about a year ago, i bought the kkm intake kit and installed it. i loved the new sound, but there wasn't much new power to go with it, especially after the engine compartment got good and hot. i have been trying to figure a cold air line route and source, but they really did a good job of putting the airbox in no mans land. (stupid battery!) i have seen the data on the difference the aluminized foam pipe insulation makes, so i was planning on using that on the plastic line from the maf to tb. i have seen countless fipk's and aems and realized one of the keys is that silly bent sheet metal shield providing isolation from the engine. when i did the kkm swap i left the flat base the stock airbox mounted to in place. i now decided i could make a sheet metal shield that attached to that. now the only question was how to get cold air to the filter. i then realized doing the kkm swap i left the stock cold air pipe with the vaccum controlled warm air inlet in place as well. i got under the truck and saw that it went to flex line, and then to a plastic funnel type thing that was screwed to the radiator core support. after pulling off the grill, i could see the other side. there was a rectangular plastic cover over it that was vented on the sides but had a solid top.(hey lets make the air do ANOTHER 90 deg. bend!) by now, a plan was forming. there is quite a bit of open space under the batt. tray where the stock cold air line comes up. i decided that a metal flex dryer hose would for sure fit under there, and would probably mate to the funnel-thing on the core support. so i ripped out the stock ait line, the flex hose, and unscrewed the funnel thing(a real pita if you don't take out the batt) and trashed the cover behind the grill so the air could go straight thru the core support. the 4" dryer hose can be pursueded to slip up to the fattest part of the funnel, and secured with a 4" hoseclamp. i cut the funnel about 2 1/2-3" from the fattest part so there was less shoved in the flex hose, and no restriction down to the 3 or so inches the stock flex line was. the flex line will pretty much follow the path of the stock line up to the side a little below and almost parallel to the maf/cone filter. i just ran the flex below the maf/kkm adapter and pointed the flex straight up at the filter media on the bottom of the filter. thinking now, i could have just slit the flex on the top side back a few inches and stretched it open... to make all this work with my heatshield idea, i would have to notch it out for the flex to come thru. i basically made the sheild following the footprint of the stock airbox plate. i only made it two sided. between the filter and the a/c crap(firewall)and then a 90deg. bend and a piece between the engine and the filter all the way to where the maf attaches to the plastic hose to the tb. i had to notch the top for the maf wire harness and right below that for the flex to come thru from below. i then covered the shield with the alumi-insulation tape to prevent some heat soak. i just finished. i havent gotten to test it, and don't know how to post pics over here. unfortunately, i have no way to measure the air intake temp at the tb to tell if it works, but i think i might be on to something. after tinkering with it i will prob. weatherstrip between the shield and the hood and i dunno what else. somebody let me know how to post pics, and i will if anyone cares. sorry for the novel. i have just been thinkin aboot this a long time and am happy i finally tried something. let me know what you think....

 

Sounds like a good idea, but you cinda lost me there. Some pictures would really help.
To add pictures take a look at this post Creating gallery. This post is located in the user gallery forum .

Chris

 

i got my gallery up and running with a few pics of the install. you really have to size them down/reduce quality from the digital camera... i understand why though, for sure.. server space=$$$$

 

btt

 

so i got to run it today with the new parts in place. i did notice not so much "new found" power, but the power that you have when the intake is still cold did not go away as the engine heated up. as i said earlier i have no means to measure heat differences, except how hot to the touch things are. so after running it for a while the difference between the heat on the in/outside of the heat shield was quite a difference. i could only hold my hand on the outside for about 3 sec. on the inside, i could leave my hand on it for a long while. it was warm, but at least 20 deg. difference. and also the cold air flex line was cool to the touch, which tells me there was a decent amount of cool air flowing through it to keep it cooler than everything around it. i am pretty happy with the "prototype's" performance. i think with a little messin around it could be really good.