My parts came today for my homemade torque tube. Overall, the install was pretty simple.

Parts:

- Two 4" rubber elbows
- One foot of 4" aluminum intake tubing
- Four 4" T-clamps

I got all of my parts for about $53 plus shipping from Air Flow Systems.

As I said, the install was pretty simple. The only thing I had to do that I didn't expect to do was cut about 1" of rubber off of the rubber elbow that connects to the turbo. Without doing so it would have pressed against the oil filter and I didn't want that.

For now I still have my stock air box (although modified with holes), but I will be replacing it with a BHAF after I use the two remaining air filters in my garage.

There is a definite increase in turbo noise with the "tube"...especially when you really get on it and the turbo spools up. I like the sound. Kind of sounds like a jet plane.

For those who say the aluminum tubing is the wrong thing to use because it could cause the air to get heated on the way to the turbo, after driving around for a while I put my hand on the aluminum tubing and it was surprising cool. Even if it DID get hot, I don't think the short time that the air is in contact with it would be enough to even heat the air temperature by one degree.

I'll post pictures as soon as they're approved in my gallery.

Edit: If you do this mod be careful while cutting the rubber elbow. I was reminded by a sharp sting and lots of blood that a utility knife will EASILY slice a person's thumb. Not bad enough to get stitches (I don't need no stinkin' stitches), but bad enough that my wife refused to look at it more than once.

- HasasorethumbbutaloudturboHoss

 

I plan on using a piece of 5" chrome stack and cutting it down. Do you think this will work or be too heavy?

 

I used 4" pvc couplers and a piece of 4" pcv pipe painted black works good cost less than $5.00> The couplers are 5" od.

 

Sounds great hoss. I'll keep this in mind for my buddies truck. Is there any benefit between doing a tube this way vs. ripping the baffles out of the stock tube? I know how you feel about the utility knife. I sliced my finger open at work laying new carpet pad down and got blood all over the carpet, pad, wall, and floor. Ended up using a piece of pad and masking tape as a make shift band aid. Who'd a though such a little cut could produce so much blood.

 

I had to cut mine too because it was hitting the oil filter. I was careful though and didn't draw any blood.. I do not like their clamps though. They take forever to get off if you need to remove the intake. It is also a real pain to take the whole assembly off now too. I used to remove the whole assembly to get my oil filter off but now I'm going to remove the filter from under the truck because it seems like it will be easier...

BigBlue, If you look inside the 5" stock tube you will see that even if you remove the baffles there are rings inside the tube that could cause some major turbulence. I was actually going to stick some 4" pipe inside the tube but it was just a bit too big and I didn't have a 4" hole saw to hog the holes out. The rubber elbows are smooth too which is probably better than the accordian style stock boots....

 

Oh oh, Did I order the wrong parts? All I ordered was a foot of 5.5in alum. intake tubing
to replace the tube with the baffels. Should I have ordered elbows too?

 

Thames,
You're ok with the 5.5" tube for the factory elbows. That's what I used with the stock elbows/couplers. Works great.

MikeyB

 

If you're just talking about replacing the center section then I think that would work fine. Technically, it needs a 5.5" diameter pipe there, but you could probably tighten the clamps down to 5" without any problems.

 

I don't know what the benefit is other than a louder turbo. The folks that make the real Torque Tube claim that it has performance benefits as well, but if it does I sure can't tell it. The main thing it does is smooths out the flow of air into the turbo. Just cutting out the baffles won't accomplish that I don't think.

Gotta be careful with those knives...

 

I haven't tried taking them off yet....but I know it took forever to tighten those little buggers down. Other than to remove my silencer ring, I've never had the need to take the intake off so it shouldn't be an issue for me.

 

Here's a couple of pictures of the torque tube:





And now one of the modified air box just for good measure:

 

now that's a swiss cheese'd air box

 

I guess we could cut the excess threading off of the clamps because it really serves no purpose.....

 

With "swiss cheesing" your airbox, have you found any general increase in performance? Have you noticed any effect on air filter life? With you being in Texas , snow is not an issue at most times with you, do you feel it would be an issue in areas where there is snow? A very simple mod, very cheap to do. I will probably give that a try on my truck but would love some feedback from you on this.

Thanks Gentlemen

Driller

 

I thought about doing that actually. I probably WILL do that the next time I get the grinder and cut off disk out.