I've been unhappy with my intake sound for quite some time. It just doesn't sound like a V8 intake should. Like someone said on this forum; "It sounds like there's another exhaust under the hood". It was always kind of "blatty" sounding. Never deep or like a big, 4bbl carb.

Anyway, I had the intake off to shoot some pictures and take some measurements for a possible BFI fitting and decided to modify my stock filter box.

I took my 1.25" holesaw and drilled 5 holes in the stock filter box. Four on the right side and 1 on the fender side. The original intake hole on the box that leads to the fender measures 3" wide. So five 1.25" holes plus the original 3" hole should flow well enough for now. Yeah, I probably unwarrantied something and I realize that those four holes on the right side are near the header but most CAI's for these things rest their filter down in that general area anyway. I also took the stock airhorn off and replaced it with the Airaid tube that fits between the TB and the stock filter box.

Well...I took it out for a spin on the highway (because I needed to get gas anyway) and let me tell you this thing sounds so much better I can't believe it. I did not expect this type of sound. It has a 4bbl growl to it now. Above 5000 RPM's it gets drowned out by my exhaust but below that there's no more blatty sound. The sound also depends on how far open the butterfly on the TB is but there's a definite sweet spot. The intake is loud now but only when you get on it. If your just doing an easy cruise through town it's still as quiet as a mouse. And if I'm cruising at 75mph and foot barely on the gas pedal again you can't hear it.

As for any performance it's hard to say. I just reprogrammed the truck so the ECU is relearning everything. I'll run a few tanks through it and see how it does. I would suspect that low end power will be fine and top end power will be just a hair better than stock but not as good as a BFI.

So far, of all the intake iterations I've tried (Automat and Airaid), this is my favorite.


CN's - Drilled five 1.25" holes in my stock filter box, took off stock airhorn and installed Airaid intake tube between TB and stock filter box. Now truck intake sounds really, really good.

 

Let's try these:

First pic is of the short Airaid tube, IAT sensor and stock filter box.




Second pic is of the right side of the box with the four 1.25" holes. On the left side (that' can't be seen) is one 1.25" hole at roughly the same level as the first, top hole in this picture.




And a third pic:

 

dirty engine bay!!!

Clean that ish up!

 

Yup. And so did my Automat, and so would an Injen and BFI and etc. A lot of the CAI's don't come with a wall to block off the heat. Most of my driving is highway so I'm relatively sure the air under the hood at 75 mph is dynamic and not static. Plus, if it gets so bad as to start dropping HP then all I need to do is tape it off with some heavy duty aluminum tape.


I wouldn't suggest this to anyone who will be doing some deep fording of streams and what not. Water would be ingested for sure.

 

Dirty?! It's patina! Yeah, I know. I'm usually pretty good about that but I've been slacking lately.

 

Yup. Fully aware of that hence the comment in my first post: "and I realize that those four holes on the right side are near the header". But, I'll still be pulling in slightly cooler air than I was with the Automat short ram intake. What I'd really like to do is run a 4"x5" oval tube (front of the box is roughly 4.5" by 6") from the front of the filter box to the front of the truck or 90 degrees through the plastic liner. Not sure where I'd find that kind of intake tubing though.

 

I had read in the 2nd gen ram section that they tested a top hat air filter vs. a c.a.i., top hat produced more power. volume better than temp i guess.