Swapping places with battery and BHAF.

[Swamp Donkey]

I don't even have a BHAF, but can this be done? I have not checked or done any measurements, but it might be an idea for someone more skilled and adventurous than myself. Yhat way, maybe a good airbox can be built around the BHAF with air being drawn in somewhere form the front.



It is to darn cold for me to even take my measuring tape outside way up here in Canada!

 

[illflem]

John, I looked at ducting just to the stock airbox from the front, there's just too much stuff up front to make it easy. One way to look at it is the BHAF guys( not me, box K&N is fine) have all winter to figure out a housing. Thing I found with a intake manifold temp sensor is that it's hard to keep the intake temp warm enough when it gets below 20°F, intake should be above 50°. Sucking underhood air is good for now.

 

[Joe G.]

John,



I think I would be reluctant to put the battery back near all that radiant heat from the exhaust manifold and down pipe.



I'm not so sure that the difference between outside and under the hood air makes all that much difference for intake air. The air goes thru the turbo charger and is compressed which heats it up. I suspect that the turbo gets hot enuff to glow in the dark when you work it hard anyway so that heats up the air some more. Now it goes thru the intercooler to reduce the air temp (a LOT where you live!). It seems to me all that would reduce or cancel any advantage of getting outside air over under the hood air. There has been some debate about this, but no one that I know of has actually put a thermacouple in the intake air horn to demonstrate one way or another so what we have are opinions.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

From what measurements I have been able to make, the 10. 5" diameter of the BHAF is so large that there isn't room for a good air induction box around it if you want good airflow into the filter media, and you want to close the hood So, you have to compromise with hot underhood air taken near the turbo exhaust housing. For comparison, the original Fleetguard filter (without foam prefilter) for the Dodge airbox flowed 550 cfm.



The BHAF flows 687 cfm at 6" water suction.

In about Issue 36 of TDR if all goes well I'll describe a filter installation with ram air. Flow is over 800 cfm, but you have to lose the battery on that side. Right now I am using one Optima with 800 cca at 0 deg. Optima is coming out with a bigger one in a few months and then we might have a single battery with enough oomph for even cold winters. Two batteries end up fighting each other and don't work as well as one big one.



Here in Las Vegas, it doesn't get too cold, although this week ain't real user friendly for me--extra cold at 37 low, 52 high. Should warm up by next week, though.

 

[illflem]

Joe, I have a thermocouple in my intake, believe Dawson does also. My main experimenting has been tiring to get the intake temp HIGHER in cold weather. Ideal intake temp is 50-90°F. Found that a Physcotty really makes for cold air, stock airbox with a winter front was good for about 10 more degrees F than no winter front. Winter front with the airbox snorkel removed and fender hole blocked raised the temp 30° more. Winter front with fan removed, fender hole blocked was the best, 55° higher than just the plain stock setup with no front. The stock setup @ 0° ambient only had a intake temp of 20-35° depending on boost, much too low for good engine efficiency.



As far as high temps I've never tried blocking off the fender hole in the summer but think it would raise the intake temp more than it does in the winter. Will have to try that one. Have found that with a front on or fanless not moving above 70° that the intake temp skyrockets up to 140°+. Running the AC also jacks the intake temp way up, I think it's due to the hot condenser air flowing though the intercooler.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

illflem-- I agree, temp in cold weather is an issue too. One feature I plan to include in the airbox is an inlet that can be connected to the air scoop for cold air, or can be pointed toward the turbo exhaust housing to get warm air in cold weather.

 

[JohnE]

The worst environment for batteries is vibration and heat. Keeping the batteries at the forward part of the engine compartment minimizes the heat, but not vibration. The ideal would be relocating your batteries to the forward part of your box. They are away from engine heat and vibration.



I thought the airflow of the BHAF would be around double the stock airfilter. The filter area is 3-4 times greater. All this talk of conditioned intake air sounds as though we need a heat riser snorkle from the turbo area.



My brother has a JD turbo charged diesel running a snowblower. Heat, or lack of, is his big problem. He cannot consistently keep the engine up in the 170° operating temperature range.



Joe;

I've run a lot of dual battery setups in series, parallel and parallel/series. I agree the older style batteries were bad, but newer technology has really reduced the problems. Batteries are now much more consistent from unit to unit. If you really want a large single battery, put it in your pickup box and get a Trojan commercial. They put out a modest 1100 CCA, but the reserve is immense.





Bill;

What did you use for a manifold temperature probe? I think one of those is on my post Christmas shopping list. .



-John

 

[illflem]

Joe, I've seen some aftermarket airboxes on PSDs that use a rubber seal and the hood for the top side. Perhaps something like that would work for the BHAF?



John, I used a digital gauge, it also doubles as my AT temp gauge. I've used this same gauge on tractors for hydraulic temp for years, they are very reliable and accurate. Picture in link isn't right, readout is red, sender isn't included, they're $15 ea.

 

[Roger rodbolt]

$20.00 Ram Air

I have been using a homebuilt fresh/ram air setup sourced from the air dam below the bumper. Installed a shutoff valve from a 4" dust collector in the fresh air hose for testing/cold weather/deep watercrossing. I first ducted to a K&N from a '93 CTD(1rst gen. ), adapted to our turbo hose and ran it with and without an enclosure. For the past several months I've used the BHAF with a semi-enclosure that seals against the hood insulation and extend forward to the alternator. When towing there is a tremendous amount of heat generated from the rear/turbo area. A shield being sold here on this forum (according to the photos posted) is too short near the firewall to be effective. My tests on intake temps are inconclusive at this point due to so many variables, but I can safely say that the a/c lines entering the evaporator are being heat soaked when the truck is slowed or stopped and found that insulation will help a/c performance at idle. My take on egt's and oxygen rich combustion air,is that a little positive air pressure with cool air and lots of space around the air filter is the ticket. Tests show there is little or no difference in airtemps between cowl air or airdam air. I believe that the Pychotty (sp) fails to deliver because of the limited space around the conical K&N airfilter. I'll know more after another summer of experiments. Thanks to Illflem, I'm now using the same digital guages.

 

[Joe G.]

Bill,



Is your thermocouple after the intercooler? If it is then that is very good data to know.

 

[illflem]

Joe, I drilled and tapped the side of the intake about 8" up stream from the grid heaters. Some more data, each cycle of the intake heaters is worth about 30°. After a cold engine is plugged in for 3 hours the intake temp is around 70° with an outside temp of 0°. After you start the truckwith the either the block or grid heaters the the intake temp drops to about 10° above ambient almost instantly.

 

[Steve Roseman]

Has anybody tried using the Air Bulldog hood? I remember reading they have a setup for ram air plus something to cool the intake pipe.

Even if not functional, they look just awesome!