Ive been shopping around for an aftermarket cold air intake kit, one that i can mount either right through my grill, cuz it has a HUGE hole id like to take advantage of, or in the fender wall. Do you guys have any suggestions?

 

Hit the exhaust forum for questions regarding the exhaust system, thanks.

Try the search function for "cold air intake" and you'll find some stuff

 

the best cold air intake is the one you make yourself. Its so easy and cheap to do. There are tons of ways to do it. I cut the end off the blach plastic where it picks up the cold air and then ran aluminum dryer hose down to underneath the bumper. it worked really good at highway speeds and ut sounded really cool when you put your ear up to it. it only cost about $8

 

what do i use to connect the hose to the end of the black intake part? and would it be okay to just pick up a cone filter of any kind to put on it? and how would i connect the filter to the hose?

 

I'm gonna rig something up once it gets warmer around here, does anybody have any pictures of what they've done?

 

I customized a FIPK, but it could be done with ordinary parts. Scroll about halfway down for pics...

My Setup

 

That was really cool, but the thing is some of us have V8's so how can you do this to a V8? And why is it ram air? Is it really ram air or just a sticker? I'm so confused.... maybe I just don't understand ram air. Yeah, maybe that's it. Cool mod tho, I'm gonna do that too man! But I have to figure out how to do it to a V8 5.0L.

 

Ram Air is really just another fancy name for Cold Air Induction. It applies when the forward motion of the vehicle assists the air in entering the engine. The best known examples would be forward facing hood scoops, but vehicles with ducting that originates elsewhere (below the bumper, in an unused headlight or foglight socket, etc.) are still using a ram air method of helping the air get in.

The mistake that many people make is in thinking that the air is forced in this way, or that it actually creates boost. It does neither. The vacuum created by the engine will always be greater than the forced air you would create by moving forward. Still, the easier the path is for the air to enter the engine, the greater the potential.

In my F150, I relocated the FIPK mount so that the filter was in a direct line with the opening on the drivers side of the radiator, which supplies cool, outside air to be fed to the filter. There is also a duct that starts at the opening in the front bumper, and exits directly underneath the filter, offering even more cool air from outside the engine compartment.

By itself, making it a ram air setup is really not a big deal, and I doubt that it made much of a measurable difference, but the little things do add up.

 

what about when it rains? Does it drive worse when it rains? I don't think I'll use your method because it snow good up here in the igloo country and I don't want to reck my engine. I'm gonna go eat some blubber. Later fella's....still can't find the right way to make a custom fipk......ah wait a sec I have an idea.

 

When it rains, water falls from the sky, and drivers around here freak out. That only happens about 15-20 days a year, though. As far as my ram air and rain, it has no effect. If I tried to cross a body of water that was deeper than just above my frame, then yes, I'd have issues. To be specific, it would suck water in and hydrolock the engine. Knowing this, I prefer to use a boat when I want to go in the lake.

If you want a cheap and easy homemade FIPK, it's simple; Pull out the air box and cut the bottom out. This will expose the underside of the drop in filter, giving you the same (basically) effect. It won't cost you anything, either, but you'd be wise to replace the filter with a K&N. Paper filters that are exposed to the elements don't fair to well.



Take care,
~Chris

 

That sound like a great idea but doesn't that pull in warm air from the engine compartment not 'cold' air from the front of the truck?

Chris

 

Yes, it does, but that's where the FIPK gets it's air from as well. That's why I went to the trouble of customizing mine.

 

I've got some left over alluminum tubing that I was thinking about using it off my throttle body for the pipe. I think that would look pretty cool. So what did you do? Cut a hole in the bottom of the airbox? What would that do?

 

***edit***
well, this sucks. The little highlighting feature has made it difficult to post some pics. I'll see what I can do to correct this.


***edit, part two***
okay, let's see if this works...



What I did was remove the factory airbox (I mounted a vacuum canister there instead), installed a filter/tube adapter to the inner fenderwell...



mounted the filter to it...




and added a breather hose and attached the air intake tubes. On a side note, I hed to seperate and switch position of the tubes to make them fit...




I positioned the filter so that it would be directly in line with the forward opening next to the radiator...




and I ran ducting from the opening in the bumper to just below the filter...

 

That's frigin cool. But for my engine there is the PVC stuff, what did you do about that? Also if you check my gallery I have smittybilt bumpers so this mod might actually work for my truck.