A while back when I first started getting into modding my truck I figured that the first thing I should get is a performance intake setup. I looked around at different reviews on PerformanceTrucks.net that talked about K&N, Volant, S&B, and many others. Overall, most of the intakes on the market for my model truck had great reviews and since I’ve had good luck previously with K&N I opted for the 77 Series. I liked the specific series because it added a little “bling” to the engine bay while it looked like it would flow better than the plastic model they offer. Eventually I got HPTuners and saw that my IAT’s (inlet air temperature) were always in the “red” zone when looking at the scanner.
As you can see from the gauge I hit about 124* during the log. That’s HOT! Looking at a stock tune, you can see that at 124* IAT the computer will pull about 6 degrees of timing on top of whatever Torque Management is taking out.
After seeing this repeatedly I tried to think of a way to keep my IAT’s down so I wouldn’t lose too much power off the line. Up top it was always fine since when you’re moving at a decent speed the temperatures under the hood are a lot lower, but after idling in a parking lot or just cruising around town in traffic the temperature goes way up. I finally remembered seeing fiberglass header wrap on the shelf at Oreilly’s and figured that might help insulate the intake a little bit. Before that I had dreamed up some pretty crazy ideas to chill the intake including liquid CO2 haha. Installing the fiberglass wrap was pretty straightforward and easy especially if you buy the stainless steel ties that are offered by the same company. Here’s what it looked like before:
And after:
After I got everything reassembled I took the truck for a spin and logged the IAT’s again and saw a difference of 20* pretty much across the board. One of the better mods for the money that I’ve done honestly.
