What's up guys, Travis from AmericanTrucks.com.
And today, we're trying to figure out how you can easily and affordably add some power
to your aging '04 to '08 Triton-powered F-150.
Now, if you're watching this video, you've probably figured out by now that cold-air
intakes are pretty much the number one way to go about this but there's a ton of options
available.
So why this one in particular?
Well, this is K&N's FIPK series 57 cold-air intake.
And this is compatible with any Triton powered F-150 from 2004 to 2008.
And at around $300, this is also one of their most affordable options currently available
for this truck.
And honestly, guys, K&N really needs no introduction, they've been around longer than I've been
alive and they're pretty much the number one name in the entire industry when it comes
to induction and cold-air intakes for this truck and pretty much any vehicle.
So if you stick with this one, you're pretty much getting one of the most popular options
available.
But why is that?
Well, this is not the least expensive option that you can find in general.
However, it's got a lot of stuff going for it that would make it the top choice for me
personally.
Number one, it's CARB-certified, which means that it's street-legal in all 50 states.
If you guys live in places like California, especially recently, you're probably well
aware of how much of a pain in the ass it can be trying to mod your vehicle and stay
on the good side of the law.
That's gonna be the case here with this guy because he's certified for all 50 states.
Other thing to consider is whether you need to tune your vehicle.
These guys run on MAF sensors.
Usually, when you throw a new intake in there, you gotta do some changes to the PCM.
That can get pretty involved and pretty expensive.
However, K&N really takes their time to develop these so that you don't have to get a tune
on your truck.
So you can pretty much throw this in place, make some horsepower and torque, and you'll
be set.
Other options that might be less expensive than this might require a computer tune.
Now what kind of performance could you get out of an intake like this?
Well, K&N actually pretty much guarantees that you will make additional horsepower and
torque with any intake that they sell.
I can't speak to that personally because we did not dyno this thing, but I can pretty
much say with confidence you guys will see something like single-digit gains, maybe some
low double-digit gains.
And what's nice about these intakes is they usually add pretty nice curve gains, and that's
what you're really gonna feel when you're kind of driving around on the city streets
in third or fourth gear.
You're kind of cruising maybe between 2,000-3,000 rpm, you mash on the pedal, that's where this
guy is really gonna make a difference.
Right?
And last thing to consider is the install.
These are very easy to install because, again, they don't require a tune and there's really
no modification necessary.
Anything that you might have to change under the hood is included in the kit.
So it makes for a bolt-on job and, for that reason, I'm gonna give the install a very
soft one out of three wrenches on my difficulty meter.
Honestly, guys, it shouldn't take you more than an hour, maybe 2 hours to get this done.
And I'm actually gonna help you out with that, so that makes this a great first mod.
So again, if you wanna make some really easy horsepower and torque gains but you're not
interested in tuning your truck and you wanna stay street-legal then K&N series-57 intake
is gonna be the intake for your Triton motor.
And if you guys decide to pull the trigger on this one, like I said, come back in a little
bit, I'll show you what tools you need to get out of the box and then, I'm gonna walk
you through the entire install step-by-step.
All right guys, before we get started, you'll need a couple of standard drive ratchets.
You're also gonna need an 8, 10, 13, and 14-millimeter socket.
I would recommend having deep sockets for those.
You'll need a 10-millimeter wrench, you'll also need a Phillips head screwdriver or a
Phillips head bit or socket, a 5/32 Allen key or Allen head socket, and a 2-millimeter
Allen key.
You'll also need some snips for your weather stripping and optional but helpful tools include
a couple of extensions, a T20 Torx bit, an impact gun, and an impact swivel socket.
All right guys, first step of our uninstall here, we have to disconnect some things from
our airbox here.
We're gonna disconnect our MAF sensor, go ahead and pull the red tab, give it a squeeze,
and pull it free.
All right, next we're gonna pull this breather hose off the passenger side here.
You see this little green tab?
Go ahead and push down on that and then pop it free.
Now, there might be one of these connections on the opposite side as well.
If there is another breather hose on that side, go ahead and do the same thing.
All right, next we're gonna loosen up our air box.
There's four bolts securing it, two on either side here.
You see these little studs?
You need a 10-millimeter deep socket to remove these.
Now these are sitting in a plastic housing, guys, and there can be some corrosion on there,
it's helpful to spray those down.
All right.
Last, we're gonna remove this bolt.
This is actually securing the intake tube inside the engine bay.
It's a 10-millimeter bolt so you can use that same socket.
And once you've removed this bolt, you can pull the entire intake assembly from underneath
the hood.
All right.
If your truck is equipped with this support bracket from that bolt we just removed, you'll
need to pull this bracket off of here.
This is secured with 2 13-millimeter nuts so you'll need a 15-millimeter socket.
So once you've removed that bracket, you wanna put one of those nuts back on the bottom mounting
stud and tighten it back down.
All right guys, next we're gonna remove our throttle body.
But before we pull the four bolts securing it to the intake manifold, you have to get
rid of this little sensor right here.
So go ahead and pop this little rubber cap up, pop that little cap up right there as
well, give it a good press and disconnect it.
All right, with that out of the way, you can remove the four bolts securing the throttle
body and it's that same 10-mil socket.
All right.
Now once you pulled the throttle body up, there's also a second connection right here,
same process.
Go ahead and press that red tab and pull it free.
All right guys, now that our throttle body is removed, we can install the elbow that's
gonna secure our throttle body to our intake manifold.
Now, if you've been following along the instructions with the video, they tell you to install the
throttle body on the elbow first.
But, guys, it's a lot easier to actually install the elbow on the manifold.
It gives you a little bit more space so you can get these bolts in here.
Now you're securing the elbow to the manifold with the four hex bolts provided in the kit.
They also have flat washers and crush washers, and they use 10-millimeter flanges so you
can get away with using a 10-millimeter socket or a wrench.
It is a pretty cramped space in here so you'll probably need to use a wrench.
It's helpful to have a ratcheting wrench for these.
All right.
Let's go ahead and see if we can get our gun on here.
All right guys.
Now we're gonna seat our throttle body on here.
We're reusing those bolts we removed and we have to put a gasket on here.
So a little trick to do this, put the two top bolts on the throttle body, and then get
the gasket on there.
And then get these guys hand-threaded.
Just gonna make sure that gasket lines up so you don't have any leaks.
All right.
Once you got all those hand-threaded, you can drive them home with your 10-mil.
All right.
Once the throttle body has been installed, you can reconnect all of your electrical connections.
All right guys, we have our factory intake system removed.
I wanted to throw this up here real quick next to our new system, that way you guys
can see what a nice improvement K&N makes over our factory setup.
There's really no better phrasing to say this.
This thing looks ridiculous.
Right?
It looks kinda ugly, it's kinda stupid, looks like a weird spaceship or something like that.
And then, you also got this paper element filtering here, this is definitely not worthy
of a 5.4 motor.
So we got our new high-flow filter here.
This guy is cool, he's washable, reusable, good for up to 100,000 miles.
Now, before we ditch our old [inaudible 00:08:30] here, we do have to pull our MAF sensor out
of here.
They do provide a little Torx key but this is a T20 Torx bit.
So if you have a Torx set handy, go ahead and pop that free.
All right, now when you go to pull the MAF sensor, if you're using your own sockets or
bits, you wanna use hand tools because these are threaded into plastic threads and they're
very easy to strip out.
We are not reusing these Torx-bit screws, by the way.
So once you pull the MAF sensor, you can discard these.
All right guys, now we're gonna install the MAF sensor into the intake tube using this
adapter plate in the kit.
You want the K&N logo on the adapter plate to be facing outside and you also want the
little diode here, on the MAF itself, to be facing towards the inlet of the intake tube.
Now, once you've done that, go ahead and rest all this inside the intake tube.
And you're gonna grab these little Allen-head bolts in the kit.
They're kinda distinguishable because they have a little bit of a gunmetal color to them.
You also need the crush washers for these.
In order to secure this stuff, you'll need a 5/32 Allen key or Allen-head socket.
All right, once the adapter plate is installed, you can throw the MAF sensor on there, line
up the holes on the MAF with the holes on the adapter plate, and grab these smaller
Allen-head bolts in the kit, again, that same gunmetal color.
And you'll need a 2-millimeter Allen key to tighten these down.
All right, once you have the MAF sensor taken care of, you can flip the intake tube over.
We're gonna be installing this support bracket here, that's gonna be connecting to that bracket
that we removed earlier.
Now, in order to secure this, you're gonna be grabbing this little short fat stubby bolt
in the kit.
It also has a flat washer and another crush washer, and you're gonna be putting it in
this pre-threaded hole on the intake tube here.
Now, to tighten this down, you'll need a 13-millimeter socket.
All right guys, our intake tubes are all ready to go.
Now, we're gonna tackle some of the stuff we need to do to our heat shield.
First thing we need to do is install our weather stripping.
Now, there's probably gonna be a little bit of excess here so you'll need a pair of snips
to cut off all the extra.
Now, when you're installing the weather stripping, you wanna line it up pretty much flush with
the edge here.
All right, once you get down to this corner here where it kinda indents in and flushes
itself out here, that's where you can make your cut.
All right guys, next we're gonna be installing this little L-shaped bracket on our heat shield
here.
In order to do that, you'll need this little hex bolt in the kit, a 10-millimeter head,
and you'll need this nylon-locking nut.
And you want this pretty much oriented so that it's going straight down.
All right, once he's seated, go ahead and tighten him down with your 10-mil socket Allen
wrench.
Now, as you're tightening this, it might wanna rotate on you.
So just make sure that it's still vertical.
All right guys, we've done everything that we need to do on the table.
Now we're gonna install the heat shield in our bay there.
In order to do that, you'll need these little-threaded rubber grommets, and I'll show you where the
heat shield's supposed to go.
All right guys, so our heat shield's being installed on this little base plate right
here.
We have some cutouts for our rubber grommets, go ahead and slide those in like so with the
threads facing down.
Now once you've done that, you're gonna rest your heat shield on here.
And depending on your truck and how it was manufactured, there may or may not be the
hole that you need in order to secure this L-bracket.
If that's the case, pretty simple stuff.
All I need to do is mark that point with a marker and we're gonna drill an eighth of
an inch pilot hole, then we're gonna tap this with a sheet metal screw.
All right guys, now that we got our hole drilled, we're all good to go.
Now, in order to install the heat shield, you're gonna be grabbing these large bolts
in the kit.
They're the largest bolts, pretty easy to identify.
Go ahead and throw the heat shield in place and get both of these bolts hand-tightened
but leave them loose enough so you can get a little bit of flex on this plate here so
we can line up that hole on our L-bracket.
And we're gonna be securing this with this little self-tapping screw in the kit.
You'll need a Phillips-head screwdriver for this.
Now, you just wanna get this started but we're probably gonna need some power tools to get
this thing zipped down all the way.
All right, once that self-tapping screw's tightened down, you can tighten down both
of those hex bolts, so we'll need a 14-millimeter socket.
Now, one thing to take note before we leave our heat shield here, normally this is where
you'd be replacing this factory coolant line with a longer one in order to accommodate
the heat shield and our new filter.
Now our truck actually has a new coolant line in here that's long enough so we don't have
to worry about that.
But if you did have to replace your coolant line, you just gotta pop these two brackets
here with some pliers, put the new line in place, and you should be good to go.
All right, now we're gonna install the rubber coupler on our throttle body, and that's gonna
secure our new intake tube.
You're gonna need these band clamps on here, these have a little 8-millimeter fastener.
So we'll need an 8-millimeter socket.
Okay, now we're gonna throw our intake tube in place.
When you do this, you wanna make sure you line up this bracket with those factory studs
on this bracket down here, just above the driver's side head.
Once you got both of those holes lined up, press the bracket in place and simultaneously
press the intake tube into the little rubber grommet that we just installed on the throttle
body.
All right, once the intake tube is seated fully, you can tighten down your band clamp
on the throttle body.
All right, our tube's secured to our throttle body, now we're gonna reinstall those factory
nuts on these studs for this support bracket.
Full disclosure guys, I probably imagine that the reason they told you to put that nut back
on this bottom stud here is to kinda help align this bracket.
But I actually found that it rests flush against here without anything underneath it, like
a spacer or the factory nut.
So we just took that off and we're just gonna put those back on the studs securing it normally.
Now, you probably won't be able to get any power tools down here with the fan shroud.
So you'll just need to use a standard ratchet.
All right guys, now we can finally throw our filter in place.
You have to set the filter up first though.
You have this little plastic coupler on the inside with this large band clamp.
Just seat those together, tighten them down, and then, throw your other rubber coupler
on there with the two remaining band clamps.
Okay, guys, our intake is technically installed, we just have a few more things to do.
We have to tackle our crankcase blow by here.
We're actually gonna be removing this factory piece entirely.
It's the same fitting on the head side, so just pop that little green retainer.
You should be able to pop this line off.
All right, once you've got that out of the way, you're gonna be grabbing this smaller
hose in the kit.
It's a little long so you can actually cut it to about 16 inches.
Just fit it on this fitting here, on the head.
And then you can press it into this barbed fitting on the intake tube.
Now, when you put the barbed fitting on the intake tube, again, it's plastic threads.
So you can pretty much just hand tighten it and you should be good to go.
All right guys, something to take note, you do have another port on the intake tube on
the driver's side.
This is gonna be for your factory brake booster hose.
If you don't have one, then just plug it with this plastic-threaded cap.
Then all you gotta do is plug in your MAF sensor and that'll wrap up this install.
All right guys, so as I said, super simple install.
Go ahead and turn the key over, you should be good to go.
No tuning or additional work required.
That'll also wrap up my review of the K&N series 57 FIPK holder intake, fitting your
2004 to 2008 5.4 liter powered F-150.
I'm Travis, thanks for watching.
And for all things F-150, keep it right here at AmericanTrucks.com