Cold Air Intake

[povertycoach]

In an effort to get the coldest, densest air possible into my engine, I made a poverty cold air intake.  There is no filter inside, so I will filter the air at the scoops.  It will be a tight fit to snake the ducts down to two scoops under the bumper, but I think performance will benefit.

Used my old air cleaner top and bottom, $20 in air ducts and rivets....

Once I get the ducting figured out, it will go flat black.  I will be making scoops to mount under the bumper, and will post pics of the progress.
   
slàinte!!

p-coach

thanks for the idea Mark!!

[Oz]

You're welcome.  That's a fine job.  One suggestion:  You shouldn't need to run the ducting all the way under the bumper.  That is a hassle in itself and complicates working on other stuff if you need to in those areas to the front of the engine.  On the passenger side, it's not so difficult to route.  On the driver side, much more difficult.

Take them straight forward through the flexible radiator cowl.  On the exterior of the ducts, add a 45° downward visor to deflect rain and the majority of bugs and debris.  Not only does this give you cold air induction, at speeds over 45 mph, it gives you ram air. 

[povertycoach]

I wish I could, but there is no room to go through the flex cowl because there is only about 1-1/2" between the top of the radiator and the dog house framing.  The the duct may be an obstacle for working on things, but it will be removable, and I am bound and determined to get the cold air from down there...

[Oz]

I understand.  Of course, I couldn't see the radiator flex cowl from the photo angle, but it does look like you have just a little more room to work in the front of the engine area than a 440 in a Winnebago.  I'm sure you'll come up with the solution.  Creative resourcefulness is one of a vintage RVer's greatest assets.

[Froggy1936]

That is a fantastic looking job of building an air collector for carb mounting. Dont forget to sandpaper the aluminum or the paint wont stick. Also the closer to the ground the hotter the air due to reflective heat. Note: at highway speeds underhood temperature is only slightly higher than ambient temp (i have a temp pickup at the air filter and in TX at temps of 100o outside my under doghouse temp was 115o at speed.  When i went from factory air cleaner to open Edelbrock my MPG went up 1.5 MPG on comparable drives Let us know of any improvement in MPG after your modification is complete  Frank

[RV Mech Tech]

In addition to the above posts the same thing can be done for cooling the exhaust manifolds in the early RV's- as a matter of fact G.M. had a service bulletin  in the late 60's and a re-issue bulletin in the early 70's telling the tech to fabricate an air induction system to direct cooling air to the exhaust manifolds -this was in response to the exhuast manifolds overheating, burning the ignition wires, and actually cracking requiring replacment -  if you take a big block engine and put it in a 5-ton truck the engine compartment will have a lot of room around it for air to circulate and the engine operates at or close to the designed running temp- take that same engine and install it in an engine compartment that restricts the flow of air around the engine and this  decreases any heat dissapation by convection around the engine and things start to get real hot, the ex. manifolds being the first especially when climbing a steep grade- I have even seen an owner install extra fans to push cooling air over the engine and this helped in his situation after he experienced severe overheating (he had other cooling system issues that were repaired as well and the addition of fans helped keep the engine temp down even in stop and go traffic)  - also for anyone that has cooling issues take a look at the front area around the rad - is there any shrouding missing? some of the early RV's had no shrouding and owners have added it in and around the rad area - this is also what race car drivers do for both the engine induction and cooling systems.