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Cold Air Intake.

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95viper08

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City, State
Lake Stevens
Year, Model & Trim Level
1993 Explorer XLT Custom
i have a first gen explorer and im wondering how to do a cold air intake on it. ive seen pics but none are very good. do i have to modify the hood at all is my other concern? i plan to anyway but dont want to yet if i dont have to. any help is appreciated. and GOOD pics if you can show as well are a help, i could go from there
 



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You don't need to modify the hood. I built my intake entirely with parts from Autozone in their parking lot, using the Spectre brand equipment. Cost about $100 to get a complete unique setup. Of course I don't know that you'd call it a cold air intake, as it sucks air at the same location... but it is a high flow setup and resulted in noticeable power gains. I attached a picture.

A cheaper option is to just buy the cone filter and MAF adapter, and attach them replacing your stock airbox and re-using the old intake tube. The stock intake tubing isn't really all that restrictive unless your motor is highly modified but I like the looks of my new chrome tubing.
 

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You can just get a MAF adapter for the stock assembly, and put a cone filter onto that.

I'd suggest using a K&N or S&B brand filter for the best air flow and filtration, the generic brands (Pilot, Spectre, APC, etc.) don't have the same million mile warranty or performance.

KKM sells a bolt-on cone intake kit for the 91-94's, I've had mile a looooong time and it's top quality. It's slightly more expensive than buying a universal MAF adapter and a K&N, but the Explorer-specific fit is worth it to me.

http://www.kustomz.com/054094.html

054094.gif
 






ok thanks. ive been wanting to do cold air for awhile, weather its true cold or not
 






I`ve had the KKM kit on mine for about 1.5 years now. It sure changes the sound of your engine.
 






You will also want to get an exhaust to go with the new intake, either a full cat-back system or just replacing the stock muffler.

Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers or cat-back systems are a good, inexpensive option, but their kit for the 91-92 Explorers has better performance than the kit for the 93-94's. If you feel up to drilling out a muffler hanger bracket and adding one from a 91-92, it could be what you're looking for. Otherwise just get the 93-94 kit for a bolt-on install, or even stick a better muffler in place of the stocker.
 






that was gonna be my next question. It looks like acro777 is using a 3" tubing setup, am i right? i have a flowmaster super 44 w/ a resonator and its great, its custom cut to length and acts like more a tuned pipe. its loud and has great performance too.

since the stock throttle body is 2.5" is it recommended getting tubing that size or going to the 3" tubing? i like doing things right the first time which is why my intake has been put off for so long.
 






It's 3" tubing I believe. A silicone coupler goes to the throttle body, which was about the same size as I recall. The silicone couplers work far better than the ring couplers included with the tubing.
 






Personally I'd just use the stock plastic intake tube, since it fits really good under the hood and flows air just fine. The stock throttle body and the intake manifold and engine heads are already a bottleneck for air flow, you're not going to get a ton more air by sticking a 3" intake tube on there without extensive engine modification.

That said, 3" tubing seems to be the standard, and from arco777's pics it looks like his 3" tubes with silicone couplers are the right size to attach to the stock MAF assembly and throttle body, so that would make the most sense in terms of fit and air flow.
 






alright sounds good, thanks for the help, i know how to work on cars i have been since i was like 7 but when it comes to mods im not sure. but im not like the tuner guys who put on the biggest and loudest possible bc those guys are show but no go.

thanks again for the help. ill let you guys know how it turns out shortly.
 






What I did for true cold air is:

First I got the whole Stock air intake out of the way. Then I did the intkae tube with 3 and 4 inch Poly pipe from the Throttle body to the MAF.
Then slapped a K&N conical filter on a 90 somethin 5.0 lincoln MAF and just swapped over the actual sensor from the stock MAF to the Lincolns'.

Then I just recently did the cold air part. I took a Tupperware Folder Holder with a lid Just big enough to fit my air filter into. Cut it down to size and secured it fully around the filter going just to the edge of the MAF to ensure a decent heat shield seal. To make the tupperware more heat resistant, I took duct tape and wrapped it all around the box even the lid. Then I took Heat rated tape, rated to 1500 degrees, and put it over the duct tape. Then I took "Engine Enamel" Spray paint that is engine heat friendly, so there are no problems in holding up to the heat, and sprayed the whole box. Keep in mind, all of these things will need to be done with the box out of the truck, with the air filter not in it. There is the heat shield part...

Then the Ram/ Cold Air..... I took Flexible ducting and a hole saw and went to work on my wheel wells' plastic insert. After the holes were done, I wrapped the ducting with more heat rated tape to keep the header heat away from them. To ensure a water tight seal in the airbox I took duct tape and shoe goo ( or RTV will work. Something sticky, just not gorilla glue or anything that gets super hard, cause things that are hard become brittle under heat and movement.) And went around the part of the ducting I stuck into the box from the top, down. The reason I did it that way is because what can come up through a hole can go back down. So then the ducting can flex once the self made "Gasket" around the ducting has set inside the box. I angled mine toward the front of the wheel almost sticking out of the fender but not. Cool thing is, they can always change posistion, so if you are in a little deeper stuff and it is gettin sticky, angle them up outside the fender.


I wish I could explain this all better and could figure out how the flip to get pix on here not being a member. If I could show then I could tell a little easier, but I hope this helps someone...:thumbsup:
 






sounds like an idea but why not just mod the tube thats comes outta the stock box to work?

second why would you put the filter back in a box? you just created a really expensive version of the stock set-up with nicer parts
 






Well For one, I am flowing a flip ton more air than a stock set up due to my intake and exhaust. Air only flows as well as its smallest passage. So just modding the stock tube from by the light wouldnt do much by its self. The MAF on the 92 is a lot smaller than that of a 5.0 or even the 94 or 95 explorers, so modding the stock cold air wouldnta done me any good in the first place. The stock set up flows cold air just fine to begin with, just not in mass amounts when you want it. The set ups with the exposed filters pull way less cold air than the stock or even mine does cause it is just recirculating Engine heat.

Second, the conical K&N with all of the parts is a complete Mass Air Flow set up. I am also drawing a whole lot more air than a stock set up. Now utilization is another story. I had just the Filter and the intake tube I built for a while, but since I did what I did in enclosing it and protecting it from the engine heat by feeding it mass amounts of cold air, I have noticed a snappier throttle response and it got a bit louder.

70 dorra for the K&N
20 dorra for the intake tube parts
5 dorra for the MAF
And maybe another 15 for the make shift cold air box

Granted this is a spread out little mod I did over the course of 3 or 4 months, so affording it wasnt too much of an issue. I am not tryin to sound like a wang or a know it all, I am just tryin to answer your question. :cool:
 






ok understood your pulling more air but understand where i come from with this:

*going to a 3in intake tube - check
*high flow airfilter - check
*building a new filter box - ??????

right now because im still deciding how i want to do my intake i put a K&N rectangle filter in the stock box. ANY K&N filter allows massive amounts of air to be sucked in, but you could always just change the stock tube off the box, change the intake tube, and use a box filter which by the way is right around half the price and you would have a much simpler and less expensive setup. and enclosing the filter inside a box beats the point of coldair, thats why the "kits" have the heat shield. im not saying your idea doesnt work or is a lame idea im just saying that it seems like changing off a couple stock parts would have been simpler.

Im a little newer to trucks as ive built many street cars but there is less weight to move with them and usually less room, but i do know what im doing.
 






What did you do with the two vacuum lines on the breather box. Just loop together or what....
 






What did you do with the two vacuum lines on the breather box. Just loop together or what....

this is actually a very easy fix, the line with the yellow stripe (or at least mine was yellow) comes out with the stock box and all the stock box components. the other line, the one that has the 90 degree fitting on it, trace it back to the "T-connector" and change that to an elbow fitting.

i just changed over my intake tonight, well started anyway, i got the high flow filter, and Anime's idea of the stock air tube, it does work and has some kick for sure, but the sound change isnt there. the conversion was about 45 bucks for me. its a start but im definetly going to 3" tubes.
 






one other question for everyone, ive HEARD that the ford 4.6L throttle bode off the F-150s and stuff are a DIRECT fit for the 4.0L explorer engines, can anyone confirm that?
 






if there this is true or not, does anyone recommend a particular throttle body?
 



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hey acro777 i finished my intake the other day using spectre brand, works great, tons of power. thanks for the pics, they helped a lot
 






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