Cold air intake

[BADXMPLE]

So whats the best cold air intake for a 5.7 4th gen.

 

[Talon_66]

Stock w/ drop in air filter

 

[skirider]

What air filter

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[Buddy]

S&B

 

[doz]

Id save your money. Buy a tuner before an intake. Much better bang for the buck.

But if you are dead set on an intake, S&B has one of the nicest factory style intakes. If you like the box style, go with S&B.

Vararam has arguably the best performing intake available. I would stay away from the K&N HAI (hot air intake). You can go with a K&N drop in air filter (higher flowing filter) as our factory box is already pretty good. That is what Talon was referring to on a drop-in filter.

 

[Andy578]

Id save your money. Buy a tuner before an intake. Much better bang for the buck.

But if you are dead set on an intake, S&B has one of the nicest factory style intakes. If you like the box style, go with S&B.

Vararam has arguably the best performing intake available. I would stay away from the K&N HAI (hot air intake). You can go with a K&N drop in air filter (higher flowing filter) as our factory box is already pretty good. That is what Talon was referring to on a drop-in filter.

any idea how much difference just the filter makes? been looking at the Vararam intake and they are claiming 25hp but really i'd be happy with a cheaper option with 5-10hp just to break 400hp

 

[Hemi450hp]

A filter alone in a stock airbox is not going to show any gains in performance unless your stock filter is just clogged up and dirty. Aftermarket intakes make power by bringing in more colder outside air and getting rid of turbulence with a smooth intake tube. Keeping the factory accordion shaped intake tubing and the airbox that is pulling very little air from a small hole in the fender will always limit your performance.

I absolutely agree with doz in that I would always add a tuner before an intake. If you are set on getting the intake first, S&B, Vararam, or Volant are without a doubt the best options out there. K&N, Airaid, and AFE all have open element filters that pull in too much engine heat and make more noise than power.

 

[oesman]

So far it sounds like S&B is the best option besides stock from what I've been reading. I tried a Vararam myself today. I didn't like it. Took it off the car and will be (hopefully) returning it for a refund. I'm now considering S&B, how's the fit & finish? I've been very happy with Rotofab's fit and finish on my G8, anything of that sort of quality would be great.

My experience with the Vararam tonight, I actually wrote a review, but then I saw this topic, so it works here too:

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To me this feels like a product designed purely to fill a gap in a market that Vararam may not be particularly passionate about. The fit and finish is poor and unrefined. The whole thing seems to be botched together. A design just functional enough to make sales. There are many problems, but I'll list the ones that bothered me the most.

First off it's clearly not tested to work properly, at least not on 2013+ trucks. It just doesn't line up correctly. From further online research it seems that these application problems are nothing new. People have been trimming, adding weather stripping, and "making good" to get this thing to fit and seal with the hood. That's unacceptable to me. This isn't a $40 eBay CAI, I shouldn't have to modify a very simple air intake for an application it claims to be designed for. You can even see in the sample photos that it's not angled straight and wont actually seal, too bad I didn't notice when ordering.

There are other issues as well. The air filter needs to be crammed in, but don't worry, because they have an instructional video that shows you how to force it in by using leverage. It begs the question, was this just the first filter Vararam found on their shelf that almost fit? This kind of "that'll do" attitude is also obvious when you realize this whole thing is held in place by the single, cheesy, red silicone intake coupler mated to the throttle body. Who thought that was a good idea? Considering the poor fitment, the last thing I want is for this POS to bounce around my engine bay.

There is some good news. It is very easy to install and more importantly, even easier to uninstall. Took me about 5 minutes to go back to stock. Another bit of good news is that it does indeed make power. I tried a few 0-60 runs, at sea level at about 65F and it shaved a solid 0.3s off my 0-60, consistently. Not bad at all! I'm usually a function over form guy, so a part of me wanted to like it. It actually made power, and 0.3s is not bad for $345. Unfortunately this time I just couldn't get over the abhorrent design.

 

[Bighorn 4 Life]

Love my Vararam

 

[homebrew]

Totally agree with the previous comment about the vararam, while it looks cool fitment is poor. I did a chalk test on the seal, discovered it does not seal completely against the hood. Considering returning.

 

[Hemi450hp]

How much warm air do you think is actually going to come through those 2 corners where your chalk line did not touch the hood liner? With as much cool outside air as this intake brings in from the front, those 2 small corners are not going to hurt anything. Even with OES posting a negative review about the fit, it still knocked .3 off his 0-60 time. If that little bit of heat was an issue, he would not have run that much faster than stock. I know I have said it time and time again on here, but you will not find another intake that outperforms Vararam on a 4th gen truck...period.

S&B would be my 2nd choice as their build quality is the best in the business, but it still does not touch the performance that you get from the Vararam, nor does any other intake available.

oesman, the red coupler supports the middle/back of the intake, and then the front rests on the radiator support. You may be able to wiggle the intake with the hood open, but that kit is not going anywhere once the hood closes and seals to the airbox. I have been telling Vararam for months now to write some new instructions for the 2013+, so I will agree that they could work on that. Most important change is that you should mount the coupler to the TB first and then drop the airbox in place. Have someone hold the airbox level with the weatherstripping on the wiper cowl while you tighten down the hose clamps. And the '13+ don't have a horn bracket in the way like the 09-12 trucks, so that step can be disregarded. Otherwise, the install is very straight forward. They did redesign this kit for the '13+ trucks by building a new front wing with notches to clear the cooling lines, and they also include a longer coupler to account for the shorter throttle body on the '13+ trucks.

 

[DavidRam]

I love my Vararam and install was easy and fit would was good (I did cut a little notch for the cooling lines). Peformance gains were definitely noticeable, too.

Before and afters

 

[oesman]

How much warm air do you think is actually going to come through those 2 corners where your chalk line did not touch the hood liner? With as much cool outside air as this intake brings in from the front, those 2 small corners are not going to hurt anything. Even with OES posting a negative review about the fit, it still knocked .3 off his 0-60 time. If that little bit of heat was an issue, he would not have run that much faster than stock. I know I have said it time and time again on here, but you will not find another intake that outperforms Vararam on a 4th gen truck...period.

S&B would be my 2nd choice as their build quality is the best in the business, but it still does not touch the performance that you get from the Vararam, nor does any other intake available.

oesman, the red coupler supports the middle/back of the intake, and then the front rests on the radiator support. You may be able to wiggle the intake with the hood open, but that kit is not going anywhere once the hood closes and seals to the airbox. I have been telling Vararam for months now to write some new instructions for the 2013+, so I will agree that they could work on that. Most important change is that you should mount the coupler to the TB first and then drop the airbox in place. Have someone hold the airbox level with the weatherstripping on the wiper cowl while you tighten down the hose clamps. And the '13+ don't have a horn bracket in the way like the 09-12 trucks, so that step can be disregarded. Otherwise, the install is very straight forward. They did redesign this kit for the '13+ trucks by building a new front wing with notches to clear the cooling lines, and they also include a longer coupler to account for the shorter throttle body on the '13+ trucks.

I do agree that the Vararam works as noted by the gains I got. I just can't live with the build quality.I guess the best way to describe it from my perspective is that the Vararam Air Grabber is a good idea, but just wasn't fleshed out properly. I think it should have some kind of bracket in the front near the radiator and condenser to line it up and hold it in place. Then it should just be a matter of tightening down the clamps on the silicone tubing instead of using the tubing alone to hold it up/align it. I still don't like the filter having to be crammed into place, I can see it bowing around as it's too big for the groove it sits in, there's no way that's sealed very well. I did mount the coupler to the TB first and dropped in, that just seemed like the logical way to go. I also saw the horn was out of the way on the new trucks.

The S&B may come in 2nd performance wise, but maybe that will be fine for me if the fit and finish is better. Sometimes the extra few horses aren't worth it, like running crazy high timing for the last 3 whp as an example.

 

[Buddy]

Love my S&B!

 

[Andy578]

I love my Vararam and install was easy and fit would was good (I did cut a little notch for the cooling lines). Peformance gains were definitely noticeable, too.

Before and afters

i like the performance they claim but honestly don't like the size and way it changes the look. also any issues with snow getting into it? seems like it'd collect some

Love my S&B!

just looked at them and the price is pretty decent. how much does it change the sound?

 

[Hemi450hp]

I do agree that the Vararam works as noted by the gains I got. I just can't live with the build quality.I guess the best way to describe it from my perspective is that the Vararam Air Grabber is a good idea, but just wasn't fleshed out properly. I think it should have some kind of bracket in the front near the radiator and condenser to line it up and hold it in place. Then it should just be a matter of tightening down the clamps on the silicone tubing instead of using the tubing alone to hold it up/align it. I still don't like the filter having to be crammed into place, I can see it bowing around as it's too big for the groove it sits in, there's no way that's sealed very well. I did mount the coupler to the TB first and dropped in, that just seemed like the logical way to go. I also saw the horn was out of the way on the new trucks.

The S&B may come in 2nd performance wise, but maybe that will be fine for me if the fit and finish is better. Sometimes the extra few horses aren't worth it, like running crazy high timing for the last 3 whp as an example.

The build quality and fitment of the S&B kits is as nice as I have seen, so you will be very happy with that. At the track, the S&B ran .1 slower than Vararam, and makes about 5-6hp less on the dyno.

I see your concerns about the Vararam, but I have been running this kit on my own truck for almost a year now. I have cleaned the filter 4 times already, and while the filter itself always has a lot of dirt in it, the seal to the box is good and has not allowed any dirt into the throttle body.

If performance is your goal, Vararam is the clear winner. If fit/finish is more important, then S&B is the way to go.

 

[Hemi450hp]

i like the performance they claim but honestly don't like the size and way i changes the look. also any issues with snow getting into it? seems like it'd collect some



just looked at them and the price is pretty decent. how much does it change the sound?

Snow does build up on the front of the Vararam filter. I have yet to see this cause any damage to the motor, but I always tell our northern customers to brush that snow off every now and then to keep from blocking off the airflow into your motor.

The Vararam is the quietest of the aftermarket intakes because it seals off against the insulated hood liner. The S&B is noticeably louder than stock, but not obnoxiously loud like the K&N or AFE kits. I have driven trucks with the K&N intake, and I could hear the intake over the exhaust. That's a little much IMO.

 

[oesman]

Snow does build up on the front of the Vararam filter. I have yet to see this cause any damage to the motor, but I always tell our northern customers to brush that snow off every now and then to keep from blocking off the airflow into your motor.

I imagine that won't be too big of an issue. Even if the snow is making it up to the base plate around the filter, as long as it's angled down when the snow melts it will just run off. While driving, a small sprinkle of water in the intake, from snow blowing in towards the filter isn't going to do anything bad. I would just make sure it doesn't drain down the TB when it melts if it's packing up around the filter. Angle of the driveway may matter here too. Even then I doubt it would collect enough snow to do any damage.

 

[Hemi_Express2013]

Personally, the stock box is definitly capable and designed for the best performance of the engine. Up around 100-105mph, you'll notice it's short comings though. I have the Volant cia with the ram snorkel. Seemed to work great upto 110-115mph. Have the Varaam, blows through 130mph. Air flow seems to really be the best, but there are inherent flaws with this type of CIA on modern vehicles especially adding an open crankcase filter. In short, the engine systems are designed for resistance in backward air flow through the TB when the intake/exhaust valves are open. The EGR valve/monitor is the Cam in these trucks. Duration/Math and your o2 sensors, change the resistance causes more exhaust gases to enter the cylinders and even into the intake.

Anyhow, gonna try the Amp Ram air hood next. Great look.