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Message: [QUOTE="6.7Bison, post: 1543342, member: 32432"] My selection process and outcome. My selection criteria for an intake was that it had a filter efficiency of stock or better, had a cleanable dry filter, someone somewhere made a dust cover for it, and improved fuel mileage. Throttle response improvements, room to grow for future modifications, and improved low end power are greatly appreciated with peak power being icing on the cake. Obviously I didn’t want to put a filter on the truck that didn’t prevent dirt, dust, and debris from entering the engine at least as good as what came from the factory. I learned a few things having had an oiled K&N intake before. The oiling process was a pain, it was easy to over or under oil, and unless I was religious about cleaning and re-oiling it often, dust found its way into the intake. Being able to clean the filter and reuse it would help to justify the cost to me and my wife. The pre filter dust covers I have seen used in other applications in my area appear to do really well. They are an additional bug, dust, and moisture barrier to the filter extending its life and making it easier to clean. If an intake is doing its job of easily breathing in fresh air, it should improve fuel economy. This also makes it easier to justify the upgrade. Coming from a non drive by wire naturally aspirated V8 truck, a drive by wire turbo V8 diesel is lacking in throttle response though not unbearable. This is the first performance mod on a longer list so I don’t want to have to revisit it later because it becomes the choke point. Low end power coupled with improved throttle response help the towing confidence of the truck. And who doesn’t like to brag about peak numbers? The three major types of intake upgrades I looked at were drop in filter, air box replacement only, and complete intakes. While just the drop in filter hit much of what I was looking for they were smaller improvements than I might have liked. The air box replacement only styles claimed decent numbers and some people love them. But I kept staring at the OEM intake tube and saw the compromises made for fitment, sound deadening, molding, and cost. For the small price difference of the airbox replacement style and the complete intake, I decided it was worth the extra money for the complete intake. The two main styles for these brands were open or enclosed filter. Common sense would dictate that the enclosed style would be more effective as it blocks access to the warm air of the engine bay and instead focuses on funnelling cool fresh air from outside of the vehicle. However, when researching the different specific intakes the open filter design seemed to have more consistent reports of more power (shown in back to back dyno sessions as solo modification and with other more extensive modifications), reported mpg gains (approximately 1-2 mpg where the enclosed style reports were anywhere from a loss of 1 mpg to a gain of 4 mpg), and a larger following (so much so S&B made one). This had me scratching my head. I acknowledge the majority can be wrong so I can’t put much weight behind the fact that a lot of people are buying them. But the reviews seemed to be genuine that most everyone enjoyed the intake, some even having switched from an aftermarket enclosed style to the open style. The consistency of the uptick in mpg along with the evidence in back to back dynos made me think there has to be more to the story which lead me to my current hypothesis for the 2011-2016 Powerstrokes. Point 1 of my hypothesis: At most driving speeds, engine bay temperatures anywhere near the intake are at or much closer to ambient temperature than we are led to believe. Point 2 of my hypothesis: Enclosed style air intakes are more restricted due to being enclosed. Some brands work very hard at keeping the enclosure large and unobstructive to the filter. But I believe the very nature of further boxing in the filter creates restrictions. Point 3 of my hypothesis: Enclosed style air intakes still rely on air routings provided by the OEM through the front grill, headlight, bumper, fender, etc. to draw in fresh air. These openings may not be sufficiently large enough or are restrictive enough that they have a larger impact than we are led to believe. Aftermarket intake manufacturers may be aware of this or may not but I doubt they would modify this portion of the air routing unless it was as easy as an additional scoop or horn on the intake. As I work through my intake upgrade I plan to test this hypothesis at least to the satisfaction of my needs. But first I still needed to select an intake. From what I learned during my research, the open style appears to be the better design. If need be I can also create my own enclosure to shield the intake from high engine bay temperature. This can be done easier than starting with an enclosed filter without the enclosure. This left me with three true options and 1 partial option: No Limit Stage 1 and 2, S&B Open Air, and AFE stage 2. Since I plan on leaving my emissions systems intact and do not plan on being able to tune the truck for some time I eliminated the Stage 2 No Limit intake. Looking over the partial open AFE intake I decided against it as it still had an enclosure to work around and I was unsure of the necessity of the number of jogs in the tube. After much deliberation between the Stage 1 No Limit and the relatively new S&B Open Air, I ended up going with the S&B. The massive dry cleanable filter has a tested 99.90% efficiency. The massive smooth intake tube is made of plastic which will help to insulate the incoming air from heat (should it prove to be an issue) but still tuned for the stock calibration of the MAF with an insert. It sounds like the insert may be removable should you be able to update calibrations similar to the Stage 2 No Limit for even more airflow but it’s too new to tell. I will let someone else tell me whether that is possible and do more research later to see if it’s a good idea. The intake has a supporting bracket near the filter to help support the intake and keep it properly positioned for a simple install with little tweaking. Since there isn’t much info out there on this intake I thought I would try to document and share what I find. I am in no way bashing any of the other systems as they appear to be quality systems. I am just explaining my reasons for my final selection and let me tell you it was not quick or easy. I also want to note that I’m not receiving any compensation, kick back, freebies, or discount from anyone for this write up. I’m just sharing my experience and doing my best to be unbiased and informative in the process. [/QUOTE]