Took Out My Volant Intake On My 09 Sd

red00lght · March 16, 2010

Well, after still dealing with a really rough running engine (especially following cold starts in the am), I yanked out the Volant and put the stocker back in just to see if it would make a difference. Seems like it cured alot (if not all) of the issues I was having....truck is running much smoother again! I had the Volant in for over 1000 miles and I was hoping the truck would adapt better to it, but apparantly not!

Guess I'm going to leave the Volant out until I get tuned from Justin. He mentioned to me that the Volant messes with the airflow so much, that a scan-cable tune is the way to go, so I'm on the waiting list. In the meantime, I've got one very stock looking engine!

Just thought I'd post the results for anyone considering the Volant without doing a tune. I'm sure others have had better luck, but my truck didn't seem to like it. I had also bought the Powercore (or whatever they call it...) filter.

tomasg921 · March 16, 2010

I had my Volant on for over 15K Mi before Justin got to work on my truck. I Didnt have any problems with it whatsoever. It ran smoother and pulled slightly harder but not a huge difference. After Justin took a look at it he was surprised at how good it ran, but he said he could still make it better, he did and im in love with the truck all over again. My wife gets Jealous of her sometimes

Jim67 · March 16, 2010

I wonder if maybe your intake tube was loose/leaking?

red00lght · March 16, 2010

I had my Volant on for over 15K Mi before Justin got to work on my truck. I Didnt have any problems with it whatsoever. It ran smoother and pulled slightly harder but not a huge difference. After Justin took a look at it he was surprised at how good it ran, but he said he could still make it better, he did and im in love with the truck all over again. My wife gets Jealous of her sometimes

Well, from your sig you have a 2007 5.3? Maybe my 09 6.2 Flexfuel is more sensitive to the Volant? I don't know....I got the intake after reading multiple posts praising the intake...and I've had a Volant on my past Lightnings with no issues, but not so lucky this time!

I did have the service manager at the stealership look it over for any leaks or screwups on my part and he agreed it was installed properly. Oh, well!

red00lght · March 17, 2010

Well, I called tech support at Volant and looks like there are 2 possibilities....the first is I didn't disc the battery prior to install which he said was necessary for the fuel learning and there is an o-ring for the Volant for the Mass Air Meter that replaces the red one which is stock. They looked identical so I didn't change it.

So....as soon as it stops raining I'm going to try this again! In my defense, the directions said nothing about a batt disc and they don't show anything relating to the Volant o-ring other than just listing it as a part. Better directions for installation sure would be helpful to dumbasses like me!

On the plus side, I can switch from stock to Volant in record time these days!

GPSilverado · March 18, 2010

Well, I called tech support at Volant and looks like there are 2 possibilities....the first is I didn't disc the battery prior to install which he said was necessary for the fuel learning and there is an o-ring for the Volant for the Mass Air Meter that replaces the red one which is stock. They looked identical so I didn't change it.

So....as soon as it stops raining I'm going to try this again! In my defense, the directions said nothing about a batt disc and they don't show anything relating to the Volant o-ring other than just listing it as a part. Better directions for installation sure would be helpful to dumbasses like me!

On the plus side, I can switch from stock to Volant in record time these days!

I have the Volant on my 2009 5.3, and I had issues with it until Justin tuned it. I did install the new oring on the MAF sensor, and the tube was sealed up properly on both ends. When Justin did my tune, he said the MAF was showing readings that indicated to the ECM that my truck was pulling about the same amount of air as a 6.2 would pull. Before the tune, I had what I want to call a flutter at light loads, like just before or after the AFM would have kicked in or out. If you pressed the throttle slightly, the truck accelerated, and if you tried to hold steady, it would decellerate slightly instead of holding the speed.

Now with the tune, the truck runs very smoothly. I like the Volant, but didn't feel any power gains (but wasn't expecting any). However without a tune, I wouldn't leave mine on. I can't stand that imperfection at light throttle / light load conditions.

I have read other peoples post where the o-ring being left as the factory one caused issues, but once it was changed out, it cured their problems.

GPSilverado · March 18, 2010

I had my Volant on for over 15K Mi before Justin got to work on my truck. I Didnt have any problems with it whatsoever. It ran smoother and pulled slightly harder but not a huge difference. After Justin took a look at it he was surprised at how good it ran, but he said he could still make it better, he did and im in love with the truck all over again. My wife gets Jealous of her sometimes

Well, from your sig you have a 2007 5.3? Maybe my 09 6.2 Flexfuel is more sensitive to the Volant? I don't know....I got the intake after reading multiple posts praising the intake...and I've had a Volant on my past Lightnings with no issues, but not so lucky this time!

I did have the service manager at the stealership look it over for any leaks or screwups on my part and he agreed it was installed properly. Oh, well!

The 07-08 models have a completely different design on the MAF sensor, which required a new CAI design as well when compared to the 09-10 models.

red00lght · March 18, 2010

GPSilverado....the description you gave is pretty much exactly what I experienced with the Volant on. Now I'm not so excited to reinstall it tomorrow...that stuttering was driving me nuts...but maybe it will get slightly better with the proper O-ring and batt disconnect (though, after 1000 miles with the intake on, I'm sure it would've learned).

I did feel some power gains, but only if I had it floored. Otherwise, it felt like a power decrease!

One thing I've also noticed is even though the stuttering is gone, the MPG actually went down quite a bit!? I was expecting the opposite since it revs so much smoother now!