Ram Air/Big Filter Project

[SquareRoot]

I'm making this thread for others to ponder. I'm taking my aftermarket 14x3 filter and housing assembly and preparing to "Shitcan it." No, I'm not doing an LS swap as much as I'd like to.

Since I installed the Pro-flo 4 EFI, I have been bothered that I now know my air inlet temp is as high as 185 degrees.

I have other reasons but that's the main one.

So...I located (hehe wink) an air cleaner (ac) assembly off a cucv. The diesel has the BIG housing that uses a 14x4 inch filter and pre-filer.

Upon tearing into it, it was obvious the mounting flange was about 2 inches bigger diameter than a 4150 carb base.

What to do? Plus, it sat to low and hit the distributor cap. ****!

So I found a housing from a friend off an old buick that was the right size and cut the bottom out. Then I rolled a 1.5 inch tall ring out of 1/8" steel and tack welded it to the bottom of the cucv housing. A match made in heaven!

Cleaned it up on the belt sander and stripped the 35 year old factory paint off it.

I have to make a plug here for a new product I tried and it freaking works miracles on removing paint!!

This Citristrip is amazing! No fumes, non caustic and water soluble. It smells good enough to eat.

As you can see from the pics, just brush it on, cover with plastic, wait overnight and hose it off to discover perfectly clean metal.

At this point, I put the assembly on the throttle body and she fits beautiful. Checked hood clearance with Play-Doh and had over 1.5 inches clearance.

I just received the plastic air inlet tube that runs between the lid and the radiator support. LMC shipped it with my sliding rear window.

So I still have some paint and fab work to do to get this all together. That tube doesn't fit but I didn't expect it to. But, it gives me a starting point. I'm not wild about it being plastic, I'll probably go with flexible metal or something.

Stay tuned.

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[SquareRoot]

Part two:

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[SquareRoot]

The infamous way to check hood clearance.... Play-Doh!

This pic I pulled off the net is kinda my end goal in theory.

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[Frankenchevy]

Cool project. That citristrip looks like it works well.

That MAT seems high. Must be a dry reading. Carbs and TBI probably reads lower due to the atomized fuel cooling the air charge prior to it reaching the sensor. Yours is probably similarly cooled just after the pfi, but the sensor is located in the dry manifold.

 

[SquareRoot]

Cool project. That citristrip looks like it works well.

That MAT seems high. Must be a dry reading. Carbs and TBI probably reads lower due to the atomized fuel cooling the air charge prior to it reaching the sensor. Yours is probably similarly cooled just after the pfi, but the sensor is located in the dry manifold.

Being a dry manifold the air going in is what it is. The sensor is in the bottom plate of the air cleaner housing.

That temp should be about the same as the under hood air temp.

My Edelbrock remote sump mounted behind the D/S headlight and fuel lines aren't liking those temps. It's most notable after a drive and shutting it off to run into a store or something. 15 minutes of hot air heatsoaks everything. Wasn't an issue until summer started and the ambient temp climbed too 110 plus.

I'll be putting high pressure pumps in new baffled tanks this winter to make things more permanent.

 

[Craig 85]

Great work. Here's my one ******* question after you have gotten this far. I noticed the diesel air cleaner has a 14 x 4" element, what height does the lid/base reduce to after the filter element? I just don't want you to loose air flow vs your open element. Your set up should definitely reduce temps. I know my last truck ran better with a stock type set up vs the open air cleaner, especially in the summer heat.

 

[SquareRoot]

Great work. Here's my one ******* question after you have gotten this far. I noticed the diesel air cleaner has a 14 x 4" element, what height does the lid/base reduce to after the filter element? I just don't want you to loose air flow vs your open element. Your set up should definitely reduce temps. I know my last truck ran better with a stock type set up vs the open air cleaner, especially in the summer heat.

Lol. Good question. 3 inches at the closet distance. But, those factory bends are pretty good at smoothing the transition. So essentially it's the same area as my aftermarket filter but with an additional 1 inch of height with the taller filter.

Keep in mind this is for a 350 sb. It's probably overkill, but for the temp reduction and filter capacity it's much better, I think.

 

[Rusty Nail]

Being a dry manifold the air going in is what it is. The sensor is in the bottom plate of the air cleaner housing.

That temp should be about the same as the under hood air temp.

My Edelbrock remote sump mounted behind the D/S headlight and fuel lines aren't liking those temps. It's most notable after a drive and shutting it off to run into a store or something. 15 minutes of hot air heatsoaks everything. Wasn't an issue until summer started and the ambient temp climbed too 110 plus.

I'll be putting high pressure pumps in new baffled tanks this winter to make things more permanent.

Ooohhh@85

Hay squareroot. Do you ever think about how some more modern vehicles with electric fans have that period of time after shut off where the fan(s) continue to run for a bit?

I have sometimes considered thinking about attaching a PUSHER FAN outside the radiator with a simple switch in the dash...for specifically the instances you speak of.

As a matter if fact @Craig 85. Got me thinkin about it after he posted some schmancy jazz...uh huh. Schmancy jazz like that but I think dude was talkin about FACTORY PARTS.

auxillary fan?

Hay square root im gonna get some citristrip.

 

[Frankenchevy]

I'll be putting high pressure pumps in new baffled tanks this winter to make things more permanent.

That’s the best solution for FI. I went that route and used it as a half excuse to upgrade my fuel lines to ethanol proof them.

 

[SquareRoot]

Ooohhh@85

Hay squareroot. Do you ever think about how some more modern vehicles with electric fans have that period of time after shut off where the fan(s) continue to run for a bit?

I have sometimes considered thinking about attaching a PUSHER FAN outside the radiator with a simple switch in the dash...for specifically the instances you speak of.

As a matter if fact @Craig 85. Got me thinkin about it after he posted some schmancy jazz...uh huh. Schmancy jazz like that but I think dude was talkin about FACTORY PARTS.

auxillary fan?

Hay square root im gonna get some citristrip.

Yup. I have dual Spal fans and Dakota Digital controller. Fans continue to run for 1 minute after shutdown.

Probably helps slightly but come on, it's, 110-115 degrees and sunny. Plus their pulling a **** ton of amps with the engine off and...the voltage drop eventually sets the alarm off....lol

 

[Rusty Nail]

Too bad. Kinda sounds like your technology is working against you in this case. Maybe you could set it up to run the lower power fan if they are different? ? for a longer time?

-just thinkin out loud.

85 was talkin about it to assist the AirConditioning system, which is how I became interested . in that.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Being a dry manifold the air going in is what it is. The sensor is in the bottom plate of the air cleaner housing.

That temp should be about the same as the under hood air temp.

My Edelbrock remote sump mounted behind the D/S headlight and fuel lines aren't liking those temps. It's most notable after a drive and shutting it off to run into a store or something. 15 minutes of hot air heatsoaks everything. Wasn't an issue until summer started and the ambient temp climbed too 110 plus.

I'll be putting high pressure pumps in new baffled tanks this winter to make things more permanent.

perhaps if you can mount the baffled tanks somewhere you could create an exhaust for your engine bay. example: mounted on a fender, create a ductwork that flows up to down inside fender to remove heat from engine bay or create a duct off a fresh air opening in core support and use a small fan to push that cooler air over the tanks so you arent using a large fan.
Heatsinks, too. heat shields. lower in engine bay.

 

[SquareRoot]

Update boys and girls.

Mock up is complete.
I got the new, larger (2x6") snorkel grafted to housing. This task took a few hours of tedious work with a die grinder and carbide burr.

Welding was a PITA, due to the light guage sheet metal these things are stamped from.

I used the heavy guage semi-rigid, 4" steel heater duct. A 4" x 6' hose with attached collets worked perfect. It kept me from having to stretch the hose any so it is much more rigid than being expanded. I sacrificed the OEM hose end I got from LMC and cut the inlet end about 10 inches in length.

All the joints worked out perfect. Nice tight slip fit, all male into female joints.

Tommorow I'll throw some self etching primer on it and a top coat.

Still undecided on color. I'm not dead set on traditional black.

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[AuroraGirl]

Update boys and girls.

Mock up is complete.
I got the new, larger (2x6") snorkel grafted to housing. This task took a few hours of tedious work with a die grinder and carbide burr.

Welding was a PITA, due to the light guage sheet metal these things are stamped from.

I used the heavy guage semi-rigid, 4" steel heater duct. A 4" x 6' hose with attached collets worked perfect. It kept me from having to stretch the hose any so it is much more rigid than being expanded. I sacrificed the OEM hose end I got from LMC and cut the inlet end about 10 inches in length.

All the joints worked out perfect. Nice tight slip fit, all male into female joints.

Tommorow I'll throw some self etching primer on it and a top coat.

Still undecided on color. I'm not dead set on traditional black.

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to fit the theme of truck, silver wouldnt look bad. otherwise id say blue or orange if you wanted to go that route.
Finally, red would have a sweet spot if you got the right shade

 

[SquareRoot]

It's finished. Moving on to the next project (rear sliding window).

Color is hammered metal. I like it.

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