Makoto Air Intake System. Any good?

[Tony Favaloro]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/01-05-FORD-EXPLORER-SPORT-TRAC-4-0L-V6-AIR-INTAKE-SALE_W0QQitemZ300006962844QQihZ020QQcategoryZ38634QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I was just wondering if this is as good as the K&N or the True Rev intake systems.

 

[OFF TRAC]

Being that the ST engine is not a high performance engine, that e-bay intake will serve about the same as the K&N other name brands out there. It all comes down to looks and unless you have some major performance parts installed (trottle body, exhaust, XCAL, Comp Chip, Supercharger etc...) it's all the same on a stock ST. Lots of folks here have made there own intake, others have bought the "10 bucks" special intake off e-bay (similar to the one you listed but it's usually found under Explorer and not the ST) made it fit the ST and are happy with it.



You could always just remove the air silencer in the stock airbox, drop in a K&N and you're going to be just as good as one of the intakes with regards to air flow. Again this is all based on the ST being pretty much stock with little or no mods.

 

[Tony Favaloro]

Oh so just remove the air silencer and I'll be just as good as one of those. Well thats a relief i already have a K&N drop in air filter installed.

 

[Wes Davis]

They can stick that shipping cost up their a**!!!

 

[Bill Ellis]

At normal cruising rpm, the intake really isn't a factor. I installed a K&N drop-in, removed the silencer and "swiss-cheesed" the intake box. Didn't notice any change at all in mpg. At WOT it sounded more like a 4-barrel kicking in. However, I rarely come close to WOT so, spending money on an intake would be a waste.

 

[Tony Favaloro]

what do you mean by "swiss cheesed" the intake box

 

[James FreemanJr]

cut holes in it and made it look like a block of swiss cheese.

 

[Tony Favaloro]

and that will accomplish im guessing more flow than the small little holes the air box draws the air from?

 

[Bill Ellis]

Swiss cheese has lots of big holes in it. Used a 1 in. hole saw and put enough holes in the sides of the box so that the area of all the holes is greater that the area of the filter. That way, no negative pressure on the intake side of the filter due to restricted air flow into the air box.

 

[Dre L]

He probably drilled the hell out of the bottom half of the intake box (before the filter).



When you look at the cold air intakes and compare them to the stock intake, there really is no difference. The stock tube is as straight as the aftermarket, so why bother.



As for the filter, yes, you do have a wide open easy breathing filter, but you're still restricted by the size of the intake tube and throttle body. I figure getting rid of the silencer, and maybe making the hole as big as the diameter of the tube... should be about the same as a CAI.



You also don't want to risk getting water in the filter.

 

[TRACket Paul]

You can also remove the Baffle Plate. In the picture, it's the flat plastic piece above the filter. Just pull out the plastic plug at the top left corner and pull it out.

[Broken External Image]:

 

[douglas brandin 2]