After reading a bunch on the 3rd gens this is what I have concluded. You can either spend around 20-30 bucks for a home brew CAI or 250-400+ for some big name company CAI. I opt for the home brew. People that have had multiple CAIs haven't noticed anything significant between cheapo, big name and home brewed CAIs. I'm willing to bet the numbers on the dyno would be different, but most likely not enough to make me want to drop 300 bucks on a system that I can probably make at home.

When it comes right down to it's all about heat transfer and fluid dynamics. Cold, short, smooth, and turbulent. Get yourself a good filter that doesn't restrict the ***** off your HEMI and make yourself a pipe. The vacuum ain't changing therefore you're always going to pull the same amount of air long as you don't restrict the system too much. The stock box is a great design in my opinion. All the truck needs now is a nice smooth surface that doesn't have any hard turns. Also, when considering a DIY intake you don't want to a material that has a high heat transfer coefficient. In that same aspect you want to consider the wall thickness. Their are a lot of details that can be gone into concerning this, but if you just want a DIY then stick to something simple like PVC or aluminum pieces that you can weld together.

Once someone legitimate does a dyno with a bunch of different CAI, then maybe I'll upgrade to one of those if they are impressive enough. Until then, I don't mind spending minimum money a DIY that other people have had success with.

 

I've been thnking about doing the smooth tube to my intake. I've found a source for 08 tube for about $150.00, however I don't know if the 08 & 09 tube design is the same. I could build one with spectre pipe but I'm worried about it keeping a good seal at the joints after a period of time. Does anyone know if the two are the same?

 

aluminum would be a bad choice for an intake tube if you're looking to minimize heat transfer into your air charge, aluminum transfers heat extremely well and is a poor insulator, just like every other metal out there unless it's covered with a insulation wrap. plastic/fiberglass would work well, though eventually whatever material it's made of will warm to the same temperature as the air around it- in this case, the hot air under the hood.

also, the intake tube from an 08 hemi will not fit an 09 hemi, the rotated the throttle body intake 90 degrees so it's a vertical intake now instead of a horizontal one.

airaid sells a kit called u-build-it where they supply all the pieces/parts and you make your own intake. summit has it listed on their site here
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AID-101-401/

 

Thanks for the info. I'll dig a little harder on the web to see if any company has 09 tube avail.

 

Volant does makes a cold air intake for the truck!!
http://www.stylintrucks.com/parts.as...tfamilyid=5794

http://www.jcwhitney.com/VOLANT-PERF...&modelId=18048

 

I just talked to Airaid regarding getting the intake hose by itself. The guy there said that due to the stock intake hose isn't restrictive you wouldn't gain any performance by replacing hose by itself. Also there tube that comes with the Airaid Intake system will not work with the factory air box

 

If thats the case then why would anybody buy the Airaid kit with the new hose? I am really starting to think our stock airboxes are just fine and some including the XDI True Flow are actually worse. The only one that really looks decent now is the Volant.

 

i think i am just going to replace the air filter with the k&n and see how it feels from there