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$40 DIY air intake

31K views 40 replies 20 participants last post by  89dakotafrak 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys. I thought I'd make a post about a low-budget air intake. It costs about 35 dollars and took me about half an hour to make along with taking pictures.
Materials
1-6" Piece of 3"O.D. abs plastic tubing ($1)
1-9" Piece of 3"O.D. abs ($1)
1-Flexible 90 degree elbow for 3"O.D. tube ($8)
1-Coupling for 3" tubing ($3)
5-3-5" Worm gear-style hose clamps ($5)
1-Spectre (or other brand, as long as it includes 3 tubing size adapters) conical air filter ($17)
1-1x4" strip of 20 gauge steel ($.50?)
Band Saw
Dremel or Spindle Sander
ABS tubing glue ($2)
Hand-held break

This is how the assembled intake should look. Note that it reuses the factory piece. The longer abs piece should be cut at 9 inches and the shorter piece should be 6 inches. Be sure to glue the straight coupling to the abs.






So there you have it. total price was $37.50 for everything new, and chances are you probably have at least some of this stuff lying around.
I had thought that because I was using 3" tubing coupled to the smaller factory piece, that there would be some resistance to air flow where it decreased in size, but it turned out that the inside diameter of the abs and factory part were the same.
 
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#3 ·
Yeah it's ok. It's maybe not the best looking thing, but I feel like it functions ok and I only ended up having to buy the straight coupling. I had everything else and I found a big piece of the abs tube on the side of the road that inspired me to make it.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, agreed. I've seen it done to all kinds of cars but I figured if someone wanted to know how to do it with specs and such this might make it easier? Not that it should be all that hard to begin with.

Also to the guy who said something about the k&n or amsoil filter...which one would you recommend or are they both good?

No actual figures on h.p. gains but it can spin the tires a little now and it used to not be able to. Don't know what that equates to, but I thought it was cool.
 
#14 ·
well depending on where the actual intake is located hp gains will either be in lower rpm's or higher rpm's. cooler air with equate to gains in the lower rpms and warmer air in the higher rpm's. Short ram intakes will find that they exp. gains in higher rpms because the intake is right on the enigine so the air is hot. I am pretty sure that this is right, but correct me if im wrong
 
#16 ·
That sounds right. Before I made this I took off all the factory tubes and airbox and such and just hooked the filter right onto the factory resonator box (is that what that piece is called?) and it seemed to support what you said. I imagine the best setup would be to have a short-ram-air through a hood scoop with a lot of shielding so you could have the best of both worlds.

That is pretty sweet, but eventually you'll want a welded polished stainless or aluminum tube.
I don't know all that much about this. Would a steel or aluminum one be better than the plastic "k&n style" one, and why?
 
#24 ·
If so, Dakotas (and many other dodge vehicles) do not use a MAF sensor. They utilize a speed density system which uses the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor to calculate airflow. The MAP is located in the intake manifold so shouldn't be a problem. As far as I know, that grommet on the k&n filters is for the crankcase gas ventilation tube. On my intake, the CKV was located on the stock piece that I reused so I didn't have to make anything for that. If you're doing this to a 4.7, it may not be on that factory piece (it isn't on my Ram at least) so you'll have to either make a little tube coming off of your intake or else just put a small filter on the end of the CKV.
 
#25 ·
my intake doesn't look like the one that you showed. plus i followed the airflow line from the intake and it goes to the front and air comes in through the grille, so isn't what you are doing the same thing as stock?? idk i havent spent much time under the hood of my dak, but this is just what i seen.
 
#27 ·
Yeah it's almost the exact same thing as far as air flow goes. Basically what I did was get rid of the lower flow stock air filter and box and switched to a better flowing conical air filter (although they say the one I got is crap so I'll probably switch to a k&n one when I get some money). The other important thing that I did was get rid of the accordion looking flex tube which is the most restrictive part of your intake system because it creates a lot of resistance when the air hits the accordion things and bounces back at incoming air.
 
#32 ·
Thanks for posting this. I might have to custom make one for my 88 now!

I was having the discussion about these mods with a guy and he said that if you want to UP the power/performance there is an order that most cars/trucks follow due to the computer. The order was:

HEADERS
CHIP/PERFORMANCE MODULE
CAI
EXHUAST/MUFFLER

It does make sense, but I guess you could always change it back by running it stock for awhile??? I don't know that much on this subject but just wanted to share that info as it pertains to this.
 
#34 ·
I didn't say anything about blowing your motor. And do you mean You CAI + exhaust?

The reason for my post was just saying what I was told from a guy in my class. What he said was that you could (supposedly) be robbing your overal HP if you don't do the mods in correct order due to the way the computer learns. It might be BS but I was just putting it out there... He also said that a drop in K&N was the best bet.... But that just sounded gay and boring. He is a car guy and we wasn't talking about the Dakota setup but just in general.

Also there's a difference to a true CAI and what is considered a short ram (I'm sure you know this) a true CAI places the filter inside the fender or directly in the grill cavity or somewhere outise of the engine bay where it gets consistant cold air flow from outside. CAI kits usually has a steel or other material shield between the filter and the engine bay aswell. Judging by the pics it looks like it get's a real good flow of cold air from the grill, but He might even make it better by fabbing up a shield to install behide the filter? Either way it is not a big deal.... Most would class this as short ram intake but to me is like in between the two. Maybe someone that knows more can give their 2cents. Either way it's badass and I wanna do it to my truck.
 
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