Is it worth it? Air cleaner and exhaust mod.

[NICK_M1009]

Hey all,
I'm not looking to hot rod my 09, but I noticed if I hold my hand half way on the opening of the aircleaner it wants to suck it in (like the stock aircleaner assembly inlet is restricting it from air). I was thinking of a K&N air filter that is 3" taller than stock, and I was going to get a aftermarket lid (for the air filter) and dual 2 1/2" exhaust.

Would this make the engine more efficient?

I dont want to work on the engine to much it is reliable and plus I dont know what I'm doing.

Any tips would be much appreciated..

Thanks

 

[QuickSilver]

Less air restriction is always a good thing, but you won't see any massive power gains from it.

 

[Mohawk Dave]

Quiksilver is correct. Less restriction=more flow. More air/fuel=more power. It won't be a massive gain, but with a K&N it will last dang near forever with proper cleaning and oiling. It can't hurt to have it.

As far as the exhaust goes, same principle, 2.5 exhaust will be fine. I would only do the exhaust if you get a deal on the price though.

If it your pockets aren't super deep, look into better mufflers. I like 3-chambers b/c I don't want to hear noise on my DD. (my race car has single chamber FMs and it is LOUD!!!)

 

[QuickSilver]

Personally I don't care much for the k&n filters just because I've never felt good about something that I can see light through doing a very good job of filtering. Just my .02

 

[AJMBLAZER]

You can see light through any filter if you put it right on it.

You'd be better off with a K&N or regular filter in the stock housing and then creating a cold air intake setup to the OEM knock out in the core support. I did this on the M1008 I had using a combination of civy parts and a duct I found that worked. Small gain. It was getting more, colder air so can't hurt.

I ran two Cherry Bombs in place of the factory mufflers. Maremont (the real Cherry Bomb company) has an application that is a perfect bolt in fit. Assuming you can get your mufflers off your pipe. I have the part number somewhere if you want it. Noticed an immediate seat of the pants increase in power. Not a turbo but still there.

 

[jdemaris]

Hey all,
I'm not looking to hot rod my 09, but I noticed if I hold my hand half way on the opening of the aircleaner it wants to suck it in

A 6.2 runs best at RPMs 2200 and lower. At those speeds, not much air flow is needed and the stock setup gives all the CFM needed. Thus no gain with mods.
6.2 with no turbo at max horsepower only flows 250 CFM of air into the air intake. With a turbo around 325 CFM.

Now, if you do a lot of running at over 3600 RPM, some extra air flow might help a tiny bit, although the engine is going to waste a lot of fuel. Peak fuel efficiency for the 6.2 is between 1800 and 2200 RPM. Any higher, and efficiency drops like a rock.

Cars and trucks with gas engines tend to have much higher flowing air cleaners - but that's because many can run over 5000 RPM.

By the way, I've run a few tests with 6.2 diesel Suburbans and Blazers - with stock air cleaner assemblies and aftermarket twice the size. No measurable difference in power or fuel mileage. Same goes for the C-code intakes with EGR and the J-code that are wide-open.

I attached some photos of one funny incident. Last summer I had to drive my 83 diesel Blazer 200 miles up in the mountains. It usually gets 18-19 MPG on these trips. Has 3.08 axles and T400 trans. Well, this trip, power was fine, but the engine ran very hot the whole way -and I had to stop for fuel along the way. I was shocked since I've got a 32 gallon tank. I thought I was getting senile and had forgetten to fill before Ieft.

Well, got to the Adirondack destination. A few hours later, my little boy was crying, and was all covered with black soot. Ends up, he stuck his arm up one of the Blazer's exahaust pipes and he was covered with black. So, I opened the hood and found that the air cleaner was completely blocked shut with mouse nests. Thus the reason why the engine ran so hot and got 10 MPG for trip when it should of gotten 18-19 MPG. Funny thing though is power was pretty much the same as usual. I climbed all the steep hills at normal speeds.

I cleaned out the mouse nests and got 19 MPG on the trip home.

 

[jimmy-90]

Hey all,
I'm not looking to hot rod my 09, but I noticed if I hold my hand half way on the opening of the aircleaner it wants to suck it in (like the stock aircleaner assembly inlet is restricting it from air). I was thinking of a K&N air filter that is 3" taller than stock, and I was going to get a aftermarket lid (for the air filter) and dual 2 1/2" exhaust.

Would this make the engine more efficient?

I dont want to work on the engine to much it is reliable and plus I dont know what I'm doing.

Any tips would be much appreciated..

Thanks

One thing you might want to do before you commit to a different air filter is drive the truck to the end of your street and back without the air cleaner assembly on the motor. Once you hear how much noise the stock filter with the foam donut around it is muffling you might think twice about useing a different filter. Here is a link to the mods that I did to my intake. Just type my cucv ram-air project into the search function and it will display the thread. As far as the exhaust I can't think of any reason not to mod it. These engines sound pretty good with loud pipes.

 

[QuickSilver]

Sure, you can see light through any filter, but the K&N is worse in that you can actually see little "holes" that particles could very easily pass through. I used to have a SVT Cobra, which like most of the Fords of it's era used a MAF sensor. I was running a K&N on it. I started having issues with it running rough and couldn't figure out why. Turned out the MAF was dirty, so I cleaned it, and the car ran fine for awhile, until the MAF got dirty again. I changed back to a standard issue air filter, and the problem went away. Granted, we are not talking about a huge amount of build up here, just a very thin coating of crud developing over time, but it's more then I feel comfortable letting into my engine. A foam pre-filter would probably cut down on some of this. If you hold a K&N up to the light, and then a decent quality paper filter, you'll see what I mean.

 

[DokWatson]

I got two 10' sections of 2 1/2" pipe, two 90 and 45 degree bends all for $190 from NAPA. This is the way to go if you can do it yourself.

 

[QuickSilver]

I got two 10' sections of 2 1/2" pipe, two 90 and 45 degree bends all for $190 from NAPA. This is the way to go if you can do it yourself.

Heck ya

 

[jdemaris]

I got two 10' sections of 2 1/2" pipe, two 90 and 45 degree bends all for $190 from NAPA. This is the way to go if you can do it yourself.

I don't know exactly what your local NAPA carries. Here in NY, the straight pipe and pre-bend tubes from NAPA are just about useless. They rot out in two years or less. Same for their mufflers. And with mufflers, back pressure is critical. If you buy a direct-fit muffler from NAPA, they will sell you a 454 gas-engine muffler with too much back pressure that makes a 6.2 run too hot climbing hills.

For 20 years now, for all my 6.2 dual exhausts I've been using the following with zero rust problems.

Marine-grade strainless-steel flexible pipe, 2 1/2" ID. I usually buy from JC Whitney, but there are other sources. They have two grades of stainless, with the marine-grade being the best. I've got dual exhaust on my 83 snow plow Blazer that just turned 18 years old and still perfect.

Stainless-steel solid steel pre-bent tubes 2 1/2" OD, or ID, or a a mix. They come in 15, 45 and 90 degree bends.

Mufflers - either Edelbrock or Dynomax stainless steel, 2 1/2" ID on both ends, straight through design. The Dynomax Ultraflo # 17288 are T-304 strainless and rated 1100 CFM each with real lifetime warrantees. The high flow rate lets heat escape the engine which a 6.2 really needs. The Edelbrock mufflers are also T-304 stainless, # 55750.

Maybe a few of you oive in places where rust isn't an issue? Here in NY and Michigan, many roads are salted in the winter and summer. Cheap exhaust parts have very short lives. Same for plain steel brake lines. I switched to cunnifer lines years ago.

 

[PaulbusMax]

A 6.2 runs best at RPMs 2200 and lower. At those speeds, not much air flow is needed and the stock setup gives all the CFM needed. Thus no gain with mods.
6.2 with no turbo at max horsepower only flows 250 CFM of air into the air intake. With a turbo around 325 CFM.

Now, if you do a lot of running at over 3600 RPM, some extra air flow might help a tiny bit, although the engine is going to waste a lot of fuel. Peak fuel efficiency for the 6.2 is between 1800 and 2200 RPM. Any higher, and efficiency drops like a rock.

Cars and trucks with gas engines tend to have much higher flowing air cleaners - but that's because many can run over 5000 RPM.

By the way, I've run a few tests with 6.2 diesel Suburbans and Blazers - with stock air cleaner assemblies and aftermarket twice the size. No measurable difference in power or fuel mileage. Same goes for the C-code intakes with EGR and the J-code that are wide-open.

I attached some photos of one funny incident. Last summer I had to drive my 83 diesel Blazer 200 miles up in the mountains. It usually gets 18-19 MPG on these trips. Has 3.08 axles and T400 trans. Well, this trip, power was fine, but the engine ran very hot the whole way -and I had to stop for fuel along the way. I was shocked since I've got a 32 gallon tank. I thought I was getting senile and had forgetten to fill before Ieft.

Well, got to the Adirondack destination. A few hours later, my little boy was crying, and was all covered with black soot. Ends up, he stuck his arm up one of the Blazer's exahaust pipes and he was covered with black. So, I opened the hood and found that the air cleaner was completely blocked shut with mouse nests. Thus the reason why the engine ran so hot and got 10 MPG for trip when it should of gotten 18-19 MPG. Funny thing though is power was pretty much the same as usual. I climbed all the steep hills at normal speeds.

I cleaned out the mouse nests and got 19 MPG on the trip home.

Oh man, that's gnarly! Your boy really helped with the troubleshooting!

 

[DokWatson]

I don't know exactly what your local NAPA carries. Here in NY, the straight pipe and pre-bend tubes from NAPA are just about useless. They rot out in two years or less. Same for their mufflers. And with mufflers, back pressure is critical. If you buy a direct-fit muffler from NAPA, they will sell you a 454 gas-engine muffler with too much back pressure that makes a 6.2 run too hot climbing hills.

For 20 years now, for all my 6.2 dual exhausts I've been using the following with zero rust problems.

Marine-grade strainless-steel flexible pipe, 2 1/2" ID. I usually buy from JC Whitney, but there are other sources. They have two grades of stainless, with the marine-grade being the best. I've got dual exhaust on my 83 snow plow Blazer that just turned 18 years old and still perfect.

Stainless-steel solid steel pre-bent tubes 2 1/2" OD, or ID, or a a mix. They come in 15, 45 and 90 degree bends.

Mufflers - either Edelbrock or Dynomax stainless steel, 2 1/2" ID on both ends, straight through design. The Dynomax Ultraflo # 17288 are T-304 strainless and rated 1100 CFM each with real lifetime warrantees. The high flow rate lets heat escape the engine which a 6.2 really needs. The Edelbrock mufflers are also T-304 stainless, # 55750.

Maybe a few of you oive in places where rust isn't an issue? Here in NY and Michigan, many roads are salted in the winter and summer. Cheap exhaust parts have very short lives. Same for plain steel brake lines. I switched to cunnifer lines years ago.

Roads aren't salted in Alaska.

 

[NICK_M1009]

Roads aren't salted in Alaska.

Lucky dog... Dont come to Michigan, atleast in the winter.


A big THANKS to everyone.

I do feel sorry for that little guy in the pic.

One thing I did'nt think of is the NOISE that is coming from the aircleaner. I took the cleaner off and fired it up, and ya it's much louder.. But, I kinda like it.

I understand it is a low RPM engine and is not sucking air like a gas motor. I drive this thing like a 80 year old man ( no offence to the older drivers out there) but diesel at $3.85 per gallon I'm looking for a little better MPG's. I to get around 20 MPG's and am not complaining, but if I could get 23-26 or more that would be great.

I am going to look into a different set of mufflers, and am going to look into getting a open aircleaner. Dont know about the K&N tho, I see what the one guy was talking about you can see alot more light thru the K&N and there are more holes to let the little particles thru.

Again thanks for the time spent on the feedback and the pics.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

You're not going to see much better out of a M1009 without OD. A civilian Blazer with OD, highway gears, and smallish tires would do better.

 

[jdemaris]

Lucky dog... Dont come to Michigan, atleast in the winter.


diesel at $3.85 per gallon I'm looking for a little better MPG's. I to get around 20 MPG's and am not complaining, but if I could get 23-26 or more that would be great.

Our weather here in central NY is worse then any of the lower peninsula of Michigan. We're about even with the UP for lousiness, cold, lack of sun, snow, etc. I've got a farm in northern Michigan near the big Mac Bridge, so I get there fairly often.

Like the other poster already stated. Best mileage gains will be from having overdriive, stock narrow tires, etc. If you have a T400 auto trans, just the lack of a lock-up torque converter is very wasteful. Too bad. T400 is a workhose.
The T400 with a lockup converter and OD added is the 4L80E. Nice trans, but expenive to hook up to a 6.2 diesel. You need a rare GM controller made 1991-1993, or an expensive aftermarket one.

700R4/4L60 is a nice change from the T400. Much lower 1st gear, lockup converter and OD. But, they're not worth having unless 1988 or newer. If swapping from an OEM T400s setup, you'd have to add a TV cable to make it work.

For standard shift, GM used as original equipment a neat four-speed manual trans with overdrve for 6.2s. New Process 833. I've got two. Many have used the cheap NV3500 five-speed manuals from light-duty newer trucks and done OK with 6.2s.

Adding a turbo can also boost your mileage - but what usually happens is - once you have more power, you use it. So you go faster and maybe use the same fuel as before. If you live at a altitude over 4000 feet, a turbo is a must, just to "break even."

You might see 23 MPG as a best with some mods, but you're never going to get 26 MPG unless you swap engines and stick in a 3.9 liter turbo Cummins.

Maybe if prices keep going up, the government will issue waivers again to let us all drive with heating oil. Right now, it's $3.30 a gallon here in NY. Not cheap, but highway diesel right now is $4.20.

 

[M1008driver]

I got mine done at a muffler shop today. It was kind of pricey, $647, with two exhaust pipes and mufflers. I got the VForce mufflers and 2 1/2 inch pipes. The sound is great and now my transmission shifts at the proper speeds, don't know why as I am changing the fluid and filter soon just to be safe.

EDIT- I took my truck out and it does not slow down in big hills anymore. This was a good purchase for me and I got my wife to pay for it too.