92 4.3 cold air intake

[brits92]

I've been looking at a few CAI's and of course the one i see the most is k&n. and in my lmc catalog they do have a CAI that will bolt up to my 4.3 for only $119 and with my tax income due to hit my account in a few weeks i was thinking about ordering it. BUT i know all cai's do the same thing whether they cost $40 or $400. So that being said is there anyone that has a cai on their 4.3 and what are some other brands that are worth looking into?

brit

oh and i guess i should add that i have a re manufactured jasper 4.3 and not the original 4.3 just in case that makes any difference.

 

[df2x4]

I have a K&N on my '97 4.3 and I like it. That said though, knowing what I know now I probably never would have bought it. It looks neat, but it's an open box so instead of drawing air through the nice little factory hole in the fender it draws warm air from wherever it can in the engine compartment. I'd be selling it and buying a Volant that actually utilizes the factory fender hole if they made one that fit the 4.3s. Unfortunately they don't, so the K&N is going to stay on and look pretty until I get mad enough at it to throw the factory box back on. Honestly I'm sure CAIs do very little in terms of adding power on our little motors. Maybe when combined with a tune you could see a small gain, but I really didn't notice much difference when I installed mine except things got a little louder. IMO I'd take that money and put it into exhaust, I noticed a lot more improvement from that than I did my K&N. I'm sure someone knows more about this than I do but as far as I'm aware no one makes a Volant style closed box intake for the 4.3s.

EDIT - Just realized you have a TBI motor and not the Vortec so I'm not sure if our intakes are set up the same way, I'm only familiar with the Vortecs. Perhaps someone with more TBI knowledge can chime in.

DOUBLE EDIT - Upon googling the 4.3 TBI it appears that there is a tube running to that hole I described in the fender from the breather so my logic should be basically the same. The K&N may have better flowing tubing, but ultimately you're going to end up drawing warm air from the engine compartment.

 

[volunteerff21]

The "easy" method is to find a full length flex hose and just use that. These trucks have "CAI" factory. Cold air is drawn from outside the engine bay, up into the fenderwell, and then into the air intake.

This is what most factory set-ups look like.

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Now here's what I mean by flex hose (and with yours being a '92 you might already have this). Completely deletes the horrendously restrictive silencer box.

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These full length hoses were available on the V6's only, I'm not 100% sure what years they were made. Mine is a '94 and came with the silencer box. They can be found in junkyards, although they are getting rarer. Occassionally the come up for sale on Ebay or even by members on here in the classifieds section. This is what I chose to run along with a drop in replacement K&N and I'm completely happy.

Thanks Richard (someotherguy) for the pics

 

[brits92]

Yeah ive already got the full flex hose

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[SkyHighColorado]

Are you looking to pick up a few more ponies? Or just make the engine look nice? I like the way CAI's look under the hood, but you could always clean up the stock unit and repaint it along with a nice acdelco filter.

I have an airaid intake and to be honest it doesn't seal to the throttle body very well, so I'm thinking about getting a oOEM intake from the junk yard and color matching it.

 

[df2x4]

Just another quick note about K&N stuff, if you're going to be doing a drop in filter replacement I'd recommend Amsoil Ea series filters. I'm actually replacing my conical K&N filter with one of them very soon. The K&N filters flow better than pretty much everything on the market, but do so by filtering less. AKA, more crud goes into your motor. Not sure where I read this but the evidence I saw was enough to make me a believer. Plus the Amsoil Ea filters are non-oiled media, so basically to clean them you just tap them out and blast them with a little compressed air. Way easier than re-oiling like with the K&N and I'd much rather have the extra filtration, especially on a daily driver.

 

[brits92]

Well I would like to have a little better gas mileage along with a few ponies yes. But heres what I foundnfrom air raid, the intake they offer for the 4.3 matches the one lmc has but the one on lmc is about 100$. If I did repaint it I would have to use a high temp paint right? Ive had trouble finding the color I would want.

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[SkyHighColorado]

The cheaper one with the chrome pipe looks like a fake to me. The other one looks the same as mine, but I have a 5.7

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I put a K&N filter on because the original got beat up.
As for painting an intake, rustoleum enamel should be fine. High temp paints are really for the actual engine and brakes etc.

If your truck is TBI not vortec then one of these might help with mpg.

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its the poweraid TB spacer.

 

[brits92]

The bottom one is sold thru lmc n its not 59 lol n the pic just isnt in color. I was just sayin they look the same. Are there any long term negatives when it comes to the tb spacers?

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[SkyHighColorado]

I haven't had anything negative happen because of mine. Just remember when you add one you will need 2 base gaskets, one for the top and bottom of the red spacer. I recommend felpro gaskets.