Thanks Jack, I went ahead and put together a write up with pictures and emailed it to Bill for him to proof read and post. I concur with Bill regarding the purpose of the holes in the bottom of the stock intake tube being there for water elimination. :yesnod: The nice thing about the DWV intake mod and its variations is that it preserves the noise canceling abilities of the factory intake which is a CAI even in stock form. It just needs the restriction removed. :thumbsup:

EDIT to add: See post #71 in this thread for instructions to make the DWV intake mod.

Appearance was the only reason I removed them...I really hated they way they looked. I like the way it opens up the top of engine w/o them.

Believe me, I'm not used to this clean of an engine bay myself...I just bought the truck last October. My previous truck was a lifted '78 Bronco with a 460 last I used to mud all the time. The engine bay in that truck wouldn't come clean, no matter how hard I tried.

Thanks for the comments guys.

In restudying the intake, I'm beginning to warm up to the idea that the holes might be there to drain water. In the case of the 2 rows of three on the bottom of the intake duct, they ARE fairly close to the lowest point on the duct (before it reaches the bellows) and the front row seem to be at the exact bottom of the curvature of the duct. The back row, however is somewhat "uphill" from the bottom of the duct and this seems counterproductive.

There are three resonator chambers. The front large one has a larger hole near, but not at, the lowest point and then another, smaller hole up higher, close to the halfway point. The small rear chamber has a hole at the lowest point. The smaller front chamber has no holes at all. So, the ones with holes could have them for draining water too, but why are they not at the lowest point in the big chamber?

As I said, I'm lukewarm to the holes being drain holes, but why have some of them "uphill"?

On a related note, AgentOrange, I looked through your album at your intake mod. Nice work! However, I'm a little concerned that the intake sitting right behind the tow hook is positioned to really take a big drink of water in the event of driving through a deep puddle or maybe even just heavy rain. I know the tube runs uphill quite a distance from that point, but when the engine is at high rpm, isn't it possible that there could be enough suction to pull water up into the filter box? I like the ram effect idea, but I think if I were going to do this mod, I'd run the secondary duct up high, perhaps just under the headlight. You lose the ram effect here, but the opening would be out of the hot engine compartment.

I like the flexible metal duct into the fender well. Sure looks easier than shaping a rigid ABS tube.

- Jack

Jack,
My thoughts exactly if I only had the scoop at the bottom, but I don't think water intake would be a problem because of the second air inlet into the fenderwell. Think of drinking through a straw...If there is a hole in the straw above your favorite beverage, all you suck in is air...path of least resistance.

Yep, you're probably right! I suspect there's no way you could create a big enough vacuum to pull water up that distance.

- Jack

Looks good! Maybe put some type of soft material along the edge of the hole. I wonder if the intake noise resonates through the truck due to the pipe touching the fender??

This thread kicks a$$! :woot: Way to go, Gentlemen! Hey, I just realized -- no kidding -- that I'm the only female on here so far!

:thankyou: all for tolerating me! (Okay, so it's not like anyone had a real CHOICE or anything -- guess you didn't have to join, so maybe you did. Anyway, thank you for putting up with my dumb questions. I'm just trying to learn some new stuff!)

I'm not sure about the other members.....But someone came to my door and put a gun to my head until I joined. I thought that was the norm for PHP? :eek:

Really? I don't remember doing that... All I said was that someone was going to come to your house and replace your Excursion with a 6.2L Suburban. Talk about misleading! :doh:

No noise so far...
I really don't like the way the 90 degree elbow is fastened to the frame either, via zip tie, but it'll have to do until I can firgue something else out. I don't want to drill any holes in the frame and I don't want to lose the tow hook either.