Hey guys! When i purchased my truck it came with a aem brute force cold air intake and i never thought much about it until a mechanic was doing some work on my truck and said that i was horrible since the filter is not covered and its open in the engine bay so it just sucks in warm air. He had no clue why it was installed opened and said that i should cover it with some sheet metal or anything and seal up the spacing/gaps in the makeshift airbox and then it will pull cold air from the side vent of the truck. I think the side vent is there for the original airbox.
So is what he said true? Or what do you guys think? If so i was going to cover the filter with some sheet metal or something and use that foam insulation to cover any small crevices and gaps in the airbox and kinda direct it so it takes air from the side air vent. dont mind the color of the air filter, its a dry filter but i think i overcleaned it with simply green so some of the color came out

what do u guys think?

here are pics of my airbox area rn

thx

 

I agree with the mechanic...

 

Ditto...

 

To be honest - unless combined with other things like full long tube headers, forced induction, etc., cold air intakes have been proven on dyno's to add on average less than 1 horsepower and many designs like that are actually worse than the stock airbox. The stock airbox on these (as well as the full size GM trucks and SUV's) are actually very well designed cold air intakes already that pull air from the opening into the fender and have very large surface area high flow air filters that capture more fine particulate than nearly all aftermarket cone filters. What you have now is a hot air intake. About the only thing that I recommend on the GM trucks and SUV's is a new air intake tube which is just the tube between the air box and the intake. A better intake tube still does not really add any power but they do flow a little better, add the same bit of additional sound that the cold air kits add, take up less space making it easier to work on things, and look a bit nicer since they do not have all of the hanging baffle bits to make it quieter.

If it were me, I'd find a stock air box and replace that home made looking thing.

 

Cover up asap! Mod a cover that is sealed and also easy removal!

 

thanks for all the help everyone this is a great community to be a part of!
i tried looking for a couple mins but couldnt find a stock airbox, so i think im just gonna cover the top with sheet metal/hvac metal and use spray foam insulation to cover crevices and gaps.
is that the best method or does someone else have a better idea?
thx

 

https://www.ebay.com/b/Air-Cleaner-A...946/bn_1402556 bunch on ebay