The KingCon Ram-Air Mod.

[Jackpine]

kingcon41 - That's nice work, BUT (Don't you hate that word? I know I do, but here's my concerns, and I'm an engineer, so I'm looking at this from that standpoint.)

First, putting the intake low and unshielded means water will easily be thrown in there, possibly by other vehicles ahead of you in a heavy rainstorm. I know there is a pretty good vertical rise from the inlet, but I think with the flow velocity at running RPMs you really risk pulling that water into the engine. It would probably destroy it.

Second, even if it is dry, that "scoop" is going to pull all sorts of crud up into the air filter, since it's down low where it will suck it all up. The filter will protect your engine in this case, but it will probably get clogged up much sooner. As an aside - I used to fly the A-37B attack jet in the Air Force. The inlets for the engines were so low, we had screens that came up and covered them during ground operations, to keep junk out that would destroy the compressor blades. I think you risk the same kind of damage here, since that inlet is wide open.

Third, you are not really going to get much of a "ram" effect unless you are at highway (70+mph) speeds. Even then, I don't think the "ram" effect is that significant. Bill posted on this several months ago, and said something quite similar.

So, my advice to you is to route that intake out into the fender well. It is protected there, very little chance of bad stuff being sucked up into the engine and it is away from engine heat. If you can find another place that has the same properties, that's fine too. And, you could even increase the hole in the fender wall if you wanted to run a bigger pipe into it. But, the smallest diameter of your intake system is the real "choke point". Putting a bigger tube before or after that segment will have little effect. The stock tube has a minimum diameter of about 3 inches. I think you really just want to extend that into a "cool intake area" that is protected.

And finally, I would NOT cut off the resonators. They may actually help smooth the airflow into the engine (increasing it) by eliminating pressure waves that can interfere with the flow you are wanting to increase. I know, many people think they look funny, but if you get "drone" after cutting them off, I can almost guarantee you have hurt the airflow into your engine.

These are just my thoughts, of course. Please don't think these ideas are "gospel". As always, I welcome any opposing views.

- Jack

[Longshot270]

Page 2 effectively solves your issue of sucking up water. That member used a 3 way connector.

[Project Pat]

Ok so after catching the cliff notes of this entire thread, Has anyone come up with a decent example for the 4.6 engines? Heading home soon and would love to try and get this mod done if its feasable..

[Longshot270]

Yeah, I have one. I've actually trimmed the PVC part down to only be around an inch thick, just enough to get the rubber lip onto it so it doesn't slide down.

http://forum.gopowerhungry.com/2004-...html#post19554

[jmwilso2]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

kingcon41 - That's nice work, BUT (Don't you hate that word? I know I do, but here's my concerns, and I'm an engineer, so I'm looking at this from that standpoint.)

First, putting the intake low and unshielded means water will easily be thrown in there, possibly by other vehicles ahead of you in a heavy rainstorm. I know there is a pretty good vertical rise from the inlet, but I think with the flow velocity at running RPMs you really risk pulling that water into the engine. It would probably destroy it.

Second, even if it is dry, that "scoop" is going to pull all sorts of crud up into the air filter, since it's down low where it will suck it all up. The filter will protect your engine in this case, but it will probably get clogged up much sooner. As an aside - I used to fly the A-37B attack jet in the Air Force. The inlets for the engines were so low, we had screens that came up and covered them during ground operations, to keep junk out that would destroy the compressor blades. I think you risk the same kind of damage here, since that inlet is wide open.

Third, you are not really going to get much of a "ram" effect unless you are at highway (70+mph) speeds. Even then, I don't think the "ram" effect is that significant. Bill posted on this several months ago, and said something quite similar.

So, my advice to you is to route that intake out into the fender well. It is protected there, very little chance of bad stuff being sucked up into the engine and it is away from engine heat. If you can find another place that has the same properties, that's fine too. And, you could even increase the hole in the fender wall if you wanted to run a bigger pipe into it. But, the smallest diameter of your intake system is the real "choke point". Putting a bigger tube before or after that segment will have little effect. The stock tube has a minimum diameter of about 3 inches. I think you really just want to extend that into a "cool intake area" that is protected.

And finally, I would NOT cut off the resonators. They may actually help smooth the airflow into the engine (increasing it) by eliminating pressure waves that can interfere with the flow you are wanting to increase. I know, many people think they look funny, but if you get "drone" after cutting them off, I can almost guarantee you have hurt the airflow into your engine.

These are just my thoughts, of course. Please don't think these ideas are "gospel". As always, I welcome any opposing views.

- Jack

I dont have nearly the experience Jack does but I fly for a living and have some engineering experience and I'll second all of the above. Even with the 3 way connector there is still going to be a pile of airflow going up that tube which could carry water with it. Pressure differential isnt the issue. Its the fact the air and water are moving fast, rain will fall side ways and even upwards of the wind is blowing hard enough and in the right terrain. And the 3 way definitely doesnt solve the dirty filter issue.

Joe

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by jmwilso2

I dont have nearly the experience Jack does but I fly for a living and have some engineering experience and I'll second all of the above. Even with the 3 way connector there is still going to be a pile of airflow going up that tube which could carry water with it. Pressure differential isnt the issue. Its the fact the air and water are moving fast, rain will fall side ways and even upwards of the wind is blowing hard enough and in the right terrain. And the 3 way definitely doesnt solve the dirty filter issue.

Joe

Joe, my thoughts exactly! But, here in Tucson, we have many dips in the road that fill with water if it rains (admittedly rarely). The "low down" intake without a vacuum break (provided by the "Y" in the reference Longshot posted) would guarantee water into the cylinders.

Now, with the vacuum break, the water would probably not be sucked up at city speeds. But, you hit a big puddle at highway speeds (or the vehicle in front does) and you have big water drops at high velocity going into that intake. I'm not confident that they won't find their way into the engine. Personally, I think a "ram" intake needs to be on top of the hood.

Even then, I'd want some kind of water separator. It's possible, as you probably know, to "drown" a jet engine in a heavy rainstorm. A recip would just be destroyed.

- Jack

[ticopowell]

I had the 3-way connector in mine, but I ended up taking the "ram-air" out after a while, I didnt notice any difference without it at all. I did notice that my filter didnt get bugs stuck in it, but the filter sure needed to be cleaned after 10,000 miles of the ram-air. That filter is for sale actually, it is a drop-in K&N, it seemed to flow better than the regular filter, and with the K&N i noticed that the truck responded a lot quicker to throttle inputs.
just my 2 cents on the subject

[MTD]

i did something similar to running the tube longer to get it farther away from the heat but heard from some people the farther the run the harder the engine has to pull in the air i dont know about that theory but i kept it in mind so what i did is purched a 3inch inline fan used to cool brakes or pull fresh air into the cab of rally cars it only cost $14 on amazon with that i bought a plastic flex line that i ran from the rubber shroud on the left side of the radiator to the k&n filter with the fan that was put inline that fan produces 135cms and ive never seen my aitake temp go a degree over the outside temp and to make it work with rain its hooked up to a switch and the ingition so its never left running when the truck is off

[Longshot270]

Originally Posted by MTD

i did something similar to running the tube longer to get it farther away from the heat but heard from some people the farther the run the harder the engine has to pull in the air i dont know about that theory but i kept it in mind so what i did is purched a 3inch inline fan used to cool brakes or pull fresh air into the cab of rally cars it only cost $14 on amazon with that i bought a plastic flex line that i ran from the rubber shroud on the left side of the radiator to the k&n filter with the fan that was put inline that fan produces 135cms and ive never seen my aitake temp go a degree over the outside temp and to make it work with rain its hooked up to a switch and the ingition so its never left running when the truck is off

Cool, now just don't go WOT because even the 4.6L engine can pull nearly twice what that fan is able to push (meaning it starts to become an impediment).

[MTD]

Originally Posted by Longshot270

Cool, now just don't go WOT because even the 4.6L engine can pull nearly twice what that fan is able to push (meaning it starts to become an impediment).

its not directly hooked up to the intake its just moving the outside air to right were the filter is on the k&N cai and like i said in my last post didnt know if that thory was true just what i was told but thanks for clearifying