Back to the question about worrying if the plastic is going to break or get brittle, it won't because it is very thick walled PVC and i smoothed off all of the edges after i cut them so no pieces of pvc will get sucked into the intake which in regards to that one guy; no it won't mess up your motor if something as small as a little shred of pvc; first of all it will burn up faster than it has any time to do any damage and its plastic....not metal shavings or somthing like that, and there is nothing wrong with making a home made intake its doing the same thing and a crappy stock plasticintake just making it flowbetter, trust me its fine i had a mechanic help me out and he said there shouldnt be a problem.

 

I'm just wondering if having 4 feet of tubing that has two 90 degree angles is going to be impeding your trucks ability to breathe more than the stock airbox did.... I have one of those cheap ebay intakes, but it has no extreme angles. How is that working for you in terms of what you were hoping for. ie. mpg, power, throttle response, ect...

 

I appreciate your response gageman, and I agree with most of what you said. My truck is chipped, superchipped to be exact :-). But I didn't start with a circuit board and a box of transistors. I trusted a company known industry-wide for improving mileage and performance.

As for the actual benefits of CAI's, I think its pretty cynical to speculate as to the benefits of intake systems. Most would agree that there are definite upsides, although modest, for adding an intake system that has been designed and tuned for your truck. (AKA not PVC w/ 90 degree angles)

And why the question about 2.5 vs 3in exhaust? Are you proud of your middle school geometery skills? I'm not sure why you put that at the end, but if your trying to prove your expertise I suggest a more difficult problem

 

The longer the pipe the velocity of the air slows down. The 90 degree doesn't add to your performance or efficiency. You will actually lose some throttle response, it's like having a plenum for air to collect in. On the plus side, you are getting cold air into the system. In rain, you will still pick up some water. It's like running in rain. You run into water. PVC pipe wasn't exactly the best idea either. There are no flex joints in there to absorb shock. How did you attatch it to your throttle body? You should at least use silicone tubes.

Now manufactures find a way to compromise sound and air flow. The whole reason OEM companies spend so much money on their intake is to reduce sound. That's why they added resonator boxes and it slows down the air flow. The ridges don't help you either. So the shorter the tube, the more high end power you will have and the longer it is, to a point, you will get more torque. To each your own.

For your set up, I would at least have a water deflector behind that grate.

 

Hey, sorry, sometimes I'm a little cranky in the morning. The point I was making with the exhaust was that companies, like flowmaster which you have on your truck, make mufflers with single 3" inlet and twin 2.5" outlets. If 3 in and 3 out is better, performance wise, why build duals out? Because people are going for a look and sound, not necessarily performance. But, most don't have a clue this is true.

 

Lets talk margaritas and sexand shed some real world light on the subject. Say you are in the mood for a huge brain freeze but all that is presented to you is a stir stick straw (narrow). Not much chance. Now, lets say you have the choice of one of those Sonic big blast straws and your stir stick straw. Naturally you choose the Sonic straw because you can move more volume with a whole lot less work. Moral of the story, it's all about the size of your tube.

 

PVC melting releases a gas that is not good for your engine. Just letting you know. You might wrap it in header tape to help with any heat issues.

 

I love the margarita analogy. And point taken about the 3 vs 2.5. Summed up I think creativity and Do-It-Yourself attitudes are best saved for other areas.

Jason

 

If I can see the filter through the ex-fog light hole, then it's going to get wet.
That fog light hole looks like a restriction to me.

 

perhaps change the intake with some 45 degree angles and that may help alot. The pvc should not melt but the header tape is also not a bad idea and unless your truck goes mud bogging your filter should be fine there. I have a ram air tube that hooks to my fog light hole and I have had no problems...then again, I live in a desert with 5 rainy days a year.