Yeah Million, I just bought the bottom one like 3 days ago!

 

You can walk out with a Mopar and an extra Ford unit for the snorkel for $1 to $5US, depends on whether you are a city slicker or not I certainly wouldn't give more than $10. If you drive up in your Lexus with a suit on expect to pay $50 each...

Those chromie jobs look purdy but they just leave something to be desired on the functionality side. Sorry Dennis but you would get more horsies with a proper setup. The OEM engineers usually don't do anything unless there is a reason. It is our job to figure out that reason and evaluate it. An open air cleaner would be a lot less $$ than the OEM setup yet they don't do it, ask why! When you figure it out you can present your own engineered optimum solution for your application. Those chromie open units usually get put on by people that either don't know, or are too lazy to do the job right, or just want the looks for a trailer queen. -Sorry guys, just statin' the facts. Keep the chromies and just watch while I get smoother operation, more power, and better fuel mileage.

 

I put the "Ram Air" box on my truck a couple years ago. I welded to 5" pipes on either side of the rad support for the intakes. This was easier to work with then the sheet tin your given. It's a 14X5" filter housing and you do notice it when in the upper RPM band. This truck only sees the non- snow & salt seasons though and a warning comes with it to remove the intakes in the colder temps to avoid freezing the throttle blade open. I have a picture of it in my gallery. The fiberglass quality is good and I like the look of it. Not for everyone but your driving style will dictate your choice.
John

 

Carb icing can be a dangerous situation. If it doesn't strangle the engine it can freeze those throttle plates. I struggled with it a while on an old 64F100 with a 292 until I talked with my uncle which is an Aeronautical Engineer. He explained the process and next time my truck quit running on this one particular hill that it seemed to have a problem with, I jumped out and pulled the air cleaner just in time to see the ice melt in the throttle bores from engine heat. I repaired the air cleaner snorkle and plumbed up a heat riser and never had the problem again. I also had the problem with a VW a couple of years later but I knew what to do then.

One advantage to running the warm air intake in the winter is that you can close off the exhaust crossover passage in the manifold which gives another performance boost. Unless you have EGR that gets the exhaust gas from the crossover of course.

 

That was a good read and I totaly agree with you (torque1st)
My question is what about the Heated carb spacer.
Will that make up for the loss of the head riser if it isnt used ?
Are they better when BOTH are use?

 

I don't use a heated carb spacer because that cuts performance in the summer. It will help keep the carb warm in the winter tho. It may still be possible to get an ice condition since a tremendous amount of air is passing thru the carb trying to cool it down. When you add the evaporating fuel on the venturi surfaces and the air expansion due to the venturi it makes a pretty good refrigeration system and drops the temp of the air way down causing the humidity in the air to condense out and freeze on the carb surfaces. The air temp switch works so well all year long that it is just hard not to use it.

Some of the heated spacers were used to COOL the carb in hot weather when the exhaust gas crossover had a tendency to boil the fuel in the carb.

A good plastic spacer under the carb can help keep the engine heat from getting to the carb.

 

I'm not quite clear on the temp switch. Is the temp switch into the filter housing, measuring the temp inside the housing by the filter?

Marty

 

Yes, it is that vacuum switch that mounts thru 2 holes inside the air cleaner housing usually from underneath. It is a round device about as big as a new dollar coin and has two vacuum lines on it. The adjustment is a threaded tube vent that is secured with locktite. There are usually paint splotches that denote calibration settings on it.

 

What led you to set it for 70 deg? That seems like it would be a little warm. Wouldn't it be constantly pulling air from the heat riser tube all winter long?

Marty

 

I used 70F because it was about as low as I could get the temp switches to adjust to. It gives adequate margin for a little error and it is also above the 30-50 degrees that I had experienced carb icing with. The temp switch at 70 will place the mix door open mainly to the outside in winter but will draw in a little of the heated air as required in order to maintain 70F. In other words it will be in an in-between position mixing the air from both.

I also use a short (2-2.5") section of 10 AWG stranded wire, with insulation intact, as a coupler for the line from the t-switch to the vacuum motors. Put a slight bend in the wire to retain the strands. The air has to make it in between the strands of wires and acts kind of like an orifice to keep the action of the vac motors slow. It seems to be a very stable system.

You would maybe expect the mix door in the snorkels to open and close when the temp switch opens and shuts and when the vehicle intake manifold varies but the action is slow anyway due to the orifices built into the temp switch itself and the wire "coupler", but they just smoothly adjust. It is a balancing act of the spring in the vac motor and the level of vacuum the temp switch provides.

 

Thanks Eric. Looks like I've got another project...

Marty

 

Idahocrewcab
has been doing a little work on getting a bigger filter on his 460, you might want to contact him for his findings so far.