Okay,,,,,don't laugh, but six months ago, I tried this and couldn't do it.

Tonight, I removed the lid off of the stock air box. I had heard that you could remove the lid and that it wouldn't hurt anything on the car. Well,,,I took the lid off tonight. Now,,,,my question is this:

As luck would have it, I can't get my internet service manual to open, but on the airbox, there is this thing that has wires going into it numbered one, two and three. Two phillip screws are holding this thing in. Now, after removing the airbox lid, there is no place to mount the thing down that has the two screws in it. Is it okay just to let it hang there? Is removing the stock lid like this okay to do, while letting the wire harness thing just hang down? Or should I just put the stock air lid back on it?

 

Put the lid back on or get 10-15 more HP by putting on a CAI (not a short intake, they only intake hot air)......

Dusty

 

Got it...lid going back on tomorrow.

I had thought about getting an SRI, but I had read on a post somewhere that Dodge knew exactly what they were doing with this airbox (<---one word?) Anyhow, they made it like they did, because of the amount of heat the engine puts out. The intake is shielded by the airbox to guard it from the heat. An intake, it read, would be pulling in too much hot air, thereby, negating any potential gains, due to the exposure of the heat.

 

first of all sri are fine. with a cai the air goes into the turbo and heats up and then goes into the intercooler to cool it down. the sri work great i have one (got it for $50 of off ebay ) the sri is cheaper and works the same as a cai. before anyone with a cai yells at me let me just say this is only my opinion.

 

I've just compared notes with 2 other guys who have a scan gauge. One has a short ram, the other the stock air box, and I have the Mopar CAI... Get this... Our intake temps are the same. Approx 20 degrees above ambient. These readings are after the intercooler, and being read by the PCM. This confirms what some people have said that - the turbo will heat up the air to a certain temp no matter what and by the time the charge has reached the intake manifold it's the same temp no matter what intake setup you have.

I can say that I never felt the mopar CAI did anything for me. I love the sound and look, but as far as performance, nothing.

I drove without the stock box lid on for awhile, because it sounded cooler. I just left the wire thing kind of sitting in the box where it rests naturally without the lid on.

 

I put my lid back on. I really couldn't tell any difference with it. I have thought about getting an SRI and PTP performance makes a cheap one that *looks* good, but have decided against it, for the time being. Bottom line...no more mods until I get a hair cut. Ya just gotta draw the line somewhere.

 

andy - were all three of you using the stock fmic or all the same aftermarket one? what were the ambient temperatures at the time of each testing? had the cars been running for a while at idle or had they been racing? what was the air density at the time? what time of day was it? just saying that three people saw similar temperatures doesn't mean a whole lot, as there are a ton of other factors that go into it. three cars sitting next to each other at the same time on the same day, then yea you can compare results, anything else is just saying "hey we got the same numbers!!!! woohoo!!!!"

 

All using the stock FMIC.

It doesn't really matter if it's at idle, racing, driving stop light to stop light, because the temps stay the same under each of those conditions. ~ 20 above ambient, regardless of ambient temp. At WOT rises, 5-15 degrees, and drops after lift. 60 degrees out intake temps sit at 80-85, 70 degrees out, intake temps sit 90-95, 80 degrees out intake temps sit 100-105. I even went in the curves yesterday, not to test these numbers just for fun, and watched intake temps and even under hard driving on and off WOT in the curves intake temps are consistantly the same. Another interesting note, it appears that my temps rise to 130 when running WOT through more than one gear, regardless of ambient temp. I was reading 130 when it was 90 outside, today it's reading 130 and it's 70 outside. It's not very complicated to understand especially when the data is so consistant for each person.

Your condescension aside, this wasn't done for anyone but myself and I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I only even posted it because it directly related to the two posts above mine. I never wrote anything down, didn't do any kind of "scientific" testing. Simply asked 2 other guys how their intake temps behave. When all 3 see ~ 20 above ambient at all times, it's cut and dry. Any temp difference less than 10 degrees would be negligible, and there is clearly not even close to that much of a variance with any intake setup. You put ice in a fire and it melts. The fact is you cannot get cold enough air to the turbo to make a difference in how much it gets heated up. Cooling the charge is what really matters.