Not much to write home about.... maybe slightly.

I did notice a difference however in power under WOT. Mine is an early truck though, which was much more restrictive than later trucks.... I believe 98 they made the inlet bigger.

 

I made mine bigger with a Dryer Vent hole saw attachment. It took me for a ride but I held on tight!

 

Just for reference, when I bought my truck last October it had a K&N hot air intake and a thermostat that was opening too soon. Was averaging ~11mpg. In December I put on a stock air cleaner assembly and in February replaced the thermostat with a genuine Motorcraft 192 degree part. Mpg is now up to an average of 16, mostly country road cruising at 45 to 50 mph.

 

I'll give yuh a BIG head start, this is what you want, -

 

The truck doesn't "Take off better", you just hear more sound from the engine. The Air volume is still about the same since the inlet of the stock system adds up to be around the same number as the volume of the intake tube itself.

..and what was increased is probably negated by the fact that the air coming in is probably more turbulent across the MAF.

It feels faster because your brain says the sound makes it faster.

Also, against many opinions across the car world.. I've said it a million times on a stock 10th gen, the air moves through the engine bay too quick to effect Hp with a "Hot Air Intake" as everyone is calling it here. In stock form these engines are dogs and you're splitting flea hairs to try to argue about gaining or losing 3 Horsepower. As long as the trucks moving, the air isn't hot enough over ambient to matter. especially with a clutch mounted coolant fan. A powerful electric fan forcing hot air might be a different story but we're still talking about a bull**** 2v that barely makes enough Hp to get out of its own way.

Anything past the Got's mod (what I did) and a good wet or dry filter is probably overkill if it's a stock longblock. Provided the wet oiled filter isn't over oiled and messing up your maf.

 

Pretty much 100% BS.

So is that, you can't compare wet to dry. They're are very different.

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Just stick with pretty much the factory set-up OP. Any 3" tube is an improvement over the turbulent factory tube. And cold air intakes won't give you more HP in the way it's projected. However, they will give you more consistent and stable HP. Hot Intakes will loose loose in a heat soak situation, which can occur frequently with city driving. The difference can be huge. That is the only gain worth mentioning. The Gotts mod helps with more air on demand. No , you won't always need it, but when you do -it's there.

 

The only real test of performance mods ive read, dyno'd mind you, with intake, exhaust, performance chip , added about 20 hp at rear wheel. $1000 dollars

At 5000 rpm

Know what is at 2000 rpm where drive daily?

Nearly undetectable.

 

You could do like this guy did with a Lightning and cut a little plastic trash to fit perfectly around it and seal off the intake to the actual cold air spots. Then route a hose from the lower part of the bumper to that area. Also, not a great idea to use PVC. Creates fumes at high temps. But you might be able to find a silicone or metal reducer instead.

Let me see if I find a link to the old DIY thread.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/lightning/105800-3-95-diy-heat-shield-cold-air-intake.html

 

I was just weighing my options and getting better gas was my main goal which actually I'm getting a bit better gas mileage now also my truck has 65k on it and all the **** that goes bad I already took care of so I'm slightly trying to mod the truck to getting better performance that's all

 

well in truth you have made what people consider nowadays to be a "cold air intake" although as previously stated you're sucking in a lot of hot air from your engine. another mod to consider would be to cut a hole or holes in the cover that you have removed in order to turn it into a cold air intake. that way you can position the holes on top of the cover away from the engine so the cover acts as a heat shield from the engine while still taking in cold air. I've never done it myself but there are plenty of youtube videos on how to do just that with a small variation in the hole patterns and locations on the cover. All you really need is a dremel tool or a drill and you're set. You'll get the performance as well as that custom high performing look under the hood. hope this helped!