how can i improve horsepower and maybe gas mileage at the same time for really cheap....i mean like under 100$ will the homemade cold air intake work???(replaceing all of the current intake stuff with one metal pipe that sucks air in through a filter at the end from under the car)


what if any are some other easy boosts?

 

intake works (ebay $60 or so), if you build your own use pvc not metal (metal will heat up faster which will pull in hot air instead of cold = loss of hp) and use a K&N filter, in my opinion they are the best.

 

I would have to disagree on the metal vs pvc thing. It has been shown that underhood temperatures are high enough to cause the pvc to outgas and become brittle. Go over a bump after the intake has been in there for acouple of years and you could suck chunks of pvc down your intake. Not good.

When done right, a metal (aluminum preferably) intake tube will be more than adequate. If you are worried about heat soak in the metal, then install a heat sheild around the intake tube itself. One thing that definitely should be done is to get cold air to the filter. Don't just plop a cone filter under the hood because you will negate any benefit of the additional flow of the filter due to the fact that it will be sucking in hot air from the engine bay. The factory box pulls cold air from outside the engine compartment (whether that be from the fender on older blazers or from behind the drivers headlight on newer ones).

I have been contemplating putting a K&N cone filter on my Bravada for quite some time. I have the filter, but I don't have a means of making up the tubing required as well as a cold air box to put the filter into that is sealed from underhood temperature.

 

For a comparison, I scanned my Bravada's IAT (intake air temperature) sensor output and this summer with 80*F ambient temperature, my stock intake was pulling in 92*F air by the time that it got to the IAT location. That isn't bad, but could be better. And this was driving around town at 30-35mph with the truck up to full operating temperature. I then put my cone filter directly onto the end of the MAF sensor and drove around scanning it. IAT readings were consistently up in the 130-140*F range which is a few degrees shy of what my infrared temp sensor showed for a nominal underhood temp while driving. 50*F difference in intake air charge temperature is a HUGE difference.

Moral of the story, make sure to always put a cold air box around your filters. Just goes to show you that the stock airbox isn't all that bad (as far as cold air is concerned).

 

Plus the stock box does a good job keeping other undeisraeables out of the engine. Water and mud for one.

 

For a hundred dollars i would go w/ a new set of r42lts spark plugs, and royal purple 10w30 synthetic motor oil. When i did these together i noticed alot more throttle repsonse. Also im getting about 1.5mpg better since the install.