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Cheap... Ram-Air!

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  • Cheap... Ram-Air!

    Well, in my D100 thread I said one of the things I wanted to do was a cold/ram air induction. The compression ratio of this engine is about 10:1 (need to look at my notes), so cooler air will help reduce the tendency to detonate, or allow lower octane fuel for a savings in operating expense. Actually, when you think about it, just about any car built in the last 20 years sure doesn't have a snorkel sucking air from the top of the engine bay.

    So, to get this little side project done, I went to Home Depot for the parts. Shopping the ducting aisle, I found some neat pieces that go from a 3.25x8.75" rectangle to a 4" tube, with a remarkably good shape for airflow. So, I picked up two of those and some aluminum 4" expandable tubing. I think this stuff is for clothes driers, but I'll have to say that I am not domesticated enough to know for sure. Anyway, the stuff looked really good to me, and a lot better than that black fabric and spiral steel stuff seen on some older OEM air intakes and even older defroster ducts.


    Ok, so some of you might think this is a great opportunity to jump on ol' dulcich, that freakin' hack is getting his parts from the Depot. Well, this ain’t no Hemi ‘Cuda, It's a daily driver truck, so the main objective was something that works well. Actually, the Depot had some good stuff.

    First I cut the front apron for the Home Depot scoop. A die grinder and zip wheel made quick work of it. The dimension cut was as listed above; it's easy to be fooled while measuring it since the flanges don't come bent over and the end bulges to an irregular shape. I cut the extra material from the end and bent the flanges over and just screwed it in with sheetmetal screws. I'm going to take those out, since they look messy from the engine bay side, and can give you a nasty gash.


    This is the hardware store "scoop" from the engine bay side.

    On the air cleaner side, I had another one of those "scoops" that I wanted to add to a stock air cleaner. It had to be a pretty tall unit, and I had just the piece off a 78 four-barrel Dodge truck. Actually, I had that single snorkel on my 63 F600 Ford, but grabbed it because it was perfect for this project. I measured pretty carefully and cut a large rectangle out of the side of the air cleaner, then trimmed the duct and fitted it until it was a pretty good fit.

    My plan was to butt-weld the duct to the hole in the air cleaner by gas welding it. The material duct is made of is only 12-thousanths thick, while the air cleaner is .035" sheetmetal. This is a pretty challenging welding job, especially butt-welding. I did pretty good and got it done, but I'll have to say nowhere near the job I could have done 20 years ago. I thought I would fusion weld it with just a touch of filler and it would be hard to even see a seam, but I'm just not that good anymore. I ended up having to grind some to clean it up. Still, I'm not going for Street Machine of the Year, so it was good enough.


    Anyway, here is the completed system.

    The four inch single is plenty big to feed the engine, and I think it actually looks pretty clean. So that's another job done on the D100. I ordered some mufflers from Summit, and then will do the exhaust, and get it back on the road. Oh and pay registration and insurance... Did I just say that?

    Hope you guys liked the 'Cheap Ram Air' story.
    -dulcich
    Last edited by dulcich; May 17, 2012, 09:11 PM.

  • #2
    A job I'd be proud of!
    Escaped on a technicality.

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    • #3
      I like the story.

      you could find a injected truck and take the air box...
      have an air separator of heavy elements and other precisely placed spots for pcv or air bypass...ove ron the fender...just by resmebling the air box setup by an oem.

      4 inch is large..but if heat rise has its way without the fender'd airbox heavy element keeper/splitter..you may be in for a big gulp of invisible unfriendlies.

      I have tried it all...
      there is a wow when it does somthing unplanned.

      that is where I deciphered a new subarus air box, seeming complicated with a lower chamber ..
      Last edited by Barry Donovan; May 17, 2012, 09:31 PM.
      Previously boxer3main
      the death rate and fairy tales cannot kill the nature left behind.

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      • #4
        That looks damn nice! The cheapest horsepower you can buy.
        Just groovin' to my own tune.

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        • #5
          Looks just like some of the universal cold air kits I've seen on other cars, the air cleaner looks like you purchased it...and that ducting seems to be a better choice than some of the flex plastic/cloth like material I've seen...heluva job man.
          If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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          • #6
            Looks great! I'm a big believer in outside intake air. Funny story, when GM first started using diesel engines in pickups they had an air intake that would let water into the engine if you drove through a big enough puddle. With the high CR of the diesel we saw a few come in with bent rods.

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