03quadduallyho

I have been puzzling about the size of the air intake hole into the fender well. I ran the numbers the other day: 5.9 liters of displacement at 3000 RPMs not even including the elevated boost numbers and based on the potential flow of a tiny little less than 3 by just about 5 inches hole at 90 degrees to the pressure air. It would flow over 9000 inches per second through the hole just to fill the engine with air enough to burn well. Then if you add the 20 PSI boost or more- you get an astronomical amount of air drawn through that tiny little hole. I'm sure that hole is fine for gassers but diesels draw full air volume with every other stroke.

Well, I decided to revise that condition. I found a 3" PVC cleanout (female threaded) and a cap for it in my junk bin. I cut the rest of the cleanout away just leaving the threaded portion of the PVC remaining maybe 1.25 inches thick. I got out a drill and a cutting blade and a round file. I located the perfect place on the front of the airbox for the hole to be located for maximum ram air pressure, then I removed the airbox and started drilling and cutting.

After finishing a nice round hole I took a little PVC cement and bonded the threaded female round section into the air box. I stood by to let it dry. Then after digging up my old black RTV I put a nice even bead of it on the inside of the airbox and the outside. Then again after drying I used a can of flat black industrial rustoleum spray paint I made it look nice again. Then after a third drying session I installed the airbox back into the truck. This is now a sort of ram air because it is now taken from the high pressure boundry layer at the front of the truck caused by the truck moving, rather than from the side of the airbox from the fender.

I then found an old coffee "sieve" (according to the better half)that hadn't been used in a long while. I removed the basket from the sieve and by gosh it was just about 3" and fit really well inside my ram-air hole. It now looks complete, will be safe from bugs/birds and definately increases the air flow to the air box. A couple years ago I lost the muffler on my 03 and that helped the flow, now with my "ram air" mod it really adds to the smoothness of the engine at cruise and it is a significant difference on acceleration. I have no gauges or I could find out how much cooler the exhaust temps are but I bet it is a little better. It seems to stop the truck from defueling on hard acceleration and after several full throttle operations the filter minder was still at 100% whereas usually it is sucked down by 35 percent or more even on a new filter. For the price it was great! And if I feel like fording deep water or running in a rain/snow storm I can install the cap that I now have stored in the glovebox in about 30 seconds, thread it in and go.

durango12

do you have any pics of your new ram air. i live in arlington and would sure like to see it. thanks
d12

deviousracing

dude how can you post all this with no pics

grandblanc

YA! We need pics!

03quadduallyho

The lowest res on cam is 640x480 and the pics are then too big to go on this forum, I have no idea how to do it.

Monte

03quadduallyho

Look in my photo gallery for 2 low quality pics, one from the front and one from the top. I can't believe how low a quality pics you have to have to attach them, none of my 640X480 pics were small enough to attach so photo gallery was the only way. These are best I can do. Hope it helps.

800summit

I did what you did and posted this over a year ago.
I also had the AFE drop in Air filter. I even bought another spare air box from Dodge, just in case I need to have service done on the truck. I have gauges and noticed a small increase in performance. I shimmed the wastegate with 1/8 washers and got 5 more psi of boost.The problem I found with the setup was the Air filter was getting too much dirt past it Turbo had dust on the blades.I went and bought the AFE pro guard 7 air intake and filter with the pre filter.This works the best .

800summit

I will try to post a picture hopefully

03quadduallyho

Yes, your pic looks pretty much the same but I have that screen on mine- the only real difference and I can screw in a cap if needed to plug it- otherwise the same.

You bring up a good issue, how do I shim the wastegate? Please tell me sort of step by step since the turbo style with electronics is pretty new to me. I want to jack it up 5 psi or so.

How do you post pics?

Monte

800summit

I had the threaded coupler just screwed it into the PVC when it rained or snowed
Now for the Shims. On the wastegate there are 2 10mm nuts that hold the actuater to the turbo. You will have to remove the Jesus clip on the actuater rod. take the 2 nuts off the actuater and put 2 1/8 thick washers between the turbo and actuater put the nuts on with the washers sandwiched in between. Hook up the actuater rod .I no longer have this set up on my rig. I went with a EZ and a different air intake system also the boost elbow with the EZ and air filter set up will put you in the 30-37 psi range. be careful this is a lot of boost on a stock turbo. I chickened out and removed the boost elbow and shims with my set up. boost is now in the 25-27 psi range. Hope this helps you

Ray Roton

I too would like to shim the wastegate, but, I thought it would not do any good unless you installed some sort of "boost fooler" so the ECM could not detect the extra boost. I thought it would began defueling at some predetermined boost level.
As for the air box, I drilled the entire bottom of the box full of very small holes. It made a noticeable difference, and the filter minder now stays at 100%

800summit

really all you are doing is delaying the wastegate opening allowing it to give a few more psi. You will not on a stock motor build enough boost to trip a over boost code with just a few more pounds of boost. Some people on here will hit 20 psi or 25 psi stock no mods just differences in the hardware.