So before I spent a few hundred bucks on an intake, I decided to try opening up the stock air box. I cut out most of the side of the box that faces the front of the truck. It can now get some air through the grill. I put in a $13 stock replacement filter after finding out that a good drop in costs $80 -$90. I checked my mileage to work this morning - 40 miles one way. It improved from 18.8 at 65mph to 19.7 at 65mph. That's an extra 30 miles on a tank of fuel! That was with the Juice on level 1. I am going to be doing some more experimenting. I am bound and determined to get over 20mpg.

Just thought I'd share.

 

What gears and tires are you runnin?
Sounds like agood idea, how bout some pics?
Is that milage hand calculated or overhead monitor?

 

Pictures pictures . . . .

 

3:73 open axles
stock tires - 265/75/17
I just turned 20k miles.

That is on the overhead. But both times I have hand calculated it in the past, it has been within .1 - .3 of the overhead. So either way I'm pretty confident I picked up the .9 increase the overhead shows. No matter if it's 19.7 or 19.4 its still a .9 increase over previous.
Heck, even if I only gained .5, that's an extra 15 miles on a tank and it was a FREE mod. I'm gonna check it on the juice stock setting and on number 2 to see what any differences are. Then I might play with a filter idea, and then I'm going to experiment with some exhaust ideas. I really hope I get about 21mpg out of her. I drive 80 miles round trip to work every day and $3.10/gallon is killin' me. Gas dropped .40 over the past week and diesel stayed the same!

I'll see about pictures. I don't know how well you can see it unless I pull the whole box back out. Basically I took a rotozip and cut all around the side of the box that faces the front of the truck about an inch in from the edges. So now it's pretty much a 3 sided box with one side still having the stock opening that goes into the fender.

I will try pictures and post them if they come out.

 

If you live in the snow belt I would be concerned with snow packing up the airbox.

MikeyB

 

I used a VERY VERY small drill bit, and drilled a couple hundred holes in the BOTTOM on my air box. It did make a difference. It's been that way for almost 2 years now with no problem.

 

Take a look at my drilled out air box in my pictures. No problems in two years of driving. Gets plenty of air and at 65mph with CC gets 23.4mpg. Of course I just have the weak SO

 

when i had my stock air box in use, i had a 4" hole drilled in the bottom and some course wire screen [±0.250] covering it and it worked pretty good.

 

I took a 3/4 paddle bit and cut a hole in every full square in the bottom of my airbox. Then I took some black fiberglass screen material and glued it to the bottom outside of the box to keep the big crud out. Been that way for 8 months with no problems. I have been through some pretty severe rain and puddles with no issues. I am going to have to wait a long time to see any significant snow here in Texoma

 

I did the same thing on mine, but since I don't have fog lights, I built a 4"
tube out of PVC pipe an ran it from the right side fog light opening to the
bottom of the air box. I was living in Nebraska at the time & never had
issues with snow or water since 8/03.

 

That's exactly what I did minus the screen. I've never had anything get into my air box.

 

I'm currently in the process of building a box / heat shield for a standard BHAF. I find it interesting that people are opening their stock air boxes implying that the box itself is too restrictive, not the filter. So the consensus is that the oem fender opening cannot provide enough air? That does not seem logical to me. Is the box really starving for air or is it the filter?

 

wow nice home made box

 

I did the Hoss swiss cheese mod myself and so far no problems at all, "feels" like its getting better air flow.

 

same here, but with a drop in filter.. i think i got a k&n.. been a while... im in the pnw and no issues w/ watter... but i wouldnt do it w/ a paper filter.