Filter minder

[R.Taylor]

So, New 06 rig with 18,200 miles. Bone stock under the hood, I put in a brand new mopar air filter as I wait for my Amsoil filter in the mail. I noticed every time I drive the filter minder budges itself down halfway through the green. The filter only has 600 miles on it and is as clean as the day I put it in. The minder on my old truck never moved like this one... Do I have a funky filter minder?

 

[rbattelle]

Early in the 3rd gen trucks there was a batch of apparently faulty filter minders that would pull down exactly as you describe. I thought they were fixed by 2006, but maybe not. Here's one of several threads where we discussed it. Title search on "filter minder" in the 3rd gen forum brings up others.

Sounds like you've got a mis-calibrated one. I have the opposite problem - mine has never moved at all in all the time I've owned the truck.

Ryan

 

[steved]

The problem isn't the filter, its the box.



Mine did that until I drilled the airbox full of holes, hasn't pulled in since... it was night and day difference, eve with the same filter before and after.

 

[CKelley1]

drilling the box is not the thing to do. get a psm kit and drill the hole in the bottom of the box as instructed. if you can find a gauge in inches of water coulomb you can check calibration of the filterminder by placing both in parallel and draw a vacuum on both the filterminder should reach red at 30 to 35 inches of water

 

[rbattelle]

if you can find a gauge in inches of water coulomb

What the heck is an inch water coulomb? Inches of water I understand, and coulombs I understand, but put them together and I'm clueless!



Ryan

 

[seafish]

Pretty sure he means inches of water column...

 

[steved]

And what does it hurt to drill the box? It was proven underhood temps aren't that hot, and it definitely doesn't hurt my mileage (still averaging 21 mpg with 4. 10s).



Been this way for over 175k.

 

[CKelley1]

drilling holes in the box lets hot underhood air in and hurts efficiency. cant spell should have used spell check i meant column get a yard stick and tape a clear 1/4 inch tube to it place a pan on the floor with water in the pan add coloring if you like place the open end of the tube in the water with the yard stick just touching the water. at the top of the bench connect a t and the filterminder draw a vacuum on the two until the water reaches 35 inches the filterminder should be red

 

[steved]

drilling holes in the box lets hot underhood air in and hurts efficiency.

And this was proven to be bogus by a member of TDR a while back... under hood temperatures are NOT that hot. If this was the case, then why is one of the most commonly used upgrades to any CTD a BHAF?????



Obviously, its not all that bad.



And which is worse? Air that is only slightly warmer than outside or a restriction in the intake tract????

 

[CKelley1]

the hot air is worse than the restriction. by reducing both you get the most benefit. the psm kit is a 4 inch dryer vent flange and about two feet of 4 inch pipe that lets cool air enter the bottom of the box. this is the way all good air boxes work. for tow or doyley drivers the stock air with a psm kit is very hard to improve on. the baffles in the elbow and tube along with the silencer ring reduce side shear in the turbo. there is two main groups of people on this site i am in the group that wants maximum mpg, engine life and good low end torque the other group want peak short term power for pulling, racing or playing. the mods for one do not work on the other. in this example the straight tube and bhaf is helpful to the players and detrimental to the towers

 

[AABEN]

the hot air is worse than the restriction. by reducing both you get the most benefit. the psm kit is a 4 inch dryer vent flange and about two feet of 4 inch pipe that lets cool air enter the bottom of the box. this is the way all good air boxes work. for tow or doyley drivers the stock air with a psm kit is very hard to improve on. the baffles in the elbow and tube along with the silencer ring reduce side shear in the turbo. there is two main groups of people on this site i am in the group that wants maximum mpg, engine life and good low end torque the other group want peak short term power for pulling, racing or playing. the mods for one do not work on the other. in this example the straight tube and bhaf is helpful to the players and detrimental to the towers

I will go alone with you ! That is why I went with the Volant air box. I liked the air also coming from down below. Also I do not trust the filter minder ! I have seen air cleaners that was jest about choked off and it did not show it was choking off the air. I change my air filter every oil change 7000 miles.

 

[steved]

I disagree.



Gary showed that underhood temps are not as hot as one would think, and only slightly hotter than ambient temps. This disproved the myth that underhood temps are so "hot". They really have little to no affect on EGTs, etc.



Secondly, that cool hose intake would most likely cause more issues than it solves, especially where it snows. I could easily imagine a nice dry powder snow getting sucked into the hose, filling the airbox with snow... while rain might not be an issue, a powder snow that is being blown around by the truck's motion may be.



Lastly, I'm the last one to talk about longevity (look at the mods in my sig), this makes the fourth truck I have drilled, all have/had over 200k, and all ran just fine (and get/got as good or better mileage than most at the same time).



Two points of view, agree to disagree.

 

[JDiehl]

I put an Outerwears prefilter over the end of the PSM. Somewhat water proof, keeps bugs out, works great!

 

[DGamelin]

Hot air is a killer even a little. This has been proven also. The only ones that don't agree are the ones selling open air boxes. But it is not going to damage the truck ether. Every car and truck out there has cold air intake, they wouldn't spend the money for nothing. Most tractors have cold air intakes on them, and these are small diesels. On mine the stock filter was just to restrictive, I tried a KN for a short time and the problem was gone, but I don't think they filter well enough for me. After studding every thing I could fine. I put a vacuum gage above and below the filter the box just wasn't that restrictive. I put a stock 6. 7 filter setup in mine. It's filters has twice the filter area and it bolted right in. But if I were to put a hole in it I would used that psm kit, that looks slick.



_________________________

93 250 2wd xc 354 auto 265k

04. 5 3500 4wd cc dully 373 6speed 90k

D&K Tractors and Trailers

 

[steved]

Hot air is a killer even a little.



But it is not going to damage the truck ether.

Seems contradictory??



I have seen your 6. 7L install, IF it had been around in 2005 when I drilled the holes, I might have gone that way. But again, I found the panel to flow enough and the box itself to be the restriction (and more specifically, the hole in the fender).



And again, I have just shy of 200k on this truck without on ill effect.

 

[CKelley1]

dgamelin i just installed the 6. 7 air box on two of my 06's i transferred my psm to them it might have been your post that gave me the idea. some of my large trucks come with dash mounted donaldson 60inwc gauges for those that want to see what is really happening just replace the filterminder with one of these. steved i do not want to argue with you either i have a very large shop to maintain the 138 pieces of equipment with diesel engines in them after 42 years in business i am turning it over to my son and i have been testing all of the things mentioned. do a search on a article called turbocharger history, near the end of it it gives all of the formulas needed to understand and figure the heat loss. the way he tested the under hood air was faulty. some of our earlier test were also inacurate due to the way we were running the test

 

[seafish]

CKelley and dgamelin, I too am interested in replacing the oem filter box in my 2005 with one from a 6. 7L. I have long wanted to start using just the filter from the 6. 7L engine, however I felt that the fit was just a little too tight to be good for air flow. I think that repalcing the entire filter box is an excellent idea to acheive better AND cummins approved air filtration, and more flow if one is willing to do a PSM type mod to the box. Sooooo... .



Do either of you have a part # for the 6. 7L box, as well as ANY other info that might be helpful to do the install?? How long did it take you... I figure no mere then 3-4 hours?? Pics of the finished install would be fun too. THANKS!!!

 

[CKelley1]

i bought both 6. 7 boxes from other members who changed there boxes to after market the first one took about two hours from start to finish including swapping the psm. the second one took one hour and two minutes. there is already a pilot hole in the 6. 7 box for the 4 inch hole saw to mount the psm. i made a paper template to cut out the plate to block the 1 inch round hole in the neck. next i cut a piece pipe to slip into the coolhose for support and used a rubber coupling to connect the coolhose to the 6. 7 neck. the reason you have to do this is the outside of the 6. 7 neck is the same size as the outside of the cool hose

 

[seafish]

CKelley, thanks for the details. No other sensors or wires need to be blocked off?

Did you notice any drop in egt or perhaps quicker spool-up??

TIA

 

[PFlory]

I'd have to agree with DGamelin. cooler air=more dense charge air=more power and lower egt's. I replaced the drilled box on mine and installed a banks intake with a cold ram air scoop which pulls air from under the front bumper. Although it's slight the egt's are 100-200 degrees lower and the turbo seems to spool quicker.