BHAF without airbox-

[CGauthier]

Since I put in my NAPA2709 BHAF (no airbox, just fitted against the fender) this is the first time I've ever driven through a heavy rain (and i do mean HEAVY) so I opened the hood at the end of the trip and noticed there was water around the area and the filter looked as if it may have gotten somewhat wet. Any of you guys ever have a problem with this? Kinda worried me a bit, sure dont want that Cummins suckin in H20... .



TIA,



Carl G

 

[sparks57]

Make yourself a shield out of thin sheet metal. I had an Old Smoky intake on my first gen, and it was nothing but a piece of metal the hooked to the fender rail and stopped water and heat from getting to the filter.

 

[tugboatphil]

Carl,



I'm a real cheapskate, so I didn't even use sheet metal. I have a stock air filter tied to the mounting plate of the air box. That keeps the filter from resting on the fenderwell. I used metal duct tape and roof flashing for my rainshield. I ran it all last winter and had no problems.



I posted pictures in this thread:



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=93262&perpage=15&pagenumber=2

 

[cguthrie]

You could get an outerwears prefilter which is supposed to be waterproof for it. I'm not sure about the part number.



Chris

 

[CGauthier]

Thanks very much guys... actually I could make something out of aluminum since im in that kind of a trade If I come up with something good maybe I'll be helping some of you guys out



Thanks,



Carl G

 

[JShawver]

Old Smokey Mount??

What is an "Old Smokey Mount"?? and how do I find one... ??

 

[Greenleaf]

Smoke no longer makes them... . (right?) Anyhow, I don't think he does. It's a mounting braket that holds the filter.



I drove through a little of the rain from Hurricane Charley and my filter got a bit wet. It's not paper though.



The factory set-up has duct work that channels the rain into the air box, so I don't think that a little rain is hurting anything. Soaking the paper of a BHAF can't be any worse than wetting the factory element inside the OEM box w/ the ducting, can it?



Think of it as water injection. LOL



I have wanted to try the BHAF but the aFe is so much smaller, it allows me to gain accsess to my truck's jack... . and it's reusable.



You guys have any thoughts on this????



-S

 

[1stgen4evr]

Water Injection

I noticed years back that the old Mack truck I was dirving had more HP when the air outside was saturated. We were hauling pulpwood and may have overloaded the truck a bit, like 120k lbs gross. So the extra HP showed up significantly. I would be skeptical of liquid water but by the time any moisture gets to a cylinder through the filter, it is vaporized or at least atomized to the point that it won't cause truouble. I have no doubt that a system to inject water would boost hp but again I would be very careful of having liquid hit the top of a piston when at operating temperature. Inspect whatever setup you have and make certain that no path is open to straight water ingestion.



1stgen4evr

James

 

[cerberusiam]

Getting a paper filter wet will interfere with its ability to flow air. If you soak the whole filter you will have some air restriction but getting just part of it wet won't make a large enough impact. The problem with the wet filter is after it drys out. Any dirt that was mixed with the moisture will form a film and embed dirt particles into the element. Once that happens the element won't flow ait and you can't blow it out with compressed air. Getting the filter damp won't cause problems unless it happens on a continual basis.



Aside from the flow improvements from a BHAF, is the large filters will flow about 25% more air than needed at the 15 to 20 psi boost range so you have some wiggle room as far as degradation in the filter flow. You can loose part of the filter if it happens to get wet enough to cause problems but not loose enough air flow to matter. Mounting the filter up close to the fender lip and back as far as possible and putting a deflector on the hogged out portion of the rad support leaves less than a 1/4 of the filter exposed to potential soaking. So unless you are running in water deep enough the fan is spraying the engine compartment the most of the filter will stay relatively dry. Adding an Outerwears cover will considerably reduce the chances of getting the elemnet wet also and you can clean the prefilter for reuse.



Most engines will perform better running in cool damp air. The amount of O2 is higher so the charge air is of better quality. You get somewhat the same effect using water injection to boost O2 levels and cool the combustion event. When the water is injected it is atomized thru a nozzle just like the fuel so it distibutes in the air charge. Unatomized water acts about the same as unatomized fuel by causing cold spots in the combustion and quenching the burn cycle.

 

[CGauthier]

Cool, so I'm not killin nuthin hah. Hmmm maybe we should rig up a contraption that steams the a/f... . like a heater core hose running underneath it with a couple pinholes in it (at the bottom of course lol) but then I'd want to make sure I'd have a low coolant sensor lol.



Carl G