6.7 Cummins Intake Horn Upgrades
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The 6.7 Cummins in Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks already produces impressive power and torque. However, some owners are always looking for more. Cummins 6.7L diesel engines respond very well to tuning and simple mods. Among those is an intake horn upgrade – also known as the intake manifold. This simple mod offers some awesome benefits for the inline-6 Cummins diesel engine. In this guide, we discuss some the best 6.7 Cummins intake horn upgrades along with benefits, EGT, cost, and more.
*This guide is for the 2007.5-2018 Ram 2500 & 3500 with the 6.7L Cummins turbodiesel engine. For more on intake upgrades, check out our 6.7 Cummins Intake Upgrade Guide.
6.7 Cummins Intake Horn – What Is It?
An intake horn isn’t a mod you hear much outside of the Cummins turbodiesel world. If you’re not familiar with Cummins engines you’re probably asking, “What the heck is a 6.7 Cummins intake horn?” It’s a very fair question, and the answer is pretty simple. Intake horn is simply another word for an intake manifold. Some also refer to it as an intake manifold tube elbow.
Check out the above picture as that basically paints the full picture of an intake horn upgrade. We may use intake horn or intake manifold interchangeably in this guide. Anyway, as simple as an intake horn may seem there’s a lot that goes into these upgrades. We’ll discuss some of the best 6.7 intake horn upgrades along with benefits and other details.
Benefits Of Intake Manifold Upgrades
Some question the power and performance benefits of intake horn mods. Is the 6.7 Cummins intake horn worth it? That question can vary depending on your goals for the Ram 2500/3500 truck. It’s probably not necessary on lower power builds with minimal mods. However, the further you push the 6.7L diesel the more benefits you’ll see. Even on lightly modded trucks there are still a number of benefits including:
- 5-15+ horsepower
- 10-20+ torque
- Lower EGT’s
- Better flow
- NPT ports
With fewer mods on the 6.7 Cummins you may only see gains around 5 horsepower. The stock intake manifold flows pretty well, but with enough power you can overwhelm the manifold. That’s where you’ll see the biggest gains from intake horn mods. Ram 6.7L power gains can be up to about 15hp and 25 lb-ft. EGT’s will also improve with some seeing EGT’s drop by about 50-100°F.
Flow through the intake horn can increase by about 25-50+% depending on the specific manifold. On top of that, most included about 2-5 1/8″ NPT ports. These allow you to easily integrate gauges, methanol injection, nitrous, and more. It’s great to have if you’re looking to really take the 6.7 Cummins to the next level.
Intake Horn Downsides
A few downsides may exist for some Ram 2500 & 3500 owners. They’re generally not huge downsides, but it varies from person to person. A few considerations before buying a 6.7 Cummins intake horn upgrade are:
- Better power mods for the price
- Some require factory emissions delete
If you’re just doing basic bolt-ons like a tune and intake then there isn’t much need for an intake manifold. Yes, it can still help EGT’s and may look better in the engine bay. There are better 6.7 Cummins upgrades for the price on lightly modded trucks, though.
Additionally, some factory emissions equipment hooks up to the intake manifold – such as the EGR valve. Many like to delete these emissions systems anyway, but there are legal concerns around that. Certain 6.7 Cummins intake manifold upgrades don’t have the connections, so they require deletes. Not a huge concern since there are some options that allow you to keep this.
Best 6.7 Cummins Intake Horns
With the basics out of the way it’s time to dive into a few of the best Dodge/Ram 6.7 Cummins intake horn upgrades. Please note – this is not an exhaustive list and plenty of great choices exist. These are just a few of our favorite options for various needs and budget. Our goal is to list a couple popular brand name products and a few solid budget choices.
1) Banks Monster Ram Intake Manifold System
This certainly isn’t the cheapest option around. However, if you’re into diesel upgrades then you’ve definitely heard of Banks. They make awesome products, but you do have to pay for their brand name and proven, quality products. The same is true of their Monster Ram intake horn. It does retain all emissions equipment, and is 50 state legal.
Their gen 2 system flows 936 cfm, which is 122% more than the stock intake manifold. Probably overkill with light mods, but this thing will keep up with air-flow for insane power and torque builds. It also offers 4 1/8″ NPT ports. There are too many awesome features to dive into all of the specifics, but be sure to check out the Banks option. The price is the only downside to what’s an otherwise perfect and legal product.
Price: $549 – 615+
Buy Here: Banks 6.7 Cummins Monster Intake System
2) GDP Intake Horn Upgrade
GDP offers the Mega-Flo S-3 Intake Manifold. It’s a clean looking product as pictured at the beginning of the article. There’s some great designs to help maximize flow with the 5 bolt mounting instead of 6 bolts.
The GDP 6.7 Cummins intake horn has a whopping 5 1/8″ NPT ports. Plenty of flexibility for gauges, methanol injection, and whatever else you can think up. At $329 it includes all manifolds, mounting bolts, plugs, and an instruction manual. For a proven product from a brand name it’s a good price for what this manifold has to offer.
Price: $329
Buy Here: GDP 6.7 Cummins Intake Manifold
Summary
An intake horn on the 6.7 Cummins simply refers to the manifold. It’s a simple bolt-on mods that offers a number of benefits at a reasonable price.
Gains of 5-15 horsepower and 10-20+ lb-ft are possible. The biggest gains are seen on engines pushing the limits on turbo upgrades. However, even on lightly modded trucks you still get some power, lower EGT’s, better flow, and access to NPT ports. Not bad for a mod that’s generally in the $250-500 price point.
We like the Banks system for it’s integration with emissions equipment. There are tons of great features and it offers huge flow improvements, but it is expensive at $500+. GDP also has a great option for a bit less money.
FAQ’s
Much of this info was already covered in the bulk of the article above. However. we’ll address a few common questions when it comes to intake manifold elbow upgrades:
An intake horn is simply another name for the intake manifold or intake manifold tube elbow.
This can vary depending on goals for the truck. 6.7 Cummins intake horn upgrades are likely worth it for some, but not so much for others. The most impressive gains come on turbo upgrades. Some also like the flexibility with the built in NPT ports to run gauges, nitrous, water-methanol injection, or other things.
A few benefits of manifold upgrades include power and torque gains, lower EGT’s, improved flow, and integrated 1/8″ NPT ports.
i want to remove heater grid because of bolt failer but i need intake heater and my 6,7 is deleted is there a option
I did a heater relocation kit from BMP it moves the heater to the intake horn. I also got the new Manifold that removes the grids about 400 bucks for the parts GDP also makes a kit