I am rapidly comming to the conclusion that the previous owner of my truck is a complete re-tard. As Exhibit A, I present to you the air filtration:

Yup, that's how I got it. Notice the SINGLE hose clamps on each of the silicone tube connectors. This mess seems to have been pieced togeather from O'Reily DIY parts, not even a real kit. It's Spectre brand stuff [never heard of them], completely unsupported, and seems destined to pick up all of the HOT air from the motor. So, any suggestions on the best way to FIX this mess? No, I didn't get any of the stock parts, WYSIWYG. Right now I am leaning toward just buying a FIPK outright, but in case there might be a cheaper idea, I am all ears...

I posted this up on another site and all anyone wanted to tell me about was how awful K&N filters were and how much of a fool I was to consider one [leaving aside the 550,000 combine miles that my current stable has, all with K&N's...] They seem to think aFe is the way to go, but all I have found is the drop-in for the stock box, which I don't have. Anyway, I suspect this Spectre stuff isn't any better than K&N, and is probably worse, so I need to do something.

So far I am voting against the stock setup, #1 because it's huge, and #2 because there just aren't many 08-11 Dakota's in junkyards just yet. If it had come stock, my first instinct would have been to put in a CAI, I just wouldn't have done this.

So, first off, I had no idea that K&N had such a bad rep on other sites, no idea at all. I have over 550k miles on vehicles with K&N's on them, and my oil analysis has been OK - at least nothing bad enough for Blackstone to flag, on all of them.

Is there a good performing cone type filter I can put on here? I might just take some Kydex and make an airbox/shield, and canabalize the existing system to imitate a FIPK's shape and function, but I need to at least come up with a better filter before I go to that trouble.

Who has a shield or parts they want to donate to my cause?

 

Opinions are like assho....... well you get the point. I have been running KN on most of my vehicles like you for a long time with ill effects. They all do as they were designed to filter air and I am happy with it. My dak has the 77 Series on it which is a large cone shape filter. I ve always kind of laughed at the double filter setups based solely on looks and part functionality. Now if it was because of this setup, thats a different story I would definetly cut that system up and make a FIPK look alike, like you suggested with a heat shield. I think it would be a much better setup for your truck, or at least it would be getting a cooler air temp.

Here's mine:

 

On the Ram side of the forum someone did a dyno with cold air system vs. top hat (hot air off the eng). The top hat made slightly more power.

 

I just straight piped to the OEM Filter box once my cone got to dirty. For me I dont have to worry about cleaning it anymore. and Since I off-road sometimes, it helps haha.
I noticed no Difference between the Cone and OEM Box, I did when I removed the OEM Hat and Hose tho, VERY little

Cone:

Box:

 

The setup you show in your picture is certainly clumsy, but from what I can see, there isn't too much wrong with it. You don't need 2 tubes and 2 filters, K&N filters (in my opinion) are good, if you keep them clean. You also don't need much of a barrier between the engine and the intake filter - when you're driving, there's a huge amount of air swirling around the engine bay and this air isn't sitting around for long enough to get warmed up by a hot engine, so what the intake pipe pulls in should be pretty close to outside ambient temperature. Your setup would be better if you were to take the intake filter closer to the front and to make a bit of a shield to do the following:

• Shield between the engine and the air intake - this only needs to be a single sheet of something. Plastic will work, but a sheet of shiny steel (or aluminum) in better since it will help reflect some of the engine heat.
• Contain the area where the air intake is. This is to allow the outside air to come directly into the area around the filter without mixing with air in real close proximity to the engine. The OEM airbox does this for you - all you need to do is to remove the OEM obstructions, add a good filter, and you have an intake that's at least as good as any of those couple of hundred $ bolt-ons. I like Reject's setup with the airbox, but I'd make a larger intake hole in it to ensure there was no tendency to "choking" - all the rest with all the nice wavy pipes, colored gaskets, etc., is glitz.
• I don't know if the plenum on the throttle body gives you any real benefit, but it's function wouldn't be hard to replicate with a nice smooth large diameter tube

 

ya i've seen those double intakes, but for us i think its too much. Keep the left and take the right one off, i feel like your pulling too much air for the air/fuel ratio. Mine looks like reject's, if your worried about pulling hot air, get a heat shield for the cone annd maybe some heat wrapping.

-As for new filter, i would keep what you have, just pick one of the spectres b/c i think those are dry filters, you might want to double check that.
-for support, the stock baffle was in place with 2 screw holes use those and make a bracket of some sort, i just used an l shaped metal bracket
-another note, that set up would only really be effective if the filters were lower and further out then they are. Keep the left and maybe push it farther, mines only a little farther than yours. Best to keep it level with the engine rather than above i think.

heres mine, bit messy..i put some heat wrapping just to keep heat away from parts of the pipe, i need more tho.

84C4B874-545F-4E2C-989A-6FF597FF74BB-13104-00002B2DB674CE7B.jpg

7DB5743B-B559-4109-B6E8-A614224878DD-13104-00002B2DC0BA22C6.jpg

 

You can build your own for about $15.

 

That's what the PO did... and it looks like it.

 

Well, obviously I mean do it right.

 

If you want a factory made, bolt-on solution, there are a few of them available - most of them look similar to some of the pictures in this thread. A number of these used to come with a bent tin with a couple of brackets that could be used as a heat shield. This approach will cost you approximately $200 and won't work much better than what you already have. You could also take apart what you have, trim down the excess, and re-install it such that the filter comes down around where the old air box was. Once you have this done, you can see what you need to make a partition/shield very simply. It shouldn't take more than a few self tapping screws and a piece of steel or aluminum bent to fit where you want it to fit (not hard to do). Also, take some heating pipe aluminized insulation and wrap the shiny steel tube if it's real close to hot areas on the engine (like the exhaust manifold). I've used 18gauge galvanized steel sheet in the past for such partitions & shields - they worked out well & they were easy to make.

Keep in mind that a number of the 3rd party "bolt-on" accessories look much better in the sales brochures than they do in real life and aren't returnable after you've tried to install them.