Stage 2 Intake & ProGuard 7 Filter

Ford Powerstroke 6.0

By Brian Hofmeister

Diesels need air, lots of air compared to gas engines, and is important that the air is clean and cool.  When you add power to any new diesel, letting the engine breathe with a new intake and exhaust is important to keeping you exhaust gas temperatures (EGT's) in check.  The more air you get into the combustion chamber, the more fuel you can burn, and the cooler your ET's will be.

The Ford 6.0 is a great motor for adding chips or programmers, but it does tend to run hot with high powered chips.  So our goal is to add a complete intake system, see how it performs, then add on a custom exhaust to let the extra air we are taking in, out.  The importance of getting a high quality filter is about the same as using a high quality oil.  For engine and turbo life, you need clean air.  AFE has a filter called the ProGuard 7 that has more layers of gauze than any other filter on the market.  You give up a very slight bit of air flow compared to other foam filters, but it protects better than you paper filters, and flows much more than any paper filter.

The stock filter that Ford put into the 6.0 is a great system, but it is fairy restrictive.  As you can see there is not much room in there to add a large filter and box.  The AFE stage 2 system comes complete with a new, larger filter, filter box, and tubing to the turbo inlet.  The box is much larger than the stock box, and allows for more air to come into he front cold air intake.  There is also a section that can be out for additional airflow if you think it is needed. This filter is designed to flow more cool air, with better filtration than stock, and without adding much noise.  And as you will see this kit also looks great.

To start the install, we removed the band clamp holding the filter box on the inlet tube.  One the tube was removed, we raised the rear of the filter and slipped it out.  This left us with what looked like a large hole in the engine compartment, but we would soon find out, it would be completely used.  Then we removed the inlet tube, since it will be replace by our new kit.  We also took out the 2 bolts holding out coolant reservoir into place.  It needs to be tilted slightly to get the new air box in.

Although its not called for in the instructions, I found it much easier to install this without the battery in place.  Once removed it gave re room to apply pressure to the air box where needed to squeeze it into place.  And once the box is in, you have to snake the new inlet tube into place, and attach it to the box with 3 bolts.  These bolts would be tough to get to with the battery in place.  Make sure the inlet tube is attached securely to the turbo.  Its fairly tight up there, and it would be bad if it were to detach itself.

The AFE stage 2 intake has openings for the factory filter minder and for the mass air flow sensor.  Some new trucks have a temp sensor in place of the mass air flow sensor, and a bracket is supplied with the kit to install that in the mass air flow sensor hole.  Once those items are in place, all you have left is to install the very large filter, and put on the cover and reinstalling the battery.

The new air box and stainless steel cover really looks good in the engine compartment.  There is a slight rumble to the air box at an idle, but it is only notices when sticking your ear down toward the front of the air box.  The fit and finish of the product is as good as factory. Once complete, our test drive gave us a great feeling.  Right off the bat we noticed an increase in power.  The motor seemed to come alive right off the line.  We expected this since the intake system was supposed to add 114 foot pound of torque at 850 rpm's.  Although the gain of 18 hp seems minimal, the gain is noticeable, especially when you add a chip or programmer to the truck.

AFE gives the owner several option when buying these intakes.  They have a stage 1 and a stage 2 system (links are to their product bulletins for each item).  Both intake claim and increase of torque at low rpm's and a slight increase in hoarse power and both can be purchased with the AFE ProGuard 7 filter.