A cheap performance bump for those with intake tubes that have a 90* bend, 3.7, 4.7 etc...I used plain old garden edging to fabricate a turning vane that I inserted into the intake tube. My main goal was to see if I could boost bottom end torque and performance overall. My main goals are drivability and mpg's. When I started I had measured 17.8 mpg to & from work with minimal side runs. I estimate the tank was approx 90% hiway. On the way into work there is a ~2 mile grade, maybe 400~500' climb, before the vane it would barely increase speed while holding 5th gear. I did this by design to judge performance under heavier load conditions.

Intake tube & V1.0 of the vane. I expected the airflow to straighten out the plastic since there was no support, and it did just that. This caused a restriction & performance dropped. this tank gave 16.7 mpg's over 210~220 miles (would have to check fuel receipt)








When I went for V1.1 the goal was to add the support to the vane so it could not flatten out against the outer edge. ON the morning grade performance improved where it would accelerate better (to a higher top end speed) before letting off. It is enough to for me to go after more in getting the V2.0 done.








Today I filled up on a shorter tank, 2 days of commute with even more side routes than the 1st tank. This tank gave me a personal best of 18.6 mpg... best ever for me in this truck.
Truck config is stock programming, airaid intake tube, stock air box & filter, wrapped fuel rails, 70mm throttle body, engine is a 4.7L version.

I plan to make a V2.0 version of it using sheet metal. That version may have a special experiment in it with the goal to further improve the flow on the outer edge of the intake tube. It will also most likely have 2 vanes installed vs just the 1.

V2.0 will be next, out next week on business travel so it will be a couple of weeks before I get this done.

Use your best judgement with any mod...

 

Update... Swapped back in the dodge tcm, filled up a 100% dgas tank with higher speeds and 2 hauls of approx 1000# loads 25+ miles. Was shocked to get 17.2 mpg over 175+ miles.

 

Well I think you are insane +100
Anything you put into the air intake must be a 100% molded one piece safe part. If that gets sucked into your head or cylinder you just messed up bad.

unless I misunderstand you.

 

anything that big won't make it past the MAF and/or throttle blade more than likely. But if it does, it's liable to hang throttle. That'd be my only concern.

 

It physically cant make it past the throttle body boot, zero worries ..

 

Update... have ~300 miles on it since the install, performance is consistent and pulls better than it did then w/o the vane.... the next version of this mod, it will be sheet metal and will have double vanes. I do not expect much if any change but willing to make it to find out.

This update has motivated me to consider doing the '04+ intake manifold swap. The one drawback would be shifting the bottom end torque up the rpm range some.

 

Another 18+ mpg tank (18.2), short fill at 151 miles done so I can have an apples to apples comparison of the commute tank this week. This would compare against the JTCM which was an 18.6 mpg tank. Note that the fuel trims had time to adjust prior to this last tank when I did the JTCM to DTCM swap.

 

Filled up today, 225 miles to & from work over 3 days, 20.00* mpg, a new personal best for this truck, previous best tank was 18.6 mpg.