Good evening everyone,

I have a V10 on a 2014 F53 motorhome chassis. Everything is stock, was.

Anyway, the stock airbox is mounted front and center right behind the grill. Intake is on the passenger side, some sort of capped opening on the side facing front. We recently did a 6000 mile trip and all was fairly good. On the way home we hit rain, not for miles but for states. I know that there was an issue with this air box sucking water in but I didn't think we had that problem.

Once we got home the RV was due for maintenance, part of which was checking the air filter. Getting that out is a project. Once out I noticed that 2/3rd's of the filter was a dirty damp mess, the other 1/3rd looked like a new filter.




I got curious so I had to do what everyone said not to do, I pulled the entire air box out. There is a baffle in there and no one (hopefully someone here) can tell me why it's there.




So, being that I couldn't find any reason for it, I cut it out. One big air box now. Instead of a stock air filter, I put a AFE drop in dry air filter. As for that opening on the side of the air box, I opened it up to 2 inches and added another air intake tube that is tucked over the driver side headlight.

After all that, the RV drives completely differently. It's for the better. RPM's are slightly lower, it actually downshifts when the cruise control is on. There is slightly better acceleration but there are no races to be won with a 40 ft RV.

Only thing negative is the MPG went down slightly. I use the cruise set at 62 to 65 mph.

Last step in this mix is replacing the stock muffler with a Walker BTM. Those worked good on my F150 and F350.

So, what is that baffle for after all?

Thanks

Fred

 

Get a pic with a better angle.
I have an idea.

 

Is that the "fixed" air box to keep the water out of the intake? But yeah, better pics would help. Although, I guess it's back together and would be a monumental pain in the butt to take more pics

 

Took some digging but I did get a better picture before taking the baffle out.




I thought that it was the rain baffle but Ford put drains in the bottom of the box. I can see in theory that if the larger section got soaked and blocked the secondary section would be dry and usable. However, that section has no air intake, it's capped off.

 

Bizarre. What are those two holes on the right? Mounts?

 

You got it, mounts to the steel bracket.

From my research, this air box is used in many Ford cars, SUV's and trucks. AFE doesn't list the filter for the F53 chassis, I had to match it up based on the OEM filter part number which took me back to a 2005 F350 with a V10.

 

Ah, so you have a three-valve - didn't realize it was a 2014.

 

yeah I got nothing. I was thinking back (way back) to some plastic air filter housing I saw years ago which had the breather hose and filter. A baffle was there for the breather to keep oil fumes off the air filter.

 

Good thought, though

I got nothing a this point either - maybe as a "drone" fix or something maybe.

 

Thanks for the ideas, hadn't thought about a breather tube. This was how the side tube connection was.




I decided to dig into the junk box and came up with a 2 inch PVC pipe flange.




Off of that was a 90 and a 22 degree fittings to get it aimed slightly back and toward the top of the headlight.




To which was added a longer piece of pipe to tuck it out of the rain and road spray.




In theory, there is a lot of air going in. I have the ability to unscrew the long pipe and cap it off. I may try that on the next road trip (this weekend) with it capped to see if there is any difference between open and capped. I'd be watching the MPG and the way it drives. Any improvement I noticed may just be due to the fact that I have a new air filter in there.

 

Yeah, that's one thing about paper filters. I get a few thousand miles into them, and can notice the difference. I change them every oil change. Have a Volant on the V10, haven't even cleaned it in years.

 

Why did you cap it? How do you expect the engine to breathe?

 

If your referring to the front blue cap, that is done by Ford. The main intake is on the end of the box (the air box sits across the engine) and the blue cap is on the side of the box facing forward. My guess is that they capped it so water wouldn't get sucked in. When I redid it I made the side intake out of PVC pipe and pointed it to the drivers side, on top of the headlight, out of the chance of getting water into it.

Now, if your referring to my cap, well I did that to keep Ford happy in case it needs warranty work. Take the long pipe off and cap it off. The original air intake is still there.