you can buy new ones from places like LMC if you deem you need them again.

 

My dad was an automitive engineer for over 20 years and he always told me that Detroit does not spend any more than it *absolutely has to* for parts on a vehicle. If 2.5 cents can be saved, per car produced, that can add up to untold millions. Trust me, those air dams aren't installed "for looks"

 

ive got mine out. have the round air cleaner and figured get as much air movin as possible. i personaly dont think it makes that big a difference. im in AZ and temps are 115 in the summer. AC is ice cold and engine stays @ 175 all day. just my 7cents

 

Well, drove the truck today with the dams removed and the Pro Flow air cleaner installed. Drove around 100 miles. Was getting 18+ mpg at one point. Maybe even 19 on the wide open road. The return trip dropped my milage since I was hauling an entire living room suite and my truck started missing again. Still need to fix the plenum gasket.


BTW, tops I got with the old stock air cleaner and the dams in was 16 mpg highway. I also have 285s and it's not adjusted for those. I'm going 5 mph faster than what's shown.

Milage computed on the digital trip ommeter that's on the truck. Oh, temps were 67 today and it never budged over 190 on the temp. And I even sat in bumper to bumper traffic a few times. At least 30 minutes worth.

 

letting more air into the engine compartment
and having it exit underneath the truck
will increase the aerodynamic drag
and decrease the MPG
but it would take a careful test
to show this
as the gain is only about 1%

In the Magic and Apollo test projects
Dodge even fitted louvers on the grille
to let just the minimum amount of air
into the engine compartment.
====

It's Called MAGIC, But It's Pure Engineering from Chrysler Group

* Small Changes to Engine, Vehicle Add Up to 25 Percent Better Fuel Efficiency

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., June 13, 2002 -------- Chrysler Group
researchers are using a series of small steps in engineering to produce a
giant leap in fuel efficiency that could benefit consumers in the not-too-
distant future.
With a series of engineering changes to Chrysler's standard gasoline-
powered, 4.7-liter V-8 engine, researchers have produced an engine with 14
percent better fuel efficiency. The cost of those changes: less than $200 per
engine. The project has been nicknamed the MAGIC engine, which stands for
Multiple Approaches to Great Internal Combustion. The improvement in fuel
efficiency was achieved with no sacrifice in emissions, power, cost, weight,
engine life or other engine characteristics such as noise, vibration or
harshness.
"We call it the MAGIC engine, but it's really pure engineering," said
Thomas Moore, DaimlerChrysler Vice President and head of the Liberty &
Technical Affairs advanced technology research group in Rochester Hills,
Michigan. "Our goal was to demonstrate that all these little changes actually
work in the real world and add up to major improvements in efficiency. Today
we can say that it all works."
Eight different design and engineering changes were made to the standard
engine. "Most of these changes are not new, and individually, they produce
miniscule gains in fuel efficiency," Moore said. "The idea of the MAGIC
engine is to package them all together so the overall gain is significant."
As a next step, Chrysler engineers packaged the MAGIC engine into a Dodge
Durango SUV with several additional design changes to enhance fuel efficiency.
That vehicle, project Apollo, achieves an overall improvement in fuel
efficiency of 25 percent.

Total additional costs for project Apollo are only about $700 per vehicle.
Areas of improvement are:
* Increased compression ratio (4 percent) -- resulting in greater
efficiency and lower emissions -- through:
+ Intake port air-gap thermal barrier.
Chrysler Group has applied for a patent for this innovative feature.
+ On-demand piston oil-squirters
+ Precision cooling system

* Charge motion control (5 percent). Use of swirl control valves to
enhance flame propagation during warm-up and partial load
This also enables increased EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation)

* Friction loss reduction (4 percent). Design changes to lower friction
at no extra cost:
+ Crankshaft offset
+ Reduced oil-ring tension
+ Shortened coolant jacket

* Parasitic loss reduction (1 percent). New design oil pump with reduced
internal leakage and reduced friction

Chrysler Group engineers used the same incremental approach to fuel
efficiency improvements in the Dodge Durango SUV fuel efficiency demonstration
vehicle.

The Apollo project includes the following enhancements:

* A 12V alternator/restarter to allow transparent shutdown and restarting
of a warm engine in stop/start traffic conditions (4 percent)
* Improved cooling technologies, including electronic thermostat,
electric water pump, transmission temperature management and multi-mode
temperature strategy (5 percent)
* Improved undercarriage aerodynamics (belly pans and air dams) and
grille shutters resulting in reduced drag (1.2 percent)
* Electro-hydraulic power steering (1 percent)

"Engineers have been improving the internal combustion engine for 130
years, so big improvements are hard to come by," Moore said. "We made the big
improvement one small step at a time."

 

And all this time I thought you were just looking to reduce weight.

 

I don't doubt removing them might drop the mpg. But that's offset a little from having a cooler running engine. Cooler air into the intake and cooler engine bay.

All I know is I carefully watch my mpg. I was getting an average of 13 mpg (360 quad cap, 4x4, 285s). And the best I would get on the highway is 15 or maybe 16. I reset the digital calculator and maxed at 18.9 on the freeway before hitting some traffic. All the while going 65 - 75 as read on my speedo. Add at least 5 mph to that for the bigger tires. Probably add 0.5 mpg too.

When I say "maxed out", what I did was reset it after hitting some real heavy traffic and then drove 30 miles or so in moderate traffic. Sure, I need a bigger sample size and I had a full can of seafoam in the gas tank. Plus just using another can in the intake and oil. Also running preimium fuel. But a possible blown plenum gasket too. Something's fouling my plugs. And I'm burning oil.

 

HAHAHA! I wont lie, anytime I take a part off I think about the weight Im leaving behind. LOL.

 

I don't have the air dams. I think a previous owner took them off. I never even knew there was supposed to be something in that opening next to the radiator until I saw this thread.

Its really hot and humid here, it felt like almost 80 yesterday. My truck has only overheated once and thats when the water pump went out.

 

Just to update, I must have had a severe tail wind while getting 18.9 mph on the freeway that day. Still getting 14.2 average with both freeway and city driving mixed in. Most of my trips are short ones and hit a few drive throughs for lunch.