I was looking around under the hood of my truck today and came up with yet another idea for ram air. In another thread on the subject recently the suggestion was made to either install a bumper off a Powerstroke (expensive) or cut holes in an IDI bumper (difficult at best) and plumb the ram air pipes to the holes in the bumper.

How about removing the stock turn signal assemblies and converting thier openings into ram air intakes? The grill openings are 10"x4" - pretty close to ideal. Open up the existing holes in the front sheetmetal (behind the lights) a little, and install the heater duct pieces (like Dave Sponaugle's) between the sheetmetal panel and the grill. Punch a 3" hole through the fender liner for the flex ducting to attach to the heater ducts.

Punch a second hole through the fender liner right up in the top where the hose can come through and back into the engine compartment. From there the ducting goes to the air cleaner. The 1 foot section of ducting that is exposed up inside the fender wells, between the 2 holes, can be easily held up in place with a couple of long heavy duty zip ties.

To make up for the loss of the turn signals you could install a two or three of those 6 LED marker lights on each side just below the ram-air openings and above the bumper - or even on the face of the grill itself just below or above the openings. I'm thinking LEDs something like these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LED-12V-RUNNING-MARKER-TAIL-ACCENT-LIGHT-DASH-LIGHTING_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33713QQihZ007Q QitemZ170046825418QQrdZ1

Probably wouldn't work too well for you guys in the snow-belt areas, but for the rest of us......

 

What? No one has any thoughts or comments on this "radical" idea?!?

 

jeeper have you seen the new freightliner look they have the ramair for the intake so i am thinking of the first ambalance look the one with the silver air scoops on the fender not hard to do and done right will look good to but as i sit here and think of it i live in a real dusty area just a yhought

 

Not sure how much difference it makes living in a dusty area - unless the scoops are too low to the ground. Dust is one of those things that gets in everywhere - especially in an intake with more suction than an industrial vacuum cleaner.

 

Just do it and post pics.

 

You can bet I will. It'll be my next mod - after I install my exhaust this weekend. I've already figured out what little bit of changin' and re-arrangin' I'm going to have to do under the hood to install the second snorkle on the air cleaner.

With a little luck I should be able to have my dual-ram-air done before the end of the month.

Propane injection comes next after that

 

When I did the 92 front clip swap on mine I found a nice 1997 powerstroke bumper... looks really nice... I got it for $50

The PS bumper idea is a good idea for ram air on 2wd trucks, but those of us with 4X4s who use them for their intended purpose might not want an air inlet that low....

your 1986 body style idea might look good too... will look forward to seeing it

 

Would the PS bumper fit and look decent on an older style front clip ya' think?

Good point - of course mine's a 4x2 so that isn't an issue for me....

Yeah, I think it will. The more I'm looking at it the more I'm liking it. Since the heater duct pieces are made from shiny zinc-plated sheetmetal, I'm toying with the idea of just mounting one of those little LED light assemblies right inside the scoops. I'm thinking it should reflect enough light out the front to work as a turn signal, and would look nearly stock - just look like the lenses are missing.

 

OK, I did it. Look in my gallery for the picts...

 

wow, you did a great job. It almost looks stock at night! Awsome!

 

Thanks man, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Just for grins, here are a couple of pictures....

 

Does it need a boost gauge yet?

 

Wonder if you might suck a bird or two through those...

 

well cheeper how's it work did you notice any difference with it.

 

that looks really cool im gonna look into doing that on mine