Cold Air Intake

WesternHorizon wrote:
"Four Wheeler Magazine" did a famous study on how to mod the 460 for better mileage

http://performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/

They did actual instrumentation and calculated return on investment of different mods! It is an amazing piece of work.

Bottom line: Nothing makes a huge difference

Based on this series I added a K&N to my '95 460 E350 MH and think I maybe picked up 1 MPG. But it was when I first bought my MH this spring so I don't have any comparison data.

Mine intakes air just above and almost in front of the radiator, so it would not benefit from a modified cold air intake the way some of the 460 trucks do.

Even the Banks PowerPak system, developed by expert engineers, only increases mileage by maybe 1 MPG. I don't know what this product costs with installation but I would guess 25% of what I paid for my whole MH. So the payback time would be decades at best.

I drive 55, down to 35 on CO mountain passes, and can almost get 10 MPG. I don't care about acceleration, which Banks apparently increases noticeably for people who do care.

Thanks for posting this link. I was surprised at several things in the data not being a mechanic. The first is that there is greater wear on cylinder walls when eng temp drop below 190. Also surprised that the CAI had a greater effect on performance then the header mod and that using 93 octane gas over 87 actually hurt performance. The truck tested was half the weight of my MH so the effect of each mod was a lot less than what I experienced. Also most folks that have made these mods all report greater performance(most are seat of the pants feel no data) but no increase in mpg except for some guesses(no data).