DIY F150 Ecoboost Cold Air / Ram Air Intake
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Today we're going to modify our stock air box to increase air flow into it by at least 50%. This will also increase the amount of cold, dense air, and increase air velocity into your cold side piping.
This is applicable to 2011-2014 F150s with the 3.5L ecoboost engine.
The process is fairly simple.
UPDATE: I added a second one underneath this one. My intake temperatures now range from the same as ambient outside air to a maximum of 5°F above that.
Prior to this mod, I typically ran around 15-30° above outside air temperature.
Fun fact: Ford realized the flaw of having a fenderwell air inlet and rerouted the air inlet to between the grill and the hood in the 2015 F150s. This resulted in roughly a 25HP gain with just this change.
On to the mod:
1: Loosen the hose clamp from the intake tube to the air box
2: Undo the 3 airbox retaining clips and move the top of the airbox and filter out of the way
3: Remove the retaining screw for the rubber splash shield and move it out of the way
4: Fit the 1.25" pipe through the space between the radiator and frame supports against the air box to see where you need to drill
5: Drill a hole with your hole saw from the inside of the air box where you determined the pipe would go through.
6: Put the pipe in the hole and measure how much long it needs to be so it can clear the grill
7: Cut the pipe to the length you measured
8: Insert the pipe in the hole and use the RTV on the inside of the air box to create a seal
9: Reinstall the filter, top portion of the air box, and retaining clips.
10: Reattach the air intake hose to the air box and retighten the hose clamps
Parts list:
-2' of 1.25" PVC/ABS pipe
-RTV silicone
-Optional: A second section of pipe for 2 inlets
Tools list:
-1.75" hole saw
-Drill
-Utility knife
-Flathead Screwdriver
-Saw
UPDATE: I added a second one underneath this one. Very happy with the results.
Great idea!! I have been looking at CAI for my 13 screw. and settled on banks ram air, but after seeing this I am trying to find the 15-17 air ducting to the filter box to add cooler air from the front instead of the fender well
This is really cool! You should paint the tube black! To match the rest of the engine bay plastics.
I did after the fact.
It worked really well, intake temps became ambient air temps instead of 10-25 degrees hotter
@@phathomthis That’s great!
Depending on where you live I would put a mesh screen to avoid gnats, highway bugs from entering in certain seasons when there are swarms of them in the air, cool mod though that’s pretty cool
Thanks. I live in Houston. We have a lot of love bug swarms right now. I'm not really worried about it though. The grill catches most of them and then it still has to go in the airbox and the filter. Good idea for other areas where there's clouds of them though.
@@phathomthis I live in Miami near the Everglades hahaha
Did sonthing very similar to my 23 focus. Closed air box besides a 1x3 little snorkel behind top bumper to let cool air flow in. Cut a hole in the bottom of the air box. Got a proper length 90 degree semi radiator hose to fit into the whole nice and snug. Sealed it with a little plastic/rubber sealant. And the hose runs right behind the driver side triangular plastic piece. With about a 3 in gap. Took the Dremel wheel and cut two slits in between the ribs of the plastic piece so now cool fresh air can flow up into the air box. Have an aftermarket open ended side air filter (circular filter) and the focus air box design used the factory filter to seal the end part of the box. So any excess air isn’t pressuring the air box say highway speeds. I also have a hydro sleeve over the filter and the new hose so water doesn’t and hasn’t gotten anything remotely wet to the filter or through the filter. IMO it’s a smart true cold air intake where your filter is down in your bumper sucking from a few inches off the ground allowing possibly hydro locking. This just allows fresh cool dense air to constantly flow thru the air box and never have to worry about drawing in heat soaked engine air. As long as it’s done proper. And understand how to prevent or make it in a way that sucks up water. There is no harm. Plus the rumble of the Ford duratec induction noise is very aggressive sounding in car and coming at you. No need for a fart can annoying exhaust. Induction noise has always sounded better on certain cars to me than some of the cheap (like what I did with the intake and in the video has done) and people using that to hack resonators and mufflers off making your car sound like absolute shit and not run any better. This at least gives your car a constant ambient air intake temp. No fluctuations of engine heat
Thanks for the video. What does it sound like when the truck is running? Can you hear it from inside the cab?
Not so much, the turbo whine is too loud I can't hear the intake. It's more for colder intake temperatures, which is does a great job of. My intake temps are ambient now. Eliminates heat soak.
@@phathomthis awesome. Thanks for the response. I am looking at doing this for my eco boost.
Thank you!
This will do nothing and is a complete joke.... the intake will pull air from the largest opening first (fluid dynamics). The original intake tube is a cold air setup if its getting air from the fender well. I feel like you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. And that last part in the description that you say Ford "fixed" it by putting the intake snorkel in the front of the airbox which results in +25 HP is absolute BS garbage. I would LOVE to know where you got that information. The reason why the 2015+ 3.5 Ecoboost has more power is from a variety of changes to the PCM and relative hardware. Please just stop..... LOL
Close. The intake will pull air from the path of least resistance, not from the largest opening.
2x 2" pipes that are 12" from the air box and presurized from moving air is a less resistive path than a slim, curved, pipe going into warm stagnant air inside the fender.
Second: I did this so long ago, I can't find the source showing the gains of it, but Ford did realize sucking air through the fender sucked and relocated it to above the grill for cold, direct, air in the 2015 models.
Third: My air intake temperatures, which I have up actively monitored, dropped to the same as ambient temperature or maybe a few degrees above, after doing this. Prior, they were tens of degrees hotter, at times up to 30+ degrees fahrenheit above outside temperature.
You can laugh and talk as much crap as you like, but numbers don't lie. I didn't state any horsepower gains with this. I stated it would drop your intake temperatures, which it indeed does.