@aawlberninf350 do you know of a good link to a sleeve install write up? Thinking of doing it but want to get the right shop vac filter and know where/how most people cut the hole.

Thanks for sharing the photos of your filter’s dirt collection. It helps me put some faith in the real world results of the sleeve. Also thanks for your input on the thread. I think I missed you the other night when doing my long multiple response.

 

Not familiar with a write up but it's a straightforward process. I'd get a pic of the one on my truck, but it's raining and, well, it's raining.

Notes on cutting the AIS box; I used a 3" hole saw and IIRC I placed it as a straight shot from the fender hole. But that puts the new air straight into the side of the filter. Doing it over I'd find a 4" saw, and locate the hole lower. Placing the hole lower will put the new air closer to the open bottom of the AIS box and the open filter membrane intakes. Please dry fit the box and eyeball all those relationships and pick a location makes most sense. Also check the inside of the box more carefully than I did for flash from cutting, or it may cut into the filter.

Back to the sleeve; get a common vacuum filter cover like this one below.


VF2001 or whatever

Then cut a notch with scissors. The notch contours to the AIS box, approximated in this pic. And since the material is so spongy it doesn't have to be perfect. The flat edge just smooshes up to the fender. IIRC on mine I just made a V notch, test fit and cut again.

Trim approximation

 

Thanks for the info. The foam sleeve is ordered. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t make a stupid error cutting this awesome AIS box. Part of the reason I asked is because the fender hole is a little forward of the AIS box.

I thought you were retired? No longer have to go out when it’s raining? Just kidding of course! Seriously though I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple photos of you have a pretty day to take some.

I agree with your thoughts on putting the hole low in the box to better lead toward the bottom of the filter. I’m wondering if an oblong hole would actually be best but will need to look again. Maybe cut the 3” hole then extend the front and rear? I am also getting tired of taking the box in/out so may try to be lazy and cut the hole with it in the truck. Mainly I don’t like the wear and tear on the battery terminals.

 

Some pics of the AIS and sleeve today. Glad you mentioned it as my sleeve was a dirty and crumbly. It split at the seam when removing it to get a pic of the fender hole, had to make a new one.


3" hole from inside air box.


Old sleeve as installed. Hole is a straight shot towards the fender opening. I think there is room for lower placement or enlargement.

Fender hole w/o sleeve. Note there is an inner and outer hole thru the fender.


Trimmed sleeve, could easily remove more material. Also not shown is I cut about an inch off the remaining straight end. That way the sleeve did not protrude so far into the fender well, might keep it cleaner and drier.


Pic with new sleeve, you can see it stops just before going into the outer fender hole.


Second shot of new sleeve installed. Note top of the filter support, indicates bottom of filter media. Hole could easily be lower. Well nah, *should* be lower.


New sleeve installed.

 

Oh no! You broke your sleeve on account of me. I’m sorry.

Thank you for sharing the photos. I “think” I was planning on just catching the inner fender and drawing air from the inner and outer. I wonder if this is a bad idea. I think it was the inner that ran to behind the headlight. Decisions decisions.

 

No worries on the sleeve mate! I learned the material will degrade over just a few years, and the load of dust and small debris it carried shows it was filtering air. That's a win.

Prolly not too much difference performance wise in length of sleeve extending into either cavity. Supposed benefit to sleeving is cold external air rather than hot underhood air. It's just a foam filter, hot air gets sucked thru every millimeter of it on the way to the fender. But that side-suckage is slowed so I can see it helping with direction of flow, reducing turbulence at the hole.

 

Good point. It’s just a foam filter so it will still suck through the inner fender section as well. What was I thinking?

 

I will toss another idea in here. Would it be worth it to get one of the oem e99 plastic fender inserts (basically a snorkel inside the fender) that keeps the air coming from the lower front of the fender where there should be less water, dust, and dirt?

 

 

I have an sb filter(which draws from the fender as well as from the front) on a 2000 without that insert and on an e99 with the insert.
The e99 filter gets less dirt and debri.
it also keep the intake from pulling air from the door side of the fender causing a bit of an annoying sucking noise.
I do not think Jason needs this part to have accurate results for his test, was just an idea to ponder.

 

I know Y2KW57 detests the thought of the fender air and I do understand his reasoning. But the bottom line is the AIS is not flowing as well as I would like under certain conditions. From the data I’ve collected and previous member’s testimonies it appears the fender sleeve should help in this regard. I prefer to take my chances with the ice/rain if it means I can minimize the restriction and retain the AIS.

@aawlberninf350 I guess you will get your wish after all. It seems I’ve committed to the idea of testing the fender sleeve mod.

 

Sorry for the long delay in updating the test results. The sleeve mod and testing was performed last month and sorted out the data, but just haven't had the time to come tidy it up in preparation to post.

The AIS Sleeve mod definitely helps the restriction aspect. I do not know how much this translates to real world performance though. A part of the test I did not complete was the AIS Sleeve and checking vacuum at the CCV Port. I suspect this may have a greater impact at that location. —Edit to add: Which could cause less oil pulled through the CCV as SSJ was describing being an issue toward the beginning of this thread (38R paired with AIS). My CCV is still going to atmosphere at this time.

We are looking at a sleeved restriction reduction of 0.2 inHg across the boost sweep and 0.15 inHg at the peak boost with a filter. Peak dropped from 1.0 to 0.85.
Sleeve reduction with the box alone and no filter was 0.2 inHg on the boost sweep and 0.4 inHg at the peak. Peak went from 0.7 to 0.3.
Results are below, attached, and I will update the 1st post as well.

So I took aawlbernin's advice and attempted to put the hole as large and close to the bottom of the box as possible. The thought is that air will have a better path to the filter... Well it is up in the air if this is the best method as the sleeve doesn't want to fit perfectly. I would like to and may end up making a snorkel for this area. It wouldn't have to be fancy but I feel this may provide the best of both worlds in directing the air and more permanent install.

Tests with filter and no filter for the sleeve were performed back to back.

As I have said before, I wish so much that I would have splurged for a proper gauge from the beginning. It's actually embarrassing how much time I have spent with the videos in slow motion and zoomed in trying to differentiate between a fraction of a inHg on the gauge with the wrong range. It would have been so much more accurate and easier with the proper gauge. I have no desire to redo all the testing but the right gauge would make all the difference. I would still like to encourage anyone interested to try and run the tests over using a better method. It would be awesome to see if my testing results repeated for someone else.

I think our testing is finally complete.....Unless I get motivated to stick the 6637 back in to test vacuum at the filter as opposed to the CCV....


Comparison photos


Comparisons broken down in an easier way to see.


Overall testing results.


AIS Sleeve

 

Outstanding work Jason!

I will have to take some time to digest the information you have provided based on your tireless effort to answer the age old question "what intake is right for me?" Once you feel you are done (have not read all of the post quite yet, just skimmed), I would recommend asking Y2KW57 to include the PDF in the 7.3L PSD Tech Folder.

 

Well you certainly gained mad skillz on the media manipulation front! I wouldn't even attempt that.

The AIS hole you carved looks great to me, I need to copy that design. Air to the bottom of the filter box feels like the way to go. Good to see a measurable benefit too.

Reps Jason!

 

Thanks Sous. You actually added a link to this thread in the tech folder a while back. I keep the first post updated with the pdf so that link should be fine as it gets people to the same info and it will be the most up to date, along with the option of reading the history behind it (if they want to see how crazy I am ).

Ah but the media skills really aren’t as impressive as they seem. Once I realized it would be easier to “see” the info in a clustered format I just used the snipping tool and pasted the photos into Excel. Once there it is easy manipulation. I use this program daily at work so it’s very familiar to me.
The somewhat tricky part is getting that into a photo format. 1) make the background white. 2) copy the cells. 3) paste into paint. 4) save as a photo.

I will caution you on copying my hole. It sits a decent amount lower than the fender hole so my sleeve angle is a little tricky. It’s hard to get the sleeve to stay in right where I want it. As mentioned, I may make a snorkel for the sleeve hole eventually. This should fasten to the box easily (can’t really see it so pretty doesn’t matter), would make installation a breeze, and no deterioration of the foam. I picture putting the foam on around the snorkel to help “seal” off to the fender a bit. I’m not interested in getting all the way back to the smaller fender hole, just to the inside of the large one.

Something I didn’t mention in my previous post but I’ll share now.
When running the test without a filter, the box pulled so much air from the sleeve hole that it actually sucked the sleeve out of position partially blocking the hole. I figured it didn’t effect the results much since it is just foam but did find it interesting. That’s quite a bit of air draw.

Thanks for taking an interest and cheering me along!