<FONT size=4>I bought a pacesetter air/fx from Summit and I can tell you it was the best $100.00 that I have spent in years!</FONT></P>


2002-2003 5.9</P>


2002-2003 5.7</P>


<FONT size=4>They are not going to win any trophies for "show", but they will save a couple hundred and perform for you without disappointment.</FONT></P>

 

one problem with that is your not truely "cold air" without a heat shield. Whatever gains you have will be improved upon by adding the heat shield and insulating the intake tube. </P>


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I have a similar setup on my other ride and found much improvement buy insulating the intake tube so that it does not get heat soaked during slow and stop &amp; go traffic (which is a problem in Sacramento, CA ... up to 110 deg summer days) which is your worst case driving condition.</P>


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The Kool shot uses your factory box just changes filter and tube and
hood is it still consider a cold air kit it does not have a heat shield.

 

Grrrr I hate computers! I had to change my screename from Spincycle due to stupid cookies! Anyhow.....................Im kind of leaning towards a KN, but that air/fx one price is real nice, Im so confused. <IMG src=smileys/smiley5.gif border="0">

 

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If your not in a hurry, wait a week &amp; you can get dyno results for a K&amp;N... I had this kit on my jeep, and have no problem plunking down the $280+ for this kit, I know they work well...</P>


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I only added my two cents because not everyone out there is loaded to the gills, and a hundred bucks for an intake is a bargain. I never said this intake was a true cold air one, but the filter is located low and to the front (almost right behind ) of the passenger side grill. How can you say this is not "true cold air". Yes I will relocate the IAT, but that is all I need to do. Believe what you want to, but I am satisifed and that is all that counts in my book. By the way the K&amp;N is great, but at $280.00, i'll take the extra $180.00 and put that money elsewhere.The pacesetter uses a preoiled K&amp;N style filter that is reuseable.</P>


<IMG src=smileys/smiley36.gif border="0"> <IMG src=smileys/smiley4.gif border="0"></P>

 

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CombatVet... suggestion... take part of the $180 you saved and go and get some thermal wrap tape, about $15/roll of 15 feet (I think) and wrap your fuel rails. This will keep your fuel the same temp as it is when it comes out of your tank (colder fuel is denser fuel). This will be the next mod for me when I add a fuel cooler to the setup ($40 from summit). </P>


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I'd also suggest wrapping the intake tube to prevent heat soaking the tube when in stop &amp; go traffic...</P>

 

I'm new to the forum and thought I might put in my two cents on K&N. Hope this might help for anyone thinking of getting one. I have a 99 Ram Quad cab/ 4wd/auto trans/360 Magnum. I bought the K&n Generation2 filtercharger kit (top of the line) along with a Jet perf. stage1 computer chip three months after I bought the truck new. I installed them at the same time and to my surprise, no noticable difference at all. No extra MPG, No extra HP. In my opinion, just a big waste of money! I would advise anyone who wants a chip to instead spend the money on a Hypertech Power Programmer III($340). As for the K&N, I need the air flow. I then added a Flowmaster series 40 muffler single in/ dual out. WOW!
That lit my engine up! I could not believe the added HP. But still no MPG's were noticed. I then added a set of stainless steel JBA shorties but that cut my low end in half. Why? Glad you asked! No back pressure! Waaayyyyy to much air flow for a stock engine. So if anybody is looking for a set of JBA's just email me( bukake1@msn.com ) I only had them on for two weeks. My next addition will be a Hypertech Power Programmer III, MSD 6A ignition, MSD 8.5mm Superconductor wires, MSD Blaster3 coil and a shift kit. I would like to install a throttle body spacer but the cold air induction systems such as the K&N do not allow enough space between the air horn and the top of the engine compartment. I have read studies from many mags and books that say there is no difference in air flow or performance between the drop in style K&N and the cold air intake system. $40 vs $250 you be the judge! By the way, I had to call K&N today to have them send me a new composite tube under the 10 year 1 million mile warranty on thier products. Mine cracked in two places around the air horn. Hope this info will help someone save time and money. P.S. does anyone have horrible braking on their truck?

 

Sorry guys... no dyno info on the K&N swap. The original filter housing has too many cracks in it, so I'll have to fix it before I can take it to the dyno. I did notice improved performance with the K&N, which brings me to another thing to mention... When doing all of the mods we all like to do, we need to remember that the truck weighs a ton (o.k. maybe 2 1/2 tons) and the 5 hp here and 7 hp there will not be noticed as much as say 70 or 80 from a supercharger setup. That 5 or 7 hp also may not be at the peak, it may be in the mid rpm range...

In comparison (my 2 rides):
Stock Ram weighs (consumerguide.com) 4529 (for 2wd ClubCab, mine is 4x4 with bigger tires so its even heavier) with 235 HP

4529/235 = 19.27 lbs/hp (we don't know at what rpm the 235 is reached at as well, need dyno run)

Now say we add a K&N kit to it which adds 7hp to the peak... 235+7=242, now the P/W ratio is 18.71, a .56 change in p/w ratio. Not much is it.

Now look at my other ride (bmw 325is):
Stock bumper to bumper weighs 2866 with 189 hp = 15.16 p/w ratio. Now add the K&N filter & heat shield to this car (which I did and have dyno #s for stock & w/K&N) and analyze the dyno #'s... showed that I gained 6.3 hp @ 4500 rpm & only 3.7 at it's peak rpm 6000. Further analysis showed an average gain of 5+ hp from 3600-6800. So back to my original point, now I've added the 3.7 HP to 189 base hp for 192.7 and a p/w ratio of 14.87 and a .29 delta. doesn't sound like much, but the added power in the mid rpm range has made the car much more fun to drive.

So I guess my point is that each mod will change the way the motor runs in it's own way, some mods may take away from others. Like Coyoteman said, with all the mods that he had done, he was not impressed much, but removing the last bottleneck in the system (exhaust) really helped. I also noticed him mentioning the header issue... too much airflow so he lost his low end torque (I think that's what I read) which makes sense. On the bmw, I played with a couple of different air filters and found that the torque generated was changing with the different filter (butt dyno only) so that is also to be considered.

I read elsewhere that in some cases going to the 1 in 2 out exhaust was causing too much loss in low end torque... So question to Coyoteman... how did your lowend torque feel after the muffler swap?

My thoughts on the gas milage issue... keep low end torque & HP high since this is where the motor spends most of its crusing speeds...

 

Oh yeah one more thing... I still get crapy gas milage as well and think there are 2 areas of improvement,

1) I noticed my A/C compressor cycling on/off all the time (regardless of my inside switch position), I plan to experiment with a switch on this to see if it will help.

2) Fuel pressure is not variable from what I can see. The regulator is on the tank (from the book) and I'll be looking at replacing it with a variable to slightly lean the mix under lower load conditions... with a dyno and gas analyzers of course (dont want to run it too lean you know).

The 2nd will take some time and I will keep my results posted...