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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
Comtech makes perfect sense. A nice big well positioned scoop and about 1.5 feet of heat resistant tubing and were ready to go!!!. I'll be trying this one soon..
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Hey, how did you like your Tornado? I've seen it in the back of a few truck magazines and I've been wondering. It's been sitting in my mind like a freakin splinter....Did it increase gas mileage? Did it increase power? Are you happy with the money you spent?
First thing I noticed with the tornado was that the engine became alot more quite and sounded smoother. My V8 tended to have litle shudders here and there when idle. That went away. As for added gas mileage I didn't notice a huge effecton it's own. I droppped in a K&N filter recently and then I noticed a bump up of 1 mpg or so. Don't know if it's the combination or just the K&N. If anything it smooths the air out in the stock crickled intake tube and may tame a rough idle.
I have a question about the Ram air induction though. I have 2 hoses that come off the housing for the air cleaner, along with one rather large hose going from the intake hose to the oil fill on the valve cover. Will sending pressurized air through these lines instead of a vacuume make any difference in the workings of the car? I know the one from the oil filler is a crankcase vent but the others I am not sure of.
Also where is the vacuume for the accesories located now, its been a long time since I have done extensive engine work, and I seem to remember the vacuume lines coming off the intake below the carb.
I didn't know Explorer's came with a carb. Are you sure you're not looking at the throttle body. I know it's just a minor tech note, but you've got me lost. I also don't think that forcing air into the engine would be a good idea. I can't see how the cleaner would be able to properly do it's job as well as I'm sure not all the air would be mixed correctly with fuel thus killing the whole notion.
When engine designers speak of tuned intake runners and venturi, they are relating to the physics of gases and volumetric efficiency. What all this means, I think, is that you don't neccessarily need infinite amounts of air or, stated another way, you want the right amount and temperature of cold air moving at a certain velocity to provide the right air charge to mix with the gasoline for proper combustion. The MAFS (Mass Air Flow Sensor) is part of this as are the other tubes you see leading off of the intake runner which help to equalize the pressure inside the manifold/valve train to prevent the same situation Commtech spoke of earlier (like blowing air into a Coke bottle, not much goes in). If you sucked all the air for your engine through a straw it would be moving very fast indeed but there would not be enough to fill the cylinders with enough air for combustion. If you supplied the air through an eight inch diameter tube there would be too much air and it would not be moving fast enough. Somewhere in between these two extremes is what the engineers shoot for. Other threads concerned with run lean conditions caused by too much air are there for the reading. That's why you have to be careful when swapping out throttle bodies, chips and the MAFS. That's the trick, to get to the engine all the fresh cold air it can use and no more.
Hey comtech, I didn't know explorers had these. I'll have to take a closer look at mine. My Staurn has one. It's small .5 " diameter hose that runs right into the intake line after the MAF. It allows your valves to breathe and more often than not simply expels hot gases back into your intake. It acually heats up the air in your intake. Carparts.com sells something called the intimidator air breather. It's like a mini filter. I ordered one for my saturn and it should be here today. Basically you put in place of the line to your intake and plug up the hole in the intake line thats left behind. These gases get pretty hot and can increase the temp of the air in your intake line by a couple of degrees. I never noticed it in the ford before. Will have to take another look and most likely order another one.
Leebo, I didn't mean to mislead you. The last vehicle I did extensive engine work to was my old '67 Mustang I had about 15 years ago. When I looked at the intake on my explorer I noticed the 1/4" vacuume hoses on the air cleaner container and the crankcase vent hose from the oil filler on the intake hose and it reminded me of how the vacuume system worked in my mustang (coming out of the throttle body between the carb and the intake manifold). As packed as this engine is I couldn't locate any other source of vacuume, and wondered if the engine still provided it via the engine air intake.
I was under the impression that a higher volume of air pushed into the compression chamber would increase output. I guess I am a bit off base there. Is it just the colder air that is needed (i.e. denser) to provide better combustion?
Leebo,
Forcing air into the intake is what turbochargers and superchargers do. The reason you want cool air is that it is more dense and contains more oxygen. Now you force more oxygen and fuel into the combustion chambers, you get a bigger explosion in the chamber and thus more power. Ram air setup naturally tries to do the same thing. You use a large scoop to catch as much air as you can and force it into the input. The faster you go the more air is forced into the intake(up to a certain point, at least you won't have to worry about that in a car). the computer then senses from the MAF that more air is going into the input and adjusts the fuel mixture by adding more fuel. Get the picture?
Oh one more thing. Commtech. Yes more air will give you better combustion up to a certain point.
More air= more Oxygen. Oxygen is very combustible and all fires need oxygen, so the more oxygen the better the combustion will be. Now you say why not just feed oxygen into the intake. well, You could, but you would burn up the pistons, valves and what not after awhile.
just kinda brainstorming here but i was thinking, the 95-up explorers (with the OHV i belive) seem to have a conical filter with a cool plastic cover over it. anyways, my point is if our older explorers had a conical filter like the kkm the plastic cover could be used with a ram air setup and could make for a real clean setup under the hood and might make a ramair install go easier
just a thought
well guy's:I sent an E-mail to Pierre of ram air box,and I ordered a 4"x11" snorkel,3' of neoprene hose,and A 4" fishlock to keep the hose conected to my stock airbox. I will have to bore the hole on my box to be able to accept the fishlock that will secure the 4" neoprene hose,I may have to shorten the length of the snorkel I ordered from in take to exit,its almost 7",am going to put it in the airdam and snake the hose up to the box,a 4" inlet will be nice, I hope this works !!!.
also,I have been using those cheapo one time cameras,and this is 2 rolls in a row that was bad,I said no more.I also ordered a canon digital elph shorshot 100,and will finaly get my truck pics on the board !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will get it at the end of the week
Hope it works for you Bill! I'm still pondering how to do it on mine, but I'm forced into another project right now. I got stranded out on the lake in my boat last weekend, and fixing that is priority at the moment.
Wow.. someone acually likes the tornado? Hehe. I felt that I got robbed on that one. Ive also heard you acually lose HP using it. Too restrictive. It acually makes sense... BUT! I have one sitting in my garage... and I plan on another trip to the dyno, so Ill bring it with me and see..
When I originally saw the ad for this thing in J.C. Whitney, I got a small guffaw, but when an engineer recommended it I went ahead and plopped my $69 bucks down. (JCW is having a sale right now, you can pick it up for $57.79 on the back page in their 50% catalog 118J-07).
My gas mileage prior to install was 16.75 mpg. After install 18.9. Upper rpm's seem a lot stronger. Here's the thing: the stock intake assembly has the accordion and is not smooth inside. I believe this Tornado improves air flow without having to go to a smooth aftermarket intake runner.
I asked another user, he experienced the same dramatic increase in mileage. I'm headed to the dyno later this month and will check with and without.
Well I've been running a psuedo ram air set up on my staurn for about two weeks now. I usually get about 25 mpg out of it. After the ram air set up I was getting 26.5. Not bad but for some reason I was expecting more. Then it occured to me..... I did not reset my computer to give it a chance to relearn after the mod. After filling the tank and driving in my usual manor for another week I'm now getting 27.5 mpg. Much better. Throttle response is great and highway performance is noticably improved. One downside is when I floor it from stand still theirs this initial pause as the engine gulps down air... But then after that it's smooth sailing. Just remember to disconnect your car's computer or disconnect the neg. battery connector to reset it. Plan on implementing as setup similar to the one William mentioned in an earlier post on my V8. Hey William do you happen to know the part number for that "fish locker" dohicky you plan on using to connect the 4" neoprene hose to the airbox with. Much thanks to everyone with for all your ideas and help...
BTW: Also been thinking about amking some modifcations to the hood itself.. Plan on venting it somehow to allow heat to escape more readily and hopefully cool things off under there. Has anyone ever done anything like this to there ford X? Any pictures?
Skender:,not sure of the part #'s, I spoke to Pierre from ram airbox,and I let him suggest the parts,after I described my stock airbox,it sould work out pretty good,I'm just concerned about how the new snorkel will fit
the link is http://www.ramairbox.com/parts.html
not such a dumb question...
Pierre from ram airbox told me that the fishlock part is round in diameter,and will connect the 4" neoprene hose to the airbox,i beleive that once we push the hose in, it has some sort of anti slip hooks inside that hold onto the hose.
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Maybe you posted it and I missed it, but where are you putting your scoop? Underneith, or somewhere up high. I'm considering ram air myself, but I don't want my air intake down low as it will conveniently scoop up water when I cross a stream.
I'd like to see a picture of the final product whatever way you do it.
