like this goes to many, but
especially Claude Travis, known to his peers at TMC as "Mr. MPG,"
who has spent 37 years managing the operation, maintenance and testing
of heavy-duty, on-highway vehicles. Highly regarded for his exhaustive
research in the field of heavy-vehicle fuel-economy, he is principal of
Claude Travis and Associates, Fleet Consultants, Grand Rapids, Mich.

In the actual SAE/TMC type IV test they also take the temperature of the
fuel both before and after, because a gallon of fuel coming out of an
underground tank at 57 degrees F will expand/contract several percent
as it approaches that day's air temperature.

If you are interested in learning more about this
there are also SAE/TMC tests I, II and III
and no doubt someday an even better test V will be invented.

 

I dont know why, everytime I read Hank's post, I see an old man talking like this:


(No offense Hank, I know you have a lot of info and thats prob why)

[IMG]local://upfiles/18195/CBA39A3F3ED940AEA6039544DA73E122.jpg[/IMG]

 

You are correct, Hank. The increase in my MPG is all in my head. Thanks, Sigmund!

 

The problem with trying to determine themileage you are getting after adding on a new intake or exhaust is that once you put it on you will almost always have your foot planted in the gas peddale because like almost everyone else you are going to want to hear the rumble of your engine/exhaustalot more than you would if it was stock. Now I do not have an airaid system but my AFE system did alot. When I just had my exhaust on my truck my mileage went from 14.5 to15.2 and then down to 13.5 because I was always reving it a little more and giving it a little more gas than normal. After adding the AFE CAI I didn't change my driving style at all and kept reving the engine and was giving it more gas than normal and was averaging 16.1mpg and on weeks when I drive like a grandma on a sunday morning and never accelerate about 2,000rpms my mileage is 17.4mpg.

 

One thing you have to admit, I've yet to see any independant, unbiased study of CAI's that showed any improvement in MPG of a modern vehicle. It doesn't makeany sense that if it was that simple to increase mpg that cheaply (compared to a stock setup) why car makers don't already do it. I tried one, did nothing for MPG, took it off and sold it. As for power increase, I have no idea. I don't care to here the sucking sound and if I want more power there are much better ways.

 

Well, for that matter, why don't they come standard with better true dual exhaust sytems? Or a Supchip in the glovebox?

Because (this site and its members excluded) the vast majority of new vehicle buyers want their car or truck to be quiet. They don't want to hear the sound of air being sucked through intake tubes or hear and feel the rumble of a performance muffler.

Do you think that huge stock airhat atop your TB does anything BUT reduce sound levels?