Debate: Do cold air intakes actually help with mpg or is it just noise?

At a shop in Tucson last summer a guy swore his K&N intake dropped his truck's fuel use by 2 mpg after three tanks, but my buddy who builds off-road rigs says they only add sound and suck in hot engine bay air - has anyone actually tested this with a real data log?

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shane_moore873mo ago

Nah, he miscalculated. A 2 mpg gain on a truck is just wishful thinking.

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victor_butler503mo ago

I read somewhere that some guy actually did a controlled test with his Tacoma on a closed highway loop and logged the data. He ran stock intake for a week, then switched to a cold air intake for another week, same driving conditions and fuel from the same pump. His mpg actually went down by about 0.3 because the hot engine bay air was getting sucked in during low speed driving. But at sustained highway speeds above 60 mph he saw a tiny 0.5 mpg bump from the ram air effect. So it's not zero benefit but that 2 mpg claim from the guy in Tucson sounds like he's just trying to justify the money he spent.

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