No, dont worry about it.

The early OBID1 3.3s have no intake air temp sensor and the air passing threw the comp was a meaningless exercise in trying to obtain the slightly cooler air that is normally in that corner of the engine bay.

There are people who have been running the 3.3s with cold air intakes for 15 years in deserts who havent had a single pcm problem. There is no need to add a fan, no damage that will result.

 

I just made some quick mods to my wife's 2005 Grand Caravan. This is rather simple, but it does seem to have a little more oomph!

I made three changes:

--Remove the pipe that goes from inside the fender well into the bottom of the airbox. That tight bend and the built-in muffler looks quite restrictive!
--While the lower half of the airbox is out, I cut out a rectangular piece that keeps air from flowing straight up into the filter. Now, if you remove the airbox cover and the filter, you can look down and see the ground!
--I dropped in a K&N air filter, part number 33-2206.

Benefits:
--Obviously, a better-flowing filter
--Straighter airflow into the engine
--System pulls in air from below, where it should be colder than inside the engine bay

I will report back on my fuel economy with this simple, cheap mod.

Marasch

 

I'm curious to hear about your results. Please let us know after a couple tanks of gas.

 

So far:
--The engine has a nicer, throatier sound
--It seems to take less pedal pressure to accelerate and climb hills
--It seems to have a small performance increase

But I don't have a dyno, and the only scientific measurement will be my fuel economy. I will report back, when I have numbers.

Marasch

 

I have done your step 2. In step 1, does the wheel and fender liner have to come out to get the scoop/resonator? If I remove that, I'll probably use some metal dryer ducting I've been waiting to use for years. I just bought this van, and it has a new filter in it, so that will stay the same for at least 10,000kms. Do you have much dust and dirt in your area?

Jared

 

Jared,

Some directions, based on what I did yesterday. I'll be rather complete, to make this simple for anybody who might read it:

Remember that this is a 2005 Grand Caravan with the 3.3 liter engine. On this model, the intake actually goes to the van's right side (your left, while you are in front of the van, looking at it). I'm still not up to speed on what years this will be the same.

1. Unscrew the clamps on the kinked air hose between the throttle body and the filter, and get it out of the way. Be careful not to tug on the intake air temperature sensor wire on that hose. Try not to disturb the intake air temperature sensor.

2. Remove the PCV hose that goes to the airbox

3. Remove the top of the airbox, using the two spring clips.

4. Remove the air filter.

5. Use a 10 mm socket to remove the single bolt that holds the airbox in place, and remove the airbox.

6. Now, you can see the duct that goes from the bottom of the airbox, through the opening in the sheetmetal, and to the van's right side. This is what we are going to remove in a couple of steps. You can see it being held in my photo. I've purposely held it in the orginal orientation relative to the van in the photo.

7. Turn the van's steering wheel to the right to make room inside the right fender.

8. Use a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the lower two screws of the fender liner. Then, by horsing things around a bit, you can get the liner around the fender's lip and pull it toward the wheel.

9. In this area, there is a single 10 mm screw holding the black ABS plastic piece in place. You can see the tab that the screw goes through at top-center in my photo. Remove the screw.

10. From above, you will note that where the piece comes up through the opening in the sheetmetal there are two raised areas that lock it into place. Squeeze these together from above, and the piece should come right out from below.

11. Reinstall everything but the air duct/silencer we just removed, and you are in business!

12. Before reinstalling the lower airbox, you may wish to cut out the plastic rectangle that prevents air from flowing directly up into the filter.

Jared, I'd ditch the paper filter for a K&N. I do live in a dry, dusty, semi-arid environment here in Colorado Springs, Colorado (and 6000' altitude, too, so I'll take all the airflow I can get!). While I do clean out my K&N filters about once a year, rather than the recommended 100,000 miles, I use them in all of my vehicles and they've been exceptional. Sure, these mods will give the dirt, bugs, mud, water, and manure a more direct path to the filter, but I am prepared to clean the filter on a regular basis.

One caution, though, you may lose one or two inches of water fording capability!

Marasch



[IMG]local://upfiles/35711/B6383F576A8E42819C66591524307877.jpg[/IMG]

 

I did your step 12 earlier today because of how easy it was. My 01 lower airbox is held additionally by an 8 mm head bolt inside the airbox. Judging by your picture air comes into the tube and then goes up into the airbox. I was also thinking of covering the silencer portion of the upper airbox, unless you think that is a chamber that a plenum. From autospeed.com.au's article "siting cold air intakes" having a tube go straight down from the lower airbox at a particular height is a good thing.
I appreciate your fine instructions. 01-06 is the latest caravan bodystyle.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_2232/article.html This is the article I have used for years against stock replacement filters.

 

Jared,

That's a great article! I believe that it is true for many cars. However, I know that a K&N air filter genuinely did help my turbocharged Saab, especially with the other upgrades that have been made (bigger intercooler, more boost, better-flowing "delivery pipe"). On my Jeep, I built my own intake--not so different from the Caravan intakes I've seen here--from hardware store parts. On my BMW K100RT motorcycle, it had been proven on a dyno to have NO EFFECT, as the author of that article would agree. You have to look at things case-by-case, but I'm sure that article is right 90% of the time.

Note, however, that they've pointed out that the "snorkel" (a good name for the part we've just removed) is the most restrictive part of the intake. We've just removed that entirely. Air can come in and meet the filter in a nearly straight line. The kinked hose from the airbox to the throttle body is actually quite large (3 1/4") compared to the small throttle body on the 3.3. I believe that the most restrictive part remaining is the air filter. But, I don't have any dyno tests to prove anything--so take my "engineering judgement" with a grain of salt.

The other reason that I recommend an oil-soaked cotton gauze filter is that moisture is more likely to get into the airbox, now. An oil-saturated cotton gauze filter will deal with some occasional drops of water better than a paper filter will. The paper is more likely to absorb the water and begin to break down. But, that's just another crazy opinion, anyways!

This is a good discussion! It would be neat if somebody would check all of this out with a dyno. But this is the minivan world, afterall!

Now, you could take some of that hose you were talking about, and run that from below the airbox to the right-front fog-light opening...

Marasch

 

Marasch, I will angle that hose towards the opening. Mine is an se and it has the rounded rectangular opening. I might see if I can get in a local dyno day around here.
I agree with you that oil will deal with water better than dry paper. I will remove the snorkel today, and try to run the pipe to the front.

 

I'm not sold on removing the snorkel. It might have a resonance effect beyond noise, and it's tight in there by the washer bottle.