My neighbor came over a few days ago. He has a 2000 F250 7.3. Were discussing cold air intakes for these trucks. He said he had created a "Poor Man's Cold Air Intake". I expected some kind of jury rigged deal, but what he did was actually kind of neat. He discovered that the oval air inlet opening in the left front fender that is used by the military vehicles is right behind the air filter box and aligned below the filter. He used a 2 1/2" hole saw and cut two holes in the outer side of the box side by side and removed the plastic between them. Then he glued some foam seal material onto the fender arounf the inlet hole. Now he has the air from the factory snorkel as well as the air from the fender opening, increasing the airflow to the filter. He said that it is no noisier than the factory inlet system, but he has noticed a slight improvement in the truck as far as pulling and cruising down the highway. The things you would expect to get from a cold air intake. I'm thinking of doing it this weekend. As far as the expensive cold air intake kits, about the only thing I have ever noticed that is dramatically canged on the truck is the noise and the cost of replacing a filter. I seen slight improvements in performance, but nothing earth shattering. So if there is a slight improvement with Jim's method, I would say the cost/benefit is better. Free is always good.

 

Your right, other intakes use the fender location, and any increase is good. But your still restricted by the stock filter due to its small size. But hey, what you did is probably an improvement.

 

A lot do it with the AIS intake. I have not got around to it yet

 

Got pics?? I've been trying to figure out something to do with mine too

 

Its not some military location... Its where the early 99's got there air from. Then Ford realized there mistake about water ingestion and moved it to the front of the truck.

Look for the Zoodad mod... much easier and better.

Also look for the Tymar intake or 6637 intake...

 

I have the AIS with the fender sleeve. It is what you are talking about. I dont know how to post pics or links. You can do a search for Ford AIS intake and AIS fender sleeve. You should find pics.

 

I've seen the AIS and it is a nice mod. As far as water ingestion. I live in Western Washington. If there was going to be a problem with that, he certainly would have had one by now. He says there hve been no such problems. I suppose if you were running through deep water at a high speed, you could possibly have that kind of problem, but neither he or I paln on doing that kind of running. One of the points behind this was to find something to improve the performance a bit with little or no cost. If water ingestion becomes a problem, you can simply duct tape a sheet metal square to the outside of the box where the hole is. I realize that bigger filters could improve air flow, but we're not really going for large horsepower gains. Again, I have used cold air intakes in the past, and I will have to say that for the amount of money spent, the performance gain was less than desired. Sometime I think that people will tend to exagerate the gains because they don't want to admit that they spent that much money with little if no improvement. Yes, Cold Air Intake do improve performance somewhat, but not to the point that is claimed by the vendors. At least that has been my experience in the past.

 

I am simply correcting the incorrect information you were sharing.

Before you judge the tymar as expensive, do a search...

 

I just looked up the Zoodad Mod. I've thought of that as well, just didn't know someone had named it.