Let’s Talk Intakes!

Hello everyone! Today we will be talking about aftermarket intakes for the Explorer ST. Enjoy!

The intake is what the engine breaths through. It brings in and filters the air for the engine. The goal for aftermarket intakes is to increase airflow to the engine. More air into the engine means you can have more fuel, which means more boom, which means more power. So a bigger, better intake will help power right?

Well no. The engine can only consume a certain amount of air. Even though a stock intake may have a lower maximum flow rate then an aftermarket intake, that increase maximum airflow of the aftermarket intake could never be realized if the engine doesn’t need that extra capacity. This is the case for the Explorer ST. The stock intake flows very well, and does not become a restriction until you start upgrading turbos or going FBO (fuel system, E85, all other upgrades). So for basic bolt-on ST’s, intakes won’t benefit them.

This doesn’t mean intakes are a complete waste of money for basic bolt-on cars. Although they don’t help power, they do dress up the engine bay. In the case of the Fenfab V1 and V2, and only in the case of those intakes, they add fun turbo blowoff and spooling sounds.

The Fenfab and CT-Motor Fab intakes are the only one that adds turbo noises as all the other intakes are closed lid setups. You can remove the lid on the aFe and S&B intakes, but it won’t make a huge difference sound wise. That is why I recommend the Fenfab or CT-Motor Fab units overall, unless you do not like turbo noise and just want looks.

If you don’t want sound, whatever intake you like looks wise should be the one you get.

Fenfab V1 vs V2 Intake

A common question when looking at Fenfab’s two different intake options, is why is the V1 more expensive then the V2? According to Brett Fenning, the V1 uses more material and more pieces. Second is the time it takes to make, because each merge is handmade on the V1. So everything has to be fit up individually. Fenfab made the v2 to be more cost efficient and passed these cost savings onto our customers.

Drop-In Filters

Aftermarket drop-in filters are also an option for the stock intake system. Although it won’t add power, aFe’s drop-in filter is washable, which is neat and can save money in the long run versus disposable filters like everyone else. Otherwise, all non-washable drop-in filters won’t be any different then OE Motorcraft units.

Charge Pipes

I will leave this for another article, but this is important to know. Charge pipe do help power slightly, and therefore are not in the same boat as intakes.

Warranty vs Intakes

Any aftermarket part has the possibility to void warranty, there’s no way around that. However, intakes run a very low risk of voiding warranty because they have a really low failure rate (if any), and would be very hard for Ford to falsely point to and say caused a problem. If you want to read more about warranty and modding, check out the article below:

Will Modding Void Warranty?

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