Just got an 07 5.9 Cummins. Not new to these trucks, but when I was taking the silencer ring out of my turbo I noticed the pipe from the intake to the inlet side of the turbo has plastic baffles on the inside.

My question is, can I remove these without voiding warranty and what is the point of them? Just to direct air flow?

I had an 04.5 before this and it didn't have the baffles.

 

The baffles have been in the intake tubes since 03 that I am aware of. Can't explain why you did not have them in your 04.5.

You can remove them and they are just to direct airflow and break up turbulence. Many people do away with them with seemingly no ill effect, but they do have a purpose.

As far as the warranty, depends on the dealer. That should not affect anything, but some dealers view any tampering with anything as grounds for a void.

 

the baffles are straightening vanes to reduce side shear in the turbo increasing turbo efficiency. the silencer ring is for the same reason. i bought a he351 to put on my 03 and did not get the silencer ring or keeper with it. i would like to get the ring and keeper from you if you take it off. there is a muffler half way up the tube that you can remove and replace with a pipe.

 

PM sent.

 

I got both trucks used so I'm guessing the guy before me took out the baffles but not the silencer ring on the 04.5.

Will removing the baffles cause more of a whistle out of my turbo? That's the main reason why I would remove them.

 

What is the purpose of removing the silencer ring in the turbo? Do the '06 trucks have one?

 

Removed it on my 03, minimal, if any noise gain. My 05 is being left in.

 

Having 30+ years experience with designing/building hvac ductwork, fittings, transitions etc. and repairing/replacing F'd/U jobs, I can tell you... everything in there is for aerodynamics and does some good. I'm not impressed with the small oem air filter and box but everything else shows good airflow design/practices, inaswith ASHRAE and SMACNA. Longer radius elbows and a longer straight shot into the turbo would be better but there no space for improvement. Craig

 

get the new 49946 deep pleat filter and a psm or home depot kit. remove the muffler and see if it is loud enough for you, if not next remove the silencer ring. the nylon baffles are more important than the ring and do not dampen a lot of the noise.

 

once i removed the silencer ring on my 06 you could definatly hear the turbo, gives it a nice whistle but i also have a k&n intake so that makes it a little louder.

 

Leave the air baffles......the engineers knew what they were doing here.

 

When I first got my truck I put a cool hose on. The cool hose is just a straight through S pipe that replaces the intake tract from the filter box to the turbo. I lost low end torque doing this and it was because of the white nylon blades were removed. The low end power lost wasn't much but was noticeable.

These provide a more laminar flow to the turbo and improve efficiency.

After a while I put the stock intake back in but put an AFE replacement tube in that replaces the middle section with the muffling baffles. As I understand those are just for noise reduction.



Another mod that I really liked was the Glacier intake air horn. It improved response even more as it affects performance before boost comes on and provides much better off boost response.

 

The baffles in the muffler will help take out the turbulance after the first elbow. My 03 doesn't have the turning vanes but I've seen pictures of them in the 325s. Turn vanes are awesome for decreasing the resistance and increasing flow thru an elbow. In hvac ducts, turn vanes make a square throat/square heel elbow as efficient as a radiused elbow. They also improve flow in our rather tight radiused intake ells. When I had my 97 and everybody was throwing away their silencer rings, I machined a long tapered funnel out of ehmw to fit the inlet of my turbo to cut down on turbulance right after the rubber elbow and make a smooth transition into the pinwheel. It worked so well I had to take it out! It made my PDR 35/40 turbo make so much low rpm boost, I could run up the mtns at 1200 rpm with great boost and low egt but hard throttle would make the turbo repeatedly bark, something terrible. Craig