Folks you are throwing away good money. You want better or higher air flow you get it because of one reason........ Less filtration. The micron filtration size is increased to improve airflow. The cold air part is total BS. Why? Think about it... Pulling any air from the engine environment is heated and therefore not cold. Even from outside will not be cold air unless the ambient temp is actually cold. I know it looks cool and sounds a bit better you risk the actual performance of your equipment by less filtration. Warranty issues are a legal point but from a Ford technician point of view.....you get no real life improvement and reduce the filtration quality all for a better "look" under the hood. It is simply not worth it. Please no comments about your great surge of power as that has been proven many times as bunk. Just like a pill to miraculous lose weight.
Limited is EXACTLY correct. Most of the time when people claim BIG GAINS, it's because they added them with exhaust (which does help) and programming (which helps a lot). A CAI by itself will net you virtually nothing unless you can get the air directly from the outside AND the ambient air temperature is sufficiently cold. BUT, the gains are still maybe 1% at most (nothing else done). That's why cars in cold places during winter notice some extra power ... it's so cold that even the air under the hold is cold. And that's with the stock intake.
People or manufacturers always claim "big gains" but they also have the PCM tuned and that is the real source of the gains. Remove the CAI, switch back your stock intake and you will not see anything more than a 1% difference.
An exhaust upgrade will also work well on these trucks, but the exhaust that gives the most (a 4") is also noisy. And Ford will most likely void your warranty when they see it. In fact, the papers I just got for my truck (I bought it last weekend) clearly states Intake and/or Exhaust changes can void the warranty.
The PCM tuning (by itself) will yield you your best bang for the buck performance gain on these turbo vehicles ... but it most definitely voids your warranty if Ford discovers it (can you say "break down on freeway" and no chance to reload your stock tune?
The gains from PCM changes are primarily from adding more spark advance, getting the AF Ratio closer to the optimal 12.6-13.0 range (maybe a tad richer for turbo) and building/holding more pressure in the turbo by holding the waste gate longer.
But someone mentioned "fueling issues". I have not yet heard anyone say what the problem, but until someone figures out what the issue is (and willing to share it with everyone else) ... I would be very careful. If the fueling issue means the injectors cannot keep up due to insufficient duty-cycles, you could end up with not enough fuel and an overly lean condition ... resulting in blowing holes in your pistons). And, sometimes bigger injectors are not an option.
Big injectors may be fine for WOT (in other words racing where you only have two throttle positions). But, big injectors may not work in ordinary "daily driving". It also may introduce horrible driveabilty issues including inabilty to idle. And, if you live place that does emission testing on a dyno, you have no chance of passing.
