low $ cold air kit VS K & N cone filter

Has anyone done this?
I'm thinking about running some 3" flexible hose from the lower side of my stock air box down across the front of the engine (behind electric fan) straight down to pick up fresh unheated air. The termination can be looking down, below the splash shield OR curved in to a 3" opening that I'll cut in my front bumper. Any H2O or debris that MAY get sucked-up will flow out of the bottom of the airbox (holes drilled in it and old airlet opening) before getting sucked thru the filter and into the intake.
Q 1) anybody ever try this yet? Did you get any improvement?
Q 2) would this be better than K & N cone filter sucking in hot underhood air?
Q 3) if this is better, would changing stock filter to K & N replacement give me any benefit?

The stock airbox isn't as bad as some I've seen for changes in direction (pressure/velocity loss). And it can provide a "trap" to help prevent hydro-locking your motor in deep H2O situations. This appears to be the only way (outside of a snorkle or Ram-Air hood scoop) to get fresh air to engine.
Comments are appreciated,

BLUTO

BTW,
I will be installing Flowmaster with the intake upgrade too!

If you opened up the bottom of the airbox, are you sure you'll really be getting a lot of air through that hose? What air you do have coming through sounds like it's going to be preheated running across the front of the engine/bottom of radiator if I'm picturing this right.

You will suck up water if you cross it like that. Having water passing through the little holes in the bottom of the airbox sounds like a good idea, but the 4.0 sucks some serious air and If you get a decent gulp of water /mud, the vacuum created will not let water pass through holes on the bottom of the box. looking at the box after water crossings where the water reached the bottom of the airbox (not the intake "tube"), it seems that the bolt holes that I left open at the bottom of the box became little mud geysers.
If you want cold induction, go up with a snorkel instead of down.

low $ cold air kit

Thanks guys,
I wasn't sure of the vacuum created in the airbox. i was going to keep the drilled holes small (3/8") and close off the old air inlet. I think a snorkle would look awesome! I presume that I'd still be using the stock air box and maybe a K & N filter OR stay with stock filter? The reason that I ask is; because I read here recently, that some members were finding a lot of accumulated "dirt" inside their filter tubes running towards the TB. I don't want to sacrifice longevity of my engine for 5 or 10 hp .
Thanks,
BLUTO

I don't know about the "dirt" inside of the air tube.... my air tube is shiny silverish inside (it's actually an exhaust pipe ) and I have to say that it's pretty clean.... the amount of tiny dust that did get accumulated in it after running it for close to 1.5 years is so negligeable that I think I got the same amount with the stock airbox.....

Kejtar

Stay far away from the K&N air filters. I use to have a cone style thinking it was the greatest thing in the world. Until I removed it a year later to see how things were holding up. I found a fine silt inside of my home made adaptor. I cleaned out the silt, re-oiled the filter, and re-installed the filter. I ran for a week and then checked again - what did I find? The very same fine silt.

Stick with the paper. If I could figure out how to use one of paper cone filters out of a F-150 I would be all set - nice and big they are.

K&N is bad dispite the hype. Save yourself the cash.

Tom Dennis

Re: low $ cold air kit

BLUTO said:

Thanks guys,
I wasn't sure of the vacuum created in the airbox. i was going to keep the drilled holes small (3/8") and close off the old air inlet. I think a snorkle would look awesome! I presume that I'd still be using the stock air box and maybe a K & N filter OR stay with stock filter? The reason that I ask is; because I read here recently, that some members were finding a lot of accumulated "dirt" inside their filter tubes running towards the TB. I don't want to sacrifice longevity of my engine for 5 or 10 hp .
Thanks,
BLUTO

Click to expand...

Keep it close to stock...5 or 10 hp is completely an unreasonable number for an internally stock rig.