Cold air intake for 2015 5.0

[aak2356]

anyone tested out the sxth element cai?

 

[Dat5.0GenLyfe2016]

Yes Sir, It was my car that was used for the testing. At this time G4werkz will be selling the sxth element intake. If your interested you can contact us 888-361-1555 option 1 or DM on IG @g4werkz

 

[Spanky61]

I thought they quit making it all together. It's no longer listed on their website.

 

[Mr. Incredible]

err.. doesn't the 5.0 pull the air from under the car anyway, hence it already has a Cold Air Intake.


it appears that it pulls the air from the lower left and right sides of the radiator support and into the motor, can't get much colder than that:

 

[carguy75]

err.. doesn't the 5.0 pull the air from under the car anyway, hence it already has a Cold Air Intake.


it appears that it pulls the air from the lower left and right sides of the radiator support and into the motor, can't get much colder than that:

View attachment 17486

Correct sir. Hence why I just replaced the OEM twin paper air filters for K&N performance air filters with a larger filter surface area. The OEM air boxes for the 5.0 is already a really good ram cold air set-up. The paper filters is the main restriction for the 5.0. The 3.8 has some sort of door in the intake that the 5.0 does not have which may restrict performance.

However, the 5.0 does have some sort of end cap boxes on the intake ducts that prevent water from entering the intake that could be removed for more air flow probably depending how restrictive they are, but at the risk of allowing water to enter the engine.

 

[aak2356]

I installed it into my genesis and I think it was worth it. The sound is awesome and with the cat-back exhaust installed as well, it sounds even better. As for hp gains I’m not too sure... It seems faster though.

 

[carguy75]

I installed it into my genesis and I think it was worth it. The sound is awesome and with the cat-back exhaust installed as well, it sounds even better. As for hp gains I’m not too sure... It seems faster though.

Would you post some pics of the both the exhaust and the cold air intake on your car. Sound clips would cool too please.

 

[aak2356]

Would you post some pics of the both the exhaust and the cold air intake on your car. Sound clips would cool too please.

I can only find pictures of the cai. My sound clip vid won’t post for some reason. No pics of the actual exhaust. It was the magnaflow cat back sold on car id if anyone was curious.

 

[carguy75]

I can only find pictures of the cai. My sound clip vid won’t post for some reason. No pics of the actual exhaust. It was the magnaflow cat back sold on car id if anyone was curious.

Thank you for taking time to post these pics. It looks cool to be sure.

Is the intake piping metal? If so, i wonder if the six element actually makes less power than the plastic stock air boxes with performance filters due to heat soak. The six element need to have cold air boxes to prevent hot engine bay air from entering the intake as well be constructed out of some plastic material to minimized conducting heat.

The Six Element set-up seem like it would work better on a turbo engine like the 3.3,not a N/A engine. Turbo engine has inter-coolers to cool hot air so the heat soak from the engine bay is no big deal, but N/A cars actually loss power when the intake air is warm. The stock unit actually seem like it would do a better job of pulling in cooler air than the Six Element.

$600 is a bit much for more intake sound and less power maybe.

 

[aak2356]

Thank you for taking time to post these pics. It looks cool to be sure.

Is the intake piping metal? If so, i wonder if the six element actually makes less power than the plastic stock air boxes with performance filters due to heat soak. The six element need to have cold air boxes to prevent hot engine bay air from entering the intake as well be constructed out of some plastic material to minimized conducting heat.

The Six Element set-up seem like it would work better on a turbo engine like the 3.3,not a N/A engine. Turbo engine has inter-coolers to cool hot air so the heat soak from the engine bay is no big deal, but N/A cars actually loss power when the intake air is warm. The stock unit actually seem like it would do a better job of pulling in cooler air than the Six Element.

$600 is a bit much for more intake sound and less power maybe.

Correct me if I’m wrong but does the warm air/ heat shield even matter after you are moving 15 mph or more? I would think fresh air would be constantly moving around once the car has started moving instead of stagnant, warm air being trapped. Let me know what you think!

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[carguy75]

I am no air flow specialist, but from my limited knowledge gained from reading web topics on the subject and reviewing dynometer testing I would say that the hot engine bay air will still be a factor even while the car is moving hence why the OEM design pulls cooler air from the lower front bumper area insulated from the engine bay.

Just take a long drive around town and then open your hood and see how hot the engine bay actually feels. That hot air you feel is what your air filters were pulling in since the Six Element filters were just sitting uncovered inside that oven called your engine bay. To add to that, metal conducts heat so the piping also is heating the air that may be cooled by the bumpers vents used by the factory airbox at speed, so any cooling effects is negated by the warm metal intake piping. You can check this by using a infrared thermometer to read the intake pipe temp.

This is only my opinion, but the Six Element design is not a great performing air intake for a N/A engine.

However, compared to the stock air boxes with the restrictive stock air filters, the six Element probably makes more power even if it pulls in hot engine air. The stock paper air filters are a joke with half of the surface area not being used for filter material(just a plastic plate) and it has a foam prefilter covering the paper filter that also chokes the engine. K&N uses a larger filter element that fills up the filter nearly by half compared to the stock filter. So adding K&N filters is like adding four stock filters to the air boxes surface area wise, therefore I believe just adding K&N air filters to the stock air boxes is the best option so far for the 5.0 engine in terms of performance.

 

[edizzle89]

I have a sxth element intake on my 4.6 which is a cone filter with no heat shield. I logged intake air temps after it sitting for a hour and heat soaking on a 40* day. When I started the car after it sitting the intake air temp was around 70*, after just a few minutes of driving the intake temp dropped pretty quickly down to 46* and stayed there the rest of the drive. So with the vehicle moving the intake air temps stay within 10* of ambient air temp which is probably about as good as you're going to be able to get.

 

[carguy75]

I have a sxth element intake on my 4.6 which is a cone filter with no heat shield. I logged intake air temps after it sitting for a hour and heat soaking on a 40* day. When I started the car after it sitting the intake air temp was around 70*, after just a few minutes of driving the intake temp dropped pretty quickly down to 46* and stayed there the rest of the drive. So with the vehicle moving the intake air temps stay within 10* of ambient air temp which is probably about as good as you're going to be able to get.

Now imagine the intake temps on a hot summer day. If the temp is 90*F then the intake temps will be 96*F or higher. It does not take much of a temperature increase to rob the engine of power. A few degrees cooler also goes along way to increase engine power as well.

Plus it takes a lot of heat energy to raise the ambient air temp 6 degrees in the winter. Think of your AC unit at home. It will take a lot of energy to raise 40* to 46*. In the summer the air will be warmed much easier by the engine bay so you can expect even higher intake temps most likely closer to 100* or higher.

Note: The engine bay is hot enough to warm up moving cold 40* ambient air from outside in a matter of seconds to 46* in the short time the air reaches the sensor in the intake manifold. That is a lot of heat soak in reality.

 

[edizzle89]

yes but on a 90* day you will never get your intake temp below 90*, you cant get your intake temps below ambient without additional systems in play like meth injection. being within 5-10* of ambient is a reasonable expectation, i'd imagine even a stock airbox and ducting with pulling air from the bumper/headlight area will still be about 5-10 degree's different.

 

[carguy75]

yes but on a 90* day you will never get your intake temp below 90*, you cant get your intake temps below ambient without additional systems in play like meth injection. being within 5-10* of ambient is a reasonable expectation, i'd imagine even a stock airbox and ducting with pulling air from the bumper/headlight area will still be about 5-10 degree's different.

The temps will be much higher on a summer day. Probably well over 100*. The heat soak is minimized due to fridge air at 40*. So the 200* engine bay heat has to work harder in the winter to heat the air. Not so much in the summer. The heat soak will cause much higher intake temps in the summer with your set up.

Having a 90* or slightly higher intake temp with the stock air box in the summer is better than 100* plus with a metal intake pipe and exposed filters.

 

[edizzle89]

yea but within a few minutes of driving it will drop back to 5-10* over ambient. so without knowing how well a stock airbox cools back down after heat soaking then it's hard to say what's better. But i agree the a stock airbox most likely will cool down quicker after heatsoaking by strictly only drawing air from the bumper/headlights area, but once driving i'd guess both airbox and cone filter will give you almost identical intake temps.

Also my sxth intake is different than the 5.0 intake in that it's a silicone tube vs. metal which dissipates heat better.

 

[carguy75]

Thank you. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I disagree about your statement that both the aftermarket intake you have and the stock air box with net the same intake air temperatures even when the car is moving. However, I really do not know the exact difference without using my scan tool to chart the IAT sensor data for my setup.

I bet that my air charge is cooler due to pulling only cooler outside air unaffected by the heat of the engine bay. I do not see how both of the different intake setups can pull in similar temps from the air since your air filter is pulling hot air from the engine bay which is mixed with cool air from the bumper duct. My setup only pulls cool air from outside the engine bay which gives it an advantage by design.

Heat soak is not a large factor for your intake since you have a non-metallic intake pipe. You just have hot air being pulled in from the engine bay by the air filter.

In the summer I bet the air temps will be much warmer(over 10*) than the ambient air with your setup. But there is only one way to find out. I will do some logs with my intake this winter and some in the summer to see the difference. Maybe you can do the same so that we can put this debate to rest.

 

[edizzle89]

Yea i can share my info once it get's hot here again. I also dont have the center underbody panel on my car anymore, so there's probably a decent amount of fresh air getting into the engine bay from under the car as well.

 

[carguy75]

Yea i can share my info once it get's hot here again. I also dont have the center underbody panel on my car anymore, so there's probably a decent amount of fresh air getting into the engine bay from under the car as well.

Well since you removed the under body panel, then your engine bay may actually be cooler than mine with the under body covers. I never measured the temperature of my engine bay, but it is very very hot when I do open the hood after a drive. The hood area in my 2015 is very insulated and holds heat very well.

My comments are based on the fact that you had the under body panels in place, therefore I may be incorrect about how hot your engine gets when the car moves since you have additional airflow to cool things down around the filter.

 

[MoonDoggy-X]

Looking at the diagram above, looks like the main restriction areas in the take are:
1) the paper air filter.
2) the spout at end of the stock air boxes. It actually tapers down.
3) the flex hose running from the air boxes to the center collector.

You'd get the best performance by getting less restrictive filters like K&N, getting rid of the rain blocker, and replacing the rubber hose with something smooth. You'd still have the cooler air from outside, minus 90% of the restriction. Best of both worlds.