Custom Air intake

johnfederis · #1 03-07-2010, 06:02 AM

Hi, i have a ford ranger 2004 2.3L, i currently installed a custom cold air intake (i will post picture later on) and after about 2-3 hours of driving it my check engine light went on. as you know the MAF is connected to the stock boxs air intake so i bought a spectre drop in MAF adapter. It has 3 calibrated black tubing to match the size of the MAF original size tube. i went up on a size and i was wondering if that was ok. What i did was i unplugged that battery when i was installing and then when i was done a reconnected. I started that truck and at first the idle was rough (like it was about to die) a few seconds later it was ok. but i have realized that the idle RPM is right at 1000. Aside from this. before installing the cold air intake i hear a hissing sound when i rev the engine. Any ideas, remarks, advices, and aggressions? thanks. By the way im new to this forum.

FireRanger · #2 03-07-2010, 06:34 AM

Unfortunately you've wasted an incredible amount of time and money on a bunch of products that don't actually give you any performance gain and just cause problems. Post pictures.

johnfederis · #3 03-07-2010, 05:01 PM

i switched to the same calibration tubing as the stock intake box and cleaned the MAF. check engine went out, idle ran smoother, RPM back to normal. felt a little ease on the run. I still have the little hissing sound when i rev. but that one was there before the custom intake.

heres my set up.

johnfederis · #4 03-07-2010, 05:14 PM

This custom intake is my first mod with my truck. i am looking for more modifications to increase the power. Any other suggestions on mods? i just got this truck about 1 month ago so im barely starting. Im also thinking about putting a catback exhaust system or just a muffler, which one is better?

It would be greatly appreciated if any of you have ideas of what i can upgrade next. Thanks

rockwerks · #5 03-07-2010, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnfederis

This custom intake is my first mod with my truck. i am looking for more modifications to increase the power. Any other suggestions on mods? i just got this truck about 1 month ago so im barely starting. Im also thinking about putting a catback exhaust system or just a muffler, which one is better?

It would be greatly appreciated if any of you have ideas of what i can upgrade next. Thanks

The hissing is the air filter on the CAI, oh and by the way that is a hot air intake, the unit you took out was actually a cold air intake.

Air intakes, headers, etc will not really do anything for you. IF you wish to make power you have to build the motor in conjunction with the external mods.

FireRanger · #6 03-07-2010, 05:41 PM

Yeah that intake is just sucking hot air from around the engine and causing a loss of power actually. The stock intake flows cold air and more than your engine will need.

TrePaul86 · #7 03-07-2010, 05:49 PM

Doesn't necessarily increase power, especially on such small motors like the 4cyl's. What it does is allow the motor to breathe better, either with intake or exhaust or both... The only power gains those two make a difference with are bigger motors like v8's.

You installed a hot air intake, and yes the hissing sound is coming from the intake filter. I have that but twice as loud having a throttle body spacer.

Jp7 · #8 03-07-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

...after about 2-3 hours of driving it my check engine light went on....

What happened here is the Primary HEGO is seeing mixtures leaner than expected because unmetered air is sneaking because the MAF isn't properly calibrated or designed to work with the intake you made. The computer does not know this until the HEGO calls back and basically says "hey - richen things up". At this point in time the fuel maps become scaled and the process continues. After a certain point the computer says "hey, something is wrong, I'm richening the hell out of the map in order to achieve stoic at closed loop fuel mode", and your system throws a P0171 code.

Quote:

What i did was i unplugged that battery when i was installing and then when i was done a reconnected.

This sets your maps back to Zero, or factory preset.

Quote:

I started that truck and at first the idle was rough (like it was about to die) a few seconds later it was ok.

That's because your truck starts in open loop, with the HEGO being ignored and the factory open loop map is used, shortly after, it switches back to close loop and it uses HEGO feedback to scale the maps, Positive % in your situation.

Quote:

Aside from this. before installing the cold air intake i hear a hissing sound when i rev the engine.

Sounds like a vacuum leak. A 15$ stethoscope set can find one of those, that's what I use.

Jp7 · #9 03-07-2010, 07:43 PM

Oh, Fireranger and the Rock are very accurate above me. I've posted too much on these kinds of threads too many times. Plenty of my feedback if you just search around. I do have to take advantage of the chance to use this though lol:

johnfederis · #10 03-07-2010, 07:45 PM

Im confused about the cold, hot and ram. As to my knowledge i installed a cold air based on the products that i see from K&N other cold intake brand. i pretty much copied their configuration. i understand that this intake will draw air pretty much from the front coz theres a big space were air from out side will come in. As for the hot intake, i understand that it gets air from the engine compartment, which is hot. the reason that i bent it towards that little area so that when im running it will draw air from outside.

So if this setting is a hot air, then what are those cold air intakes that other brand advertise? Im confused coz i pretty much just copied them. Can you guys clarify and what i can do to improve the setting?

thanks for the feedbacks. other advices for upgrades will help.

TrePaul86 · #11 03-07-2010, 07:55 PM

The true cold air intakes are those that pull air from behind the bumper almost on the ground, away from the motor. Even then it's not "cold" it's just cooler air than the temperature of the air in the engine compartment.

johnfederis · #12 03-07-2010, 07:57 PM

i have been doing alot of searching with cold air intake. Base on jp7 there is no such thing as cold air. all there is, is a the engine will breath better right. And i am one of the newbie that got fooled by the concept of cold air. LOL

Nwie everything is not at waste coz my engine is breathing a little better right?

johnfederis · #13 03-07-2010, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrePaul86

The true cold air intakes are those that pull air from behind the bumper almost on the ground, away from the motor. Even then it's not "cold" it's just cooler air than the temperature of the air in the engine compartment.

This is what i was aiming for. to draw air from outside. But not from the ground but from the front.

Thanks

jester · #14 03-07-2010, 08:02 PM

If you wnt to gain some noticeable power, go turbo. Just my opinion but face it, it is a 4cy truck. How much power are you really going to make without going forced induction.

Jp7 · #15 03-07-2010, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnfederis

Im confused about the cold, hot and ram. As to my knowledge i installed a cold air based on the products that i see from K&N other cold intake brand. i pretty much copied their configuration. i understand that this intake will draw air pretty much from the front coz theres a big space were air from out side will come in. As for the hot intake, i understand that it gets air from the engine compartment, which is hot. the reason that i bent it towards that little area so that when im running it will draw air from outside.

So if this setting is a hot air, then what are those cold air intakes that other brand advertise? Im confused coz i pretty much just copied them. Can you guys clarify and what i can do to improve the setting?

thanks for the feedbacks. other advices for upgrades will help.

The problems your having are not the result of any temperature. They are the result of a measurement mistake that is being made because the geometry or flow characteristics of the system you invented don't mesh with the stock sensor or its calibration in the ECU. Think of a MAF sensor as your hand when you put it outside the window driving down the highway. You roll your window down and begin to reach out. Once you've just slightly made it out the window, your fingers begin to feel cold. If you push it farther out the window the get colder, because its exposed to more wind as it rushes by your hand. Now, if I blindfolded you while you did that, your brain would be able to tell if you were being driven fast or slow based on how it feels right? This is for the most part the exact way a MAF works. If you have a wider cross section at the MAF it is like the hand being only partially out the window, instead of being full blown. Your brain thinks your going slow (you can't see because I've blindfolded you) while in reality it might be going much faster. As the air moves and tumbles around it its being mis-measured. MAFs also need to have laminar flow around the MAF itself. Laminar flow is a very smooth flow where the air moves along very relaxed. When air hits curves and has to turn corners you get turbulence, which makes all kinds of random motion. How the MAF reads this flow is dependent on which random part of this motion its seeing. It's very erratic. Since fuel delivery is dependent on how much air is being measured the fuel delivery will be erratic and it will under-or-over delivery fuel and "make a mistake in the recipe" for making your engine run. Think of air and fuel like baking a cake. You need 10 cups of batter for every 1 egg you have in your cake. If you want to make alot more cake you need 50 cups batter for every 5 eggs. If you put 20 cups of batter with 6 eggs its going to be a crappy cake right? Fuel delivery is the same. Basically it is 1 part of gas for every 14.7 parts of air. Running with more fuel than that is rich, running with less is lean.