On my rig the air filter (K&N) sits in the stock air filter "housing", if you want to call it that. The soup bowl is gone and I have moded the air intake to get more air. I was wondeing if a guy could buy one of those stainless steel housings that you see on gas engines, the ones that just squeeze the air filter in place and allow the air filter to show 360 degrees. Is there a reason that I need to keep the stock housing or would one of these work. We always talk about getting as much air in as possible, and I thought this might do the trick, as long as it won't hoop my motor. What do y'all think?

 

With that idea you'd get more air through the filter BUT the air would be comming from the engine compartment which will be a lot hotter. What we really want is lots of COLD dense air. I don't know if your improvments in air flow would offset the tempature increase or not. JUST a thought.

 

Colder denser air works good for gas engines, I don't think colder air matters in a diesel just the denser air. Just another thought.

 

Colder air is denser air.

 

oh then I meant More air, not colder air. woops!

 

Pnose I understand the pros and cons of this idea. Do you have any idea if he would come out ahead with the new filter (get more air mass into the engine) or loose ground because of the tempature. I'd like to get more air into mine too, but I figured I would be better off modifing the intake in front to force feed more air into the stock filter box.

 

That is basicly the mod that I did - I took the original air intake and ducted it down with a straight 4" opening so no water can get inside and to get cooler air from lower in the engine compartment (I have a picture of it in my gallery from a birds-eye view). Good point on the warmer air coming in, but I have to wonder if the increase in air flow would compensate for the air being a tad warmer.

 

bchunter, you are on the right track with the air intake you have now.
I did a little more work with the idea you used and I really like the results.



The front is 4" x 10 " that goes to 3" x 9" to go through the radiator support.
Then it goes to 6" round, that has a 6 x 4 reducer that the stock air tube hooks up to.
I am showing about 4 pounds positive pressure at 70 MPH.

The cooler air from the grill is far better than the engine compartment warm air.

 

Thanks for the pic. I guess I will stay with the system that I have now, but I like the way that you pointed it forward to get more air forced in. I think I will do the same. Thanks for the great idea.

 

Watch your grill clearances, I made a mistake and have to trim 1/2" off the bottom so the grill will fit back in again.

It took me about 2 hours to make the front piece, I have done a lot of metal work with HVAC ducting and aluminum trim on windows. I used to build houses, so I have all the sheet metal tools.

I did a lot of thinking on this to come up with the intake area I wanted.
At 3000 RPM a 7.3 uses 385 cubic feet of air per minute, that is a lot.
70 MPH in my truck is 2500 RPM which uses 321 CFM of air.
40 Sq. inches in clean air takes 1156 feet of travel to scoop up 321 cubic feet of air.
So at 70 MPH I am scooping up 5.27 times as much air as the engine uses. This gives me a positive pressure of 4 to 5 pounds after it goes through the air cleaner. Then the turbo does it's number and I really like my truck. The Dodge Boys do not like my truck.

 

Where's my reference books when I need them.....

Seems like for every 10 degrees in air temp you go up, you lose around 1% hp if I remember right. It will be the same for diesel as for gas, it's all in the science that cold air is denser. If you could boost one to 7 psi and keep the temps at 60 degrees it will make phenomenal power, but boost is heat, so there you go.

As far as power loss, seems my memory tells me that some magazine did a test on a chassis dyno comparing open element to ducted air and the engine lost around 20-30 hp by sucking in 195 deg air verses 80-90 deg air. Of course on the open road I don't think the air temp would spike like on a stationary dyno. Maybe, maybe not, but the sure thing is that my memory isn't always a reliable source of information these days.

 

You da man dave,cooler and more air,gotta love it.

 

Thanks a ton Dave and willd. You have given me great ideas and the material to back it up. Thanks for the numbers that you have crunched Dave. They will be handy in the future. Does the amount or air intake that the engine needs differ between a turbo and non-turbo engine? The RPM's of your rig and mine are very close, so I would guess the amount of air they need would be close to the same.

I don't think that my intake will look as good as Dave's since my area of expertise lies in different areas, but I am sure that I will be able to achive the same, if not as pretty, outcome. I love the winter, it gives a guy the time to do the work on his truck that you dream about all summer. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

bchunter, I wish I could say the same thing, I am working 9 or 10 hours 6 or 7 days a week digging dirt right now, as soon as the snow flies I work till it is all relocated. Year before last we had 28" at one time. I did not get out of the truck for 2 weeks other than fuel for it and me.

As far as the turbo, yes it does use more air because it is pumping the manifold pressure to 15#. But that was not in the CFM calculation that I gave.

One small issue with the big hole in the front of the grill, bugs, leaves and Dodges do get sucked in it sometimes. So you have to change the filter often. The Dodges are so messy to clean out of the filter housing.
They are just MOPARS though.

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As far as my area of expertise, I have so many hats that it takes a whole room to store them all. I am a Master Electrician, have a bunch of computer networking certifications, am a licensed general, electrical, and residential contractor, but I run heavy equipment right now cause it is more fun.
My resume is about 12 pages long with all the different things I have done or am certified to do.

The only thing in my life that has not ever changed has been "I drive Fords, prefferably Ford trucks", probably because my grandfather owned the local dealership when I was younger. My first was a 1947 3/4 ton.

 

Putting down the Dodges there Dave? I dont like the Dodges either except I cant find anything to complain about when it comes to the Cummins Diesel. I have a Cummins in my dozer, backhoe, skidsteer, two Dogde duallys, and they never let me down.