Hey guys..I'm Nick and I'm new here. This morning, while on an hour long drive to my hometown, I decided to check my fuel mileage in my 2004 Dakota 4.7. While driving reasonably I was able to attain a best of 19 mpg. Once I got into town, I decided to build my own cold air intake because I am way to cheap to spend $200 on one lol. So $16 at the hardware store (one 3" 45 degree pvc elbow, 2 ft piece of 3" pvc pipe, and a 4" rubber coupler), and $17 for a Spectre cone filter at Oreillys (think they are normally about $25, but I used to be an employee so I got a discount), and I was ready to put it all together. With a little cutting of the 2ft piece and the use of one of the flexible pieces of the stock airbox assembley, I was about to get it all together. I drilled a hole in the rubber coupler to put the air temp sensor back into and it was all done minus a little black paint. On the way back home, driving the same, I managed to get 22 mpg. 3 mpg may not seem like much to some people, but for the amount of money invested, I am super happy with it!! I am inserting pics of my digital read out before and after install and of my design (elementary at best, but effective).


Shot at 2012-02-17



Before:



After:

 

That looks real good! Diggin the ol DIY job! Nice work

 

Wow.

For $33 I should do this. Nice job!!

 

Thanks guys. It is definetely a bargain mod...and I love those! lol

 

Nice. But I'm trying to figure out how you're getting 19 - 22 MPG. I have an 01' with the 4.7 (AWD) and barely squeeze 13.6. What's the secret??

I have a K&N CAI, Cat back duel exhaust, just changed my sparkplugs. And I don't even put my foot into it.

 

I'm not sure man...around town and stop and go driving I prolly average around 15-16...I'm guessing yours gets better than 13.6 on the highway right? Mine is AWD as well, and I think that puts us a big disadvantage. My truck is basically stock. It has a flowmaster 50 series single in dual out and the homemade cold air intake...no tuner or anything. I think it would do a little better if I had a flashpaq or a SCT tuner, and would probably give me a little more power as well. Poor fuel mileage could possibly be due to clogging converters, a bad O2 sensor, or maybe dirty injectors...I'm sure you have probably checked that stuff, but its the first thing that comes to mind...also make sure your air filter isn't dirty.

 

Looks good and your mileage is better than average. I get about 16 to 17, 20 on the highway

 

I've heard the digital readouts aren't very accurate but I don't personally know. You should calculated it yourself and see if it matches up. Only way to really know. Mine isn't AWD and I've never seen more than 20 mpg in my truck and that was doing 55-60 for a few hours.

 

Sometimes my digital readout is right on and sometimes its off...I think part of it has to do with the wire connections starting to break down from when I installed it since the mileage on my dash and the over head are sometimes different. Anyhow nice mod, I did the same thing basically but I had a K&N from my old jeep that fit in the stock air box so I just ran pipe to the air box with the K&N in it and then cut the side out of the box for a little more flow. I would keep an eye on how dirty the filter gets though because on my truck at least you can look in the grill and see right into that area, so its a high dust and dirt area.

 

Not to question things but your MPG increase may be due to you are hitting a head wind on the way to point A and you are with the wind or getting a push on the way home point B.

Now this may be due to I have the 2.5 engine but as an experiment to see if a CAI would help me I removed my air cleaner and drove a few miles and didn’t see or feel any difference in power or MPG and nothing no improvement slapped my stock air box back on and it was the same feel so I think a CAI is a head trip and nothing more besides the stock air box is a CAI its ugly yes but a CAI. That stock air box has a large air filter in it so as far as I’m concerned it does its job perfectly. One more thing is the 2.5 had a tendency to be throaty the first years so they redesigned the air box and tube to remove that noise if you remove the stock box this noise may/could return and drive you crazy I prefer a quiet running auto my choice.

Cold air intake systems – More Power or more money in the manufacturer’s pocket

http://www.ricksfreeautorepairadvice...%80%99s-pocket