Need Advice on E450 Engine Mod

[Fleetwood_E4]

I was reading up on a K&N website about a cold air intake system for my E450 v10 Class C motor home. They said "You could get 17.5 horsepower gain & 22 ft lbs of torque & a small increase of gas millage." I was wondering if anyone has done this to their motor home or is it even worth the cost? Any advice would greatly be appreciated. :@

[Tech_Dude]

Pop the hood on your e450 and you have a cold intake
the only you will get more power out of free flow exhaust and intake is at wide open
you do not have a gas pedal only a air pedal

[Hank85713]

If you go to a cai, get a free flows exhaust to go with it. The exhaust is the most important thing to free up. As to K&N, I run one on my ranger, have had it for about 200000 miles. Yes it helped some, when I had my f250, I spoke to the guys at Gibson exhaust, they just recommended a k&N drop in to go with the exhaust which was a cat back. On my F350 diesel I just went with the exhaust and it helped some but without a dyno its just butt checked. I do run a hypertec economiser tune on the diesel. The ranger now has 300000+ and just yesterday I went through the emmissions test and was putting out less than 50% of permissable emmissions. The reason I went with cai on it was that I was driving 150 miles a day RT and the intake and exhaust helped with the milage but I also spent around $600 for the setup. The exhaust was made locally, 25% larger than stock and included a free flow cat and muffler. So that is what my experience shows, and yes test show that Clean K&N do allow in dirt, but other test have shown that the stock filters do also. The K&N or others filter better when a little dirty, but allow more air. The OEM filters work better when a little dirty but not asmuch air. I forget the study this was from, but it was just released within the last 6 months or so on the OEMS, and K&N has said the same historically FWIW.

Forgot to add, the ranger has never been in for major service! I did head gaskets last summer as I thought I had a blown one, turns out it was the timing chain/water jacket to block gasket that had failed. It did check out within specs when a compression test was run by me and an indy shop I took it to. So much for fear or dirt ruining stuff I guess. Just remember to keep th oil changes up and run good filters with it.

[carringb]

Tuning requires uploading a new program into the PCM using some sort of programmer. 5-Star tuning seems to be the best for the V10, but I'm also happy with my Predator after making some changes to the canned programs that came on it. But to get the best gains, you need to combine a new program with better breathing. With all those changes, the 2-valve V10 can out-perform a stock 3-valve.

Is it worth it? For me it was. I like being able to pass cars when going up the pass even with a trailer in tow. But if you are more patient than I am, or mostly stick to the truck lane anyways, then stock power levels should be fine.

[62Doka]

jgorm1 wrote:
If I had a v10, I'd keep it stock and I can even tune it for free. I've tuned 100s of fords and I still tell customers that it's probably not worth tuning on a mostly stock vehicle. I would also not want a tune with more timing than stock when pulling heavy weight at WOT for minutes on end. Cars can get away with a bit more advance because they never at wot for minutes on end.

I have been doing some reading online (mostly sport truck sites) and noticed "tune" being mentioned quite a bit and read how the "tune" has increased HP and MPG but mostly HP.

I have a 2004 E-450 V10 and have this itch on getting the V10 "tuned".
What all is involved with a "tune" and how would it benefit my E-450? Along with a "tune", what else would improve or compliment a "tune"?

Or should I just forget about scratching that "itch"?

[woodgeezer]

Anyone know the particle size rating on these different filters? At what point does it become insignificant?

Don't really understand the anecdotal preferences versus damages.

[tatest]

Why not just take the air filter element out of the stock filter? That would have about the same effect, air flow and filtration, at less up front cost.

[jgorm1]

crawford wrote:
E bay sells map sensors for V10 fords 59.99.

Dont waste money on this junk! the V10 runs mostly off the maf, not even sure if it has a map, and if it does, its used more for VE speed density stuff or barometric pressure.

[crawford]

E bay sells map sensors for V10 fords 59.99. But they do sell in part places splay cleaners for around 6 bucks and they do work. My K&M filter been in my V10 45,000. some who have them wash them and spray way to much oil back on them or don't them them dry really good. Now this may be the problem for sure.

[jgorm1]

If I had a v10, I'd keep it stock and I can even tune it for free. I've tuned 100s of fords and I still tell customers that it's probably not worth tuning on a mostly stock vehicle. I would also not want a tune with more timing than stock when pulling heavy weight at WOT for minutes on end. Cars can get away with a bit more advance because they never at wot for minutes on end.

[Fleetwood_E4]

Thank You for all the good advice. I think we are going to stick with the stock filter and no cold air intake. Save our money & put it in the tank & go motorcycle racing 🙂

[MX-RV]

I have well above 200k km on my k&n filters with no engine problems I have driven all the cars I've ever put one in to 300k km before a non engine related part or system went. I will admit my work partner drives an f150 with a k&n oem replacement I got to see it one day and will give ford cudos on their attention to respiration of their engines they seem to put really big stock filters and air boxes in them. With that in mind I might avoid the CAI and instead use that money on a tuner or exhaust or better yet a suspension upgrade if you have a little more control over sway and bucking you should see a mileage improvement.

[Rolin]

I installed a K&N on a F150. Did not notice any improvement in power or fuel economy. However, after about 4000 miles had to replace a MAF sensor as the oil from the K&N caused it to stop working properly. Cost of replacement was $350. I then found there were some products I could have used to clean it.

Went back to stock air filter.

[tpi]

There is no avenue I can see for the KN to increase gas mileage on a closed loop system. It probably increases power slightly at high RPM. I prefer the stock filter for dust removal efficiency.

There is a chip maker, can't remember who, that published some data showing the V10 remains in closed loop operation even at full throttle. Most car engines go to open loop under full throttle and run 12 or 13 to 1 air fuel ratio. This allows more timing advance and more torque. The chip changes parameters to open loop richer mixture at full throttle with more torque and power.

For me, the stock engine has sufficient power and I like the safety of factory tuning. My driving enjoyment is not limited by the power but the handling of the class C. This is my priority for upgrading-suspension components.

[sh410]

Fleetwood E4 wrote:
I was reading up on a K&N website about a cold air intake system for my E450 v10 Class C motor home. They said "You could get 17.5 horsepower gain & 22 ft lbs of torque & a small increase of gas millage." I was wondering if anyone has done this to their motor home or is it even worth the cost? Any advice would greatly be appreciated. :@

They said "you COULD get 17.5 horsepoer gain & 22ft.lbs of torque and a small increase of gas milage".

You could but maybe (probably not). Not a guaratee. Your chice.