How good is the stock airbox?

I drive a lot in dusty conditions so I'm a little bit worried about how much dust is being sucked into the engine. I do have a snorkel so I'm sure that helps. Would it be worth upgrading the airbox for better filtering or is the stock fine? I'm not interested in anything but the quality of the filter in the aftermarket airbox. No sound, no "extra hp" and things like that.

 

best one you can get for your engine is the stock one. Just use a quality filter and you are good to go. Make sure all joints and such are well sealed up too.

 

The stock airbox was engineered for your vehicle; the performance ones usually don't improve anything. You can search here for the "deck plate mod" and that could give it a boost. Also, the AFE dry filter is a good upgrade that got me an extra 1mpg on a V6 and is washable so pays for itself after a while.

 

My rubber intake boot was worn out so I tried the $20 one from Amazon. It was much better than I expected.

 

Mine was all shot to hell, had cracks as well. Replaced it with the Airaid tube. Looks cool but functions fairly well as far as I can tell. Hard to find stocks that look any good but those Amazon ones seem to do the trick too. A lot cheaper than the airaid tube.

 

I was expecting the intake boot to cost a fortune at the dealer and felt like a junkyard unit would be worn out.

 

After the original airfilter needed changed, I got a K&N and been running it ever since. That was 250,k miles ago. I wash and recharge it every spring.

 

hot take is that its better than the K&N "cold air" that was on my truck. this engine bay heat soaks like crazy so the stock box kind of protects it if that makes any sense. thats why people do the deckplate mod.

 

K&N filter allows more dirt to get through and the filter oil can get onto the MAF sensor. It does flow much better than an OEM filter though.

 

Poking fun at you here... if you are in the dust you are in 2nd place, there is nothing but clean air if you lead the pack.

 

If you ain't first, you're last.

 

Yeah Ricky Bobby....

 

K&N makes a filter element that fits right in the original box.

 

Would the deck plate mod even be possible with a snorkel installed? I currently have a snorkel on the passenger side of my truck and it runs into the left of the airbox (if looking directly at it from the front) It seems the deck plate mod would be directly on the front of the intake. Would too many holes cause problems?

 

The deck plate has a cover that screws in and is sealed by an o-ring so you can install it for water crossings. As far as interfering with the snorkel, it depends if the front of the airbox is obstructed by it.

 

Not totally sure. I'm not the one who installed the snorkel. I'm not even sure it's if plumbed in technically. I know for sure there's a connector and a hole cut into the left of the airbox. The connector then goes into the body panel and I ASSUME into the snorkel. I also ASSUME the connector just goes into the airbox and that's it.

I got the truck from Southern California so I assume the snorkel is mainly for dust anyways. One day I would be interested in taking it off and sealing how water proof the seals are.

My dad has a friend with a snorkel and he has an aftermarket airbox with what looks like a deck plate mod built into it. He was telling me how he has to switch the airbox closed for water crossings.

Most likely I'm going to buy that filter you mentioned once the one I have is dead. I might do the deck plate mod somewhat soon too.

 

The AFE dry filter is worthwhile if you're keeping the vehicle for a while.

 

I plan to keep it until it's totaled, parts are unavailable, or I'm dead. Then that vehicle will be sold for 5k by my ungrateful son for drugs.