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Highway Mileage Drops With Airaid Mit?


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Greetings, this is my first post here.

 

Anyway I bought and Airaid MIT tube for my 2010 Silverado 5.3 (despite the product description it doesn't interfere with the MAF so it DOES fit the 09-10) and after driving for a number of days I calculated my highway mileage each day (for the same trip to work) to be 22.7-22.8 mpgs. I wasn't impressed so I replaced it with the stock intake tubing and averaged 24.4 mpgs. Any thoughts on this?

 

I have the stock paper filter for now (my truck's only a few months old). Is the factory airbox and intake tubing that well designed that it won't benefit from an aftermarket intake tube?

 

And is the larger diameter intake tubing actually hurting performance with the factory airbox (since it's not letting a greater amount of airflow through)? I was thinking with the same volumetric flow of air in a larger tube, thus lower velocity, there was less of an "induction effect" due to inertia so the engine lost more power at the lower end of the powerband (which is where I typically drive, since at 65 mph I'm at no more than 1500 rpm). I'd appreciate any thoughts/advice on this!

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The MAF controls the amount of air, not the intake tube. More air means it will need more fuel.

 

My reason for mentioning the MAF is that the tube is said to work only in 07-08 models which has a differently designed MAF that won't physically fit in an 09-10 intake. I understand that about the MAF, but better airflow should mean more efficient combustion therefore greater fuel efficiency- less overall power required to do the same amount of work (and yes I am keeping my foot out of the gas!)

 

MANY people report at least subtle gains, though, in fuel economy with the addition of an intake or at least freeing up the airflow by way of replacing the intake tubing?

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The MAF controls the amount of air, not the intake tube. More air means it will need more fuel.

 

My reason for mentioning the MAF is that the tube is said to work only in 07-08 models which has a differently designed MAF that won't physically fit in an 09-10 intake. I understand that about the MAF, but better airflow should mean more efficient combustion therefore greater fuel efficiency- less overall power required to do the same amount of work (and yes I am keeping my foot out of the gas!)

 

MANY people report at least subtle gains, though, in fuel economy with the addition of an intake or at least freeing up the airflow by way of replacing the intake tubing?

 

 

I'd say it was more coinicidence than anything. The smoother intake tube should give more WOT power (probably pretty minor gains though). At the low end, you're not using hardly any of the factory tube (not enough air to fill it). The factory intake track does typically have those weird warts, etc on them to reduce the intake noise.

 

But, if GM could increase their fleet mileage by 1.6MPG like you're seeing, they'd do with an intake fix vs expensive crap like AFM, etc...

 

My 2 cents worth... :)

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Oh I fully agree...I guess I should've stated that I got better highway gas mileage too before putting the aftermarket intake tube on, though. Do all of the air baffles on the factory tubing reduce performance in any way?

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