[thumbster]

With a few hours to myself today I decided to take an extra intake I had lying around and experiment with it a bit ( see pics ). I disconnected the battery to reset the ECM with each change I made. Here's what I did in sequence and the affect it had ( butt dyno, calibrated with mom's home cooking of course )

1 - Removed carbon screen ( good improvement in throttle response and slightly better acceleration throughout the rpm band )

2 - Removed ribbing in upper intake ( a little better all around than removing carbon screen )

3 - Cut hole in bottom intake ( remarkable improvement in top end power and just the right amount of intake noise - kind of in the middle between the unmodded stock intake and an open filter style intake i.e. airaid )

If you look at the picture with the carbon screen, you can see how restrictive it is, as I was trying to shine the light of a 100w bulb through it. While it's a piece of emissions control equipment, it does negatively affect airflow IMHO. The ribbing in the upper intake is nowheres helpful in terms of aerodynamics and seems to serve a function of stiffening the plastic to keep down intake noise. Removing it was likely only serving my compulsive nature, but it did make a noticeable change in how the truck ran ( if you try this, make sure you clean up the plastic debris thoroughly before running the engine! ) For those of you who were thinking the hole I cut in the bottom lets the engine pull hot air ( and it likely will ), I didn't notice any difference in power while driving in stop and go traffic.

I temporarily switched back to my unmodded intake to see how much different the truck ran. Let me tell you, I'm extremely surprised how much improvement it made overall, especially higher rpm power and the intake note the engine now has! I'll be monitoring my fuel mileage next time I fill up to determine how all the mods affect it.

PS - I'm not responsible if you try this yourself and mess up your truck