I wish I had the intelligence of some of yo guys when it comes to tech stuff. I need to study up on truck tech. I'm thinking of taking a College course for it. Anyways, good luck Tom with whatever you said!

 

JustinH,

I'm sorry man but that statement is absolutely false about ram air. I've been riding and racing motorcycle for years, even before ram air was introduced into the motorcycle world. When ram air first came out for motorcycles, introduced by Suzuki SRAD ram air direct system, it freekin' killed. Now every single sport motorcycle manufactered has ram air on it. It's simple the absolute best place to draw in cold air, from directly out of the front of the vehicle facing into oncoming cold air. How could anyone argue with that. And there is no doubt that this forced air into your airbox with pressurize the airbox and definetely increase horepower. I've never done it with a truck, so I'll know for sure after I do the mod and test it at Moroso's track, But I do know for an absolute proven fact, that ram air induction on motorcycles work, and there's no arguing with me on that one.

Tom

 

See what you're talking about it pretty much what I have on my truck. The tube leading to my filterbox is mounted right in the front. Works just like your motorcycle ram air. May not be as effective considering the design, but still the same concept; however, what I was responding too, is what from I understand, is generally called short ram air intake. It's like taking your filter, shoving a pipe in the hole, and have that pipe leading to the intake manifold. There's no tubing routing to the outside world, otherwise it wouldn't be a short ram air intake. What this basically does is your bare filter sits over your engine sucking up all the hot engine air and whatever nasty emissions from it and shoving that right back into your engine. It takes away from throttle lag, but really doesn't increase power. If I had the money to experiment I'd get a short ram and time 0-60 with the short ram, cold air intake, and stock, and let you guys know the results. That's be a fun project for someone to pick up if they had time and funding to spare. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people out there prefer loss of engine effeciency and horsepower for a decrease in throttle lag, but I'd prefer to just hit the pedal sooner.

 

xacid,

Yes I agree that sucking hot smokey engine air is no good. The fresher the air the better, and the colder the better. Unfortunately, we don't get much cold air down hear in South Florida. That's why I just put a K&N filter into my existing housing which is fed into the side wall of the truck.

I don't know if I'm going to bother doing the project that I mentioned earlier. It may be more work than it's worth and may not result in enough actual gains in power.

I think one good thing about those filter kits is that if your intake tubing that goes from the intake to the filter is all bent up, crooked, mis-shaped and small, the filter kits definately have the nice smoothed out tubing that would flow air better. But my 4.2 already has a very short and smooth intake tube with only one bend in it, so I don't think going to an intake kit would make much difference outside just replacing the stock filter with a K&N, which is only $50.00.

Tom

 

Oh, since it got brought up, what's the part number for the K&N that'll fit into regular housing? I kept all that the same for my cold air intake, so I've been a little curious about it. All the filters I've seen for the truck are for the short ram (unless it's the same thing).
And was there a noticable performance gain or is it just overall cheaper to have one? And what about this legend about oil getting on the sensors, any problem with that?

 

I've heard alot of talk about this supposed oil on the sensor, but I don't think that's true. If, in fact, the K&N filter is SO saturated with oil, and it's not, then you'd be sucking oil down your intake also, which would burn in your combustion chamber, I would imagine. There is hardly any oil on these filters, not enough to come flying off, besides, I'm not sure the 4.2 even has a mass flow sensor. At least I have not been able to locate one, unless it's attached directly to the intake itself, because it's not in the usual place that these sensors are normally located, which is in the intake housing behind the filter element someplace. Take a look, I couldn't find one.

As far as performance wise, It's just too hard to tell a few horses here and there, not without a dyno. What I did feel was more immediate throttle response. But I put my K&N on the same day I did my dual exhaust, and to be honest with you, the loss in back pressure actually robbed me of torque. Ken is currently hooking me up with a custom program Diablo chip that is supposed to remedy this problem though. It should arrive in the next few days. After I install the chip, run it about 100 miles, then take it to the drag strip, I'll post what my opinion and results were on the site. I'm hoping for 2 to 3 tenths of a second in the quarter and alot more driveability around town, as far as shifting and torque response are concerned.

I don't know the part number for the filter, but K&N's site will have it. I just went to Discount Auto Parts and got mine. Most regular auto part stores stock them and it was the exact same shape as my stock filter and fit inside perfectly.

I've always ran K&N, even in my bikes and have always thought they were the best. It's a good investment either way for 50 bucks, you never have to buy another filter again.

Tom

 

hey xacid if you can could you provide some pics or a parts list of what you used to make your intake?

 

the MAF is located right behind the housing. If you install an intake system, like Volant, you actually handle the MAF, and the instructions show you what you arte doing.