I was talking about piping like what's found on factory-intercooled trucks, and what's also available as various aftermarket setups...

And since you mentioned the factory intake style - does your factory intake go over the battery? And I mean the intake that was put in your truck from the factory, not the one that you may or may not have installed when you converted your front clip. Cause the over-the-battery setup really sucks, but the under-the-battery ducting found in '83-'86 trucks and also some bricknoses is way better and very similar to what you put together.

Also, about the smooth tubing being far better than the corrugated stuff used by the factory, while that may seem to be the case from a common sense standpoint it is not always true because as fluid dynamics teaches us sometimes a partially-turbulent flow can sustain higher speeds than all-laminar flow... Not that would make any noticeable difference on one of these engines, but still. The real important question tho is how flexible your new intake setup is? Cause the engine does move noticeably even with good motor mounts, and with an all-rigid piping like yours now I'd be concerned about something cracking or breaking if you have both ends bolted solid to the air box and the firewall...

And in case you didn't quite get it, I wasn't dissing on your work, as for a home-made intake it actually looks rather nice - I'm merely questioning is the real need for setups of that general style.

 

I will agree the 83 thru 86 trucks did have an intake through the radiator shell.

About 2" x 3" with a plate over the hole blocking any direct air flow.
Then the plastic duct from the hole up to the 4" round tube running to the air cleaner, which was both small and had many twisting turns and almost flat places.
I think it went to the junk yard, but if I still have it I will take a picture.

In this picture you can see the stock intake hole with the grill and block off plate removed.
You can also see what I cobbled together to replace the stock setup.



Wonder which one flows better?

PS if you figure a 6.9 at 3300 RPM, you are trying to flow 693,000 cubic inches of air a minute through a 6 square inch hole.
So the air velocity has to be 693,000 cu in / 6 sq in = 115,500 inches per minute
115,500 inches per minute / 12 = 9625 ft per minute

So at 3300 RPM, the air flow through that 6 sq in hole has to be traveling at 109.3 MPH

How could that possibly be considered a restriction on a NA motor?

92 and later trucks with the over the drivers side battery intake, what a joke.
I just pulled that setup off my 97 Stroke and noticed over a 50% increase in boost at any given engine load.

Now I just need to plumb in cool outside air instead of warm under hood air that the 6637 filter mod is giving me.
I may just skip the cool air intake and go straight to an intercooler on it since I am finally able to get boost numbers over 20 PSI after both an exhaust upgrade to 3" downpipe with 4" open exhaust and the 6637 filter mod which scrapped the intake box and over battery intake path.

I don't think the Stroke could pass my IDI yet, but it is getting closer.

 

I popped off when I shouldn't have but when I set out to do this it was nearly six months of pricing and examining different ideas. Cobbled is not what I wanted to hear but yeah I can see the thought process. Guy has truck, guy gets PVC pipe, guy does shoddy **** job and it looks like crap. Let me break it down.

I used flexible high temp rubber tubing from a semi wrecking shop to attach to the metal air filter housing. It fit like a glove so I left it be, I then epoxy'd the elbow on to that and epoxy'd the next section of straight to that. The next elbow heads south to a pickup tube that I heated and formed to fit right next to the 6x3 opening below the battery. There are only zipties holding the end in place so it's removeable with ease. It is anything but cobbled and so I made the remark. Apologies, hope you know what I mean.

 

cool stuff
and for anyone who wondered I did post the leaf blower bit up for the humor of it

 

Talk about cold air...



This is something like what I will be making/buying if I can find the one I want for my truck (and if I can find the room in the engine bay) I love having a side mounted turbo....all the cold air flow is just right there.

 

Dave S, my bricknose has no plate in front of that hole in the rad support, dunno if it should or not but it does just fine through nasty rains even without it. The 109mph velocity is kinda scary yes, but with my N/A engine I don't notice any problem riding the overspeed governor (3800 rpms) even in 1st gear (low vehicle speed so no ram-air effect) and judging by exhaust color I apparently don't overfuel either so even if I did a monster intake it would do me little good in the performance department...

Wreckingball, good then, this means your intake won't self-destruct - which if it were to happen would be a shame. And don't worry about venting the steam earlier, I should have worded it differently anyways...

 

screw puttin that on your engine..... thats the answer to the earlier post about low airflow for your heater and a/c system lol. supercharge your system, sounds good to me.

 

I can just see some kids out there trying to stuff a leaf blower under their ricers. Probably have a hood cowl and everything.

 

dam i have enought room under my hood to mount one of those things lol

 

I have no problem with rain with that huge 4" x 10" scoop at any speed I drive with the turbo sucking hard.

However snow is another story.
The first year I installed it, we had a fine dry snow falling hard while I was plowing at the mall on night.

I kept noticing the truck seemed to be losing power after about two hours plowing, but I just thought is was from the deeper snow.

About an hour later, when I got to the end of the push, let off the throttle and hit the clutch to go to reverse.
Engine just died and would not restart.

So I popped the hood and was checking wires.
Then I noticed the filter rubber was gone from the ATS filter box.

Removed the top and the filter had sucked inside the box.
Pulled it out, the intake side had about an inch of ice on it in all directions out to where the box sides would have been.

Fortunately there was enough heat in the cab I could get the filter melted.

From then on, I never forgot to unhook the ram air when driving in snow.
And I have never had a problem since I learned that lesson.

The most important thing a diesel needs is air.
It is also harder to get enough air in and out of the engine than it is to get more fuel in.

So the bottom line if you want a good running diesel, figure out how to get the most air in and out of the engine as you possibly can.
After that, it is a simple matter of turning up the IP to deliver a bit more fuel which will result in more power.

Also the cooler the air is, the denser it is, which means the air and oxygen content in the cylinder will be greater.
In warm weather I can blow some serious black smoke if I nail the throttle hard at low RPM.

At -10 degrees with the ram air hooked up, I can't get even a slight black haze.
But the engine sure does run good.
I wish I could get -10 degree air going in my intake all year round.

 

you need an intercooler now Dave.

nice job wreckinball!
i need to do this mod still too.

 

Well speaking of intercooling... anyone got pics of their intercooled IDI setup?

 

yeah.lets see that 6.0 PSD intercooler setup oreocreaming.
these are just a tease:
Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - oreocreaming's Album: 90 F350 lariat Diesel idi
we need pics that show some guts!

 

would a leaf blower trubo idea realy work for the idi lol

 

try it joe.the more air the better.its got to help at lower speeds anyway.
if ya got one,strap her under there and try it out.