Any one have an intake write up?

im pondering an intake for a 99 tahoe ide love any info u guys have!

not until about the 20th of december, if you wanted to wait

just installed my K&N Gen II fipk!!

took about 45 minutes. to cutting or drilling required. flathead screwdriver, several sockets, an adjustable crescent wrench, snips (to cut the heat shield gasket) and some allen wrenches were all the tools i needed. most of the time was consumed assembling the heat shield while eating lunch. i will see if i can find the directions in the box so i can scan em and post on here.

the hardest part was removing the air temperature sensor, just because it was such a tight fit in the stock location.

it is pretty much an no brainer tho

the damn thing is really loud! now i need to do my exhaust to cover it up, lol



a tip if u already have instructions:

when cutting the heat shield gasket to fit, only cut the bottom part with the metal in it. leave the upper rubber part intact for a better look and tighter seal. i used small plier shaped electrical snips, but a razor blade and needle nose pliers would work. u just have to get the metal out @ each corner so it looks clean. also, i saved about 3-4 inches to put under the filter b/c it rubbed the heatshield and i didn't want it to make noise or leave wear marks on the filter screen.

my friend suggested this and it looks way better than my s10 did. on the s10 i cut the gasket into 3 pieces.

My AEM Brute Force Intake was a complete no brainer as well. Directions were very well written. took about a half hour to put it on. Longest part was splicing in the included wire harnes to make the Oxygen sensor harness long enough, and that was 5 minutes tops...

needed a flathead screwdriver, socket set, crimpers, and snips.

i went ahead and cleaned out around the stock box while i had it out as well.

If anyone wants to see the directions, i can try to find them and post them up as well.

Go with the k&n and buy yourself a synthetic filter (aem, afe). You will probably need to drill a hole for the iat sensor as most aftermarket filters that size will not be available with the sensor hole. The k&n has the most potential for power, unlike the aem and air raids which do not replace the entire intake assembly to the throttle body. I believe you can use the aem 21-2069dk and tap a hole to work perfectly with the k&n. Only reason for swapping is the possibility of coating your maf with filter oil due to the size of the k&n, plus dry filters are way easier to maintain. Or you can buy one of the filters for the diesel workhorse applications, not sure what size flange is available but they're sweet ass filters

will oil hurt the maf sensor? i never thought of that. the k&n is wicked easy to maintain. just spray it with k&n cleaner, wait a few minutes, then spray it off with hose. let it air dry and re-oil. ez as pie

no wire splicing for the k&n but the maf sensor plug barely reaches. it fits but could be about 2 inches longer. they should've made a 2 piece intake tube with the maf sensor closer to the stock location. that would prolly keep the oil off of it too.


p.s. look at the 3 piece gasket on boost's pic of the k&n then compare it to my 1 piece when i post it

I also ran the gasket as 1 piece, just have to cut the metal portion of the gasket with some dikes and it will fit better. I would also recommend building a simple bracket to hold the heat shield and filter assembly better. After 1 week my truck had some wear on the hood insulation from the intake moving around, just built a simple 5 bolt bracket to mount under the heat shield and secure it better by running 5 bolts through the fender well instead of the standard 2. I honestly doubt you would have an issue with oil on the maf unless you really oiled the hell out of the filter, regardless I'm sold on the synthetics for the ease of maintenance and the lack of any organic material which could decompose (k&n will look like crap after a year of cleanings, even with care taken to not damage the filter). Main issues I have had with oil on the maf is on diesel applications which flow waaay more cfm then any gas application (esp the 5.7).

i found the instructions just haven't had a chance to scan em. gimme another couple days so i can do it right. i will take a close up of each step, and my finished install then start a new thread to post all the pics. it should b worth the wait


here is the complete instructions for the install:

http://www.tahoeforum.com/showthread.php?p=28363&posted=1#post28363

i have the filter on intake on my truck and yes they are really loud, they do seem to leave a resadue along the intake but i have just cleaned the mass airflow sensor and intake route, but it is a great intake and is sooo sooo loud, just when u clean the filter don't over oil it.

boostaholic said:

Go with the k&n and buy yourself a synthetic filter (aem, afe). You will probably need to drill a hole for the iat sensor as most aftermarket filters that size will not be available with the sensor hole. The k&n has the most potential for power, unlike the aem and air raids which do not replace the entire intake assembly to the throttle body. I believe you can use the aem 21-2069dk and tap a hole to work perfectly with the k&n. Only reason for swapping is the possibility of coating your maf with filter oil due to the size of the k&n, plus dry filters are way easier to maintain. Or you can buy one of the filters for the diesel workhorse applications, not sure what size flange is available but they're sweet ass filters

Click to expand...

I agree with Boostaholic..... "The K&N has the most potential for power". However, the problem then remaining is the air inlet path and volume potential. If the throat of the inlet in 3-1/2"+, the airflow path feeding it should be at the very least that big! It is not. First problem a <85mm MAF which is actually less than a clear 80mm. The second problem is the hole in the inner fender and its air path from behind the grille. I estimate that this path needs a 50% opening to feed enough cool and dry raw air to get the job done. Do the math..... you have a 350 CI engine. It has 8 cyls rolling at, lets say, 6000 RPM. To simplify, that is 350CI / 8CYLS or 43 CI per cyl times 6000RPM or 258,000 cubic inches of free air that must be delivered to _each cylinder_ every minute at just 6000 RPM! All of that will simply _not_ draw-gravity feed through the 3+ inch hole in the fender for processing by the air filter, except in small bursts. The unstated downfall of the K&N, and all of the others for that matter, is that the interface area between the hood insulation and the provided air box, lets in the hottest air from under the hood when greater volumes of air are called for by the throttle! This fouls up the mixture at the MAF sensor, and there goes every bit of that great performance boost, right out the pipe. I'll try to post some pics of the solution when I get back to the States in a couple of weeks. This is a great forum and is populated by some skilled Hoeers..... very helpful. Thanks folks.