I had planned on doing the kegger mod and welding an aluminum plate to the bottom of the intake manifold. However, my buddy that welds for a living doesn't weld aluminum so that plan isn't working out for me. So, my question i tried searching all over the place for the hughes plenum repair kit failing and havent been able to find anything. Im sure it has to fail some times or eventually? Has anyone come across the hughes kit failing or no of someone having it fail on them?

Next, option Hughes Air Gap. My biggest reason for wanting to stay with the kegger was the power/torque moving up in the RPM range. I have read some say they didnt notice any low end loss, and others say they have. The dyno results show a clear loss in the low rpm and the turner bringing it back some. Ive also heard some say it made their vehicles tow better than stock. The truck is my daily driver and in the summer i tow my jeep on a flat bed trailer to go wheeling. So, my question is will this intake really hurt my towing power? And will putting 4.56 gears in when i throw my 35inches tires help make up the bottom end? And if its a real good idea ill pick up the SCT Turner.

incase you are wondering about my setup. I have edelbrock shorty headers with 2.5 inch down pipes, magnaflow high flow cat running 2.5 out to a 40 series muffler dumped before the axle. I have a K&N CAI, and am porting and polishing the throttle body to 50mm. (5.9L 360 Magnum automatic trans)

 

i didnt lose any low end , in fact i think i gained some, but after 2500 rpms its a totally diffrennt truck. the keg falls flat on its face. the airgap it just flys up the rpms and if you have sct it shifts and stays high in rpms so with sct and airgap together its worth it .

 

Have you tried doing any towing with it? I tow around 5500lbs, i would assume it prolly helps towing on the highway when the truck is already moving and higher up in RPMs, im just wondering if it would be hard to move from a dead stop.

 

If you have a blown plenum already, going to the airgap probably won't lose you any bottom end... at least, not so as you would notice.

You can't find much on the hughes plate failing, simply because it is a better design than factory, uses the correct length bolts, and rarely, if ever.. fail. Doing the plate and kegger mod might be better if you tow a lot....

 

I was kind of thinking the same about the loss of power i have now from the blown plenum and not noticing a loss with the Air Gap due to the fact my plenum gasket is blown and has been for along time and never new about. I guess im just looking for a reason to justify spending the $600. I just wasn't sure how long people have had the hughes plenum repair kit on their trucks with out having any issues.

 

it was def hard too hit the checkout button on the airgap haha. but i would buy agian that and the sct woke this beast up . also sct removes torque management of the motor which helps greatly and it also makes your trans last longer with firmer shifts it provides.

 

I don't do a ton of towing, roughly around 3-6 times to the Sand Dunes and occasionally the mounds in the summer. Normally, i would just jump all over buying the most expensive option just because its expensive and supposed to increase power but now a days I am trying to weigh out the over all benefit and pros/cons to all options. I don't like the idea of the gasket because at some point it will have to go out no matter how good the fix is because its a gasket and it just happens. Which is why that 1 piece manifold is appealing however if the hughes plenum repair kit is allowing the gasket to hold up for 50k+ miles at a time continuously for a large amount of users, I consider that a success. Im just curious as to how well it does hold up, i haven't heard any one posting that they've put a lot of miles on the motor, and are hauling heavy loads and the gasket still held. It seems that everyone post threads saying "Ive installed the hughes repair kit, it looks good and it sealed up good." However, they are making this statement after the immediate install and usually with in the first oil change and they do not give any follow up on the success way down the road.

By the way im not trying to say that the hughes plenum repair is a bad choice and ignoring the fact that it doesn't fail as you said often. I am just trying to dig deeper than most discussions touch on both the plenum repair and the air gap. I am hopefully going to be palcing the order today.

 

I think that the mere LACK of information about failures should speak volumes about the reliability of the repair. I have never even once see a thread here, or anywhere else, about a hughes plate/gasket repair failing, that was not related to installation error.

Consider the number of these that they have sold, the amount of time they have been selling them, and just the number of folks HERE that have them, and NO reports of failure.

Isn't that enough of a vote of confidence? Sure is a lot cheaper than the air gap......

That said..... since towing isn't your primary use for your truck, if you have the money, go for the Air Gap. I would love to.... but, I can't justify 600 bucks for a manifold....... (I run an extremely limited budget....)

 

GEARS GEARS GEARS will give the best results over any bolt-on. More so running larger tire's. 35" tires do 4.88's.

 

4.88's seem like it would making me run to high in RPMs and really knock down speed hurting highway speeds? i mean if you do this little conversion thing i think it helps put ya in the right gear range 3.55/30.5 = X/35 .... (3.55/30.5) x 35 = gear ratio closest to stock setup which is 4.07, so i think a 4.56 in theory should provide a significant increase in power with 35s compared to the 3.55 gear with 30.5in tires. I could be wrong but being that its not my offroad vehicle and is a daily driver and it tows my offroad vehicle on a flatbed for me. It may hurt more than help with 4.88's as much fun as those would be if it was my only toy.