Cold ram air for the Edge

[Stumpalump]

I removed my air box from my 2008 edge 3.5L. On the side of the airbox is a tube snorkle about 5" long that breaths warm engine compartment air. If you pop the tube out from the inside this leaves a perfect oval that a standard home dryer duct slips right on. Run this duct down the drivers side to behind the air dam. If you have no fog lights you can pop out the cover and attach the duck right there. If you have the lights then modify the plastic pannel under the air dam to create a gap or scoop affect to feed cold air into your duct work. Simple easy mod and it really seems like Ford designed the airbox just for this mod. The airbox has an additional port that feeds to the grill. The grill is blocked in front of it so you can open it up to force air in but basically with that duct left in place any major water intrusion into the lower ram duct will not get sucked into the airbox because of the venting affect of the grill duct. If you use metal or white vinyl dryer duct into the opening for fog lights then a quick shot of black spray paint into the duct will hide it nicly for a factory look. You can also modify the fog light delete cover and pop it back in place for a clean look. Nice easy almost free cold ram air to the allready nice airbox Ford gave you.

[capnkirk52]

sounds a little janky to me for a very minimal gain.

[Lex Talionis]

yeah.. I am the first to want to try to make stuff and see if I can get it working.. but this one seems a bit of a stretch.. especially in such a crucial performance specific area. I almost thought this was a late Aprils Fools joke

[Stumpalump]

yeah.. I am the first to want to try to make stuff and see if I can get it working.. but this one seems a bit of a stretch.. especially in such a crucial performance specific area. I almost thought this was a late Aprils Fools joke

You have 500 post on here and can't see the benifits of CAI? Where do you post in the bling sections? Pop your hood and look at the side snorkle yourself and see how the oval port is just screaming at you to add a fresh cold air hose. The factory even gave you a ton of room to feed the hose right down to the high pressure area under the dam or right to the fog lamp cut out. The engine is a big air pump and the easier it can work to get its air then the less drag it will have on it sucking it in. More effeciency and also more power when you want it to scream. Maybe not for you cruising to the mall but lots of us gear heads out there not only enjoy tinkering with our rides but also like to feel in the seat of the pants what the mods we do did that also happen improve gas milage. Go back to your bling section and check out the latest spinners and when you actually learn to pop your hood and take some time to learn how the most simple modifications will help then coment on performance /gas saving modifications.

Here is your first lesson: Why dosn't the factory allready do it if it will help??? Because they are under strict noise emmision requirments. If you take off the intake boot from the throttle body and have sombody push the gas pedal (remember this engine is drive by wire) you will hear how much noise is emmited right out of the throttle body. The air boot to it with it's mufflers and the airbox with it's restrictions are designed to stop as much or all the noise it can. This restriction in air flow is not helpfull to the big air pump your engine is. What little noise that comes out of the grill air feed is blocked by the plastic grill. The noise coming out of the 1 1/4" snozzle on the side is muffled by just having to breath under hood enclosed hot air. It's nice that on the EDGE they gave us the perfect dryer sized opening to make this a simple 15 minute mod and yes you may hear an additional sound of the air entering the throttle body. I did not mention the slight aditional noise because it is almost negligable with the factory air intake boot mufflers left on ( its that big black box mounted on top of the intake boot just before the throttle body) and also the factory air box left in place. You can remove the snorkle yourself and hear what if any additional noise you may get.

Here is lesson two: For every 10 degree drop in inlet air temperature you gain about 1% in power. Power gains of this type ussually come with gains in efficiency or gas milage. Since the factory decided to mufffle this sound with restrictions and letting it breath hot under hood air (see air radiating from exhaust and coming thru 200 plus degree radiartor) then you can see that letting it's air from a cold high pressure souce will benifit it's efficency. Lets say you are at idle for a while and your under hood is at 230 degrees. Now we change that air location to outside @70 degress. Thats 160 degree difference or about 16%. This would be best case and it's the kind of numbers you see from the folks that sell CAI kits for other vehicles. Add this up with the benifits of now actually letting your big air pump get air and you can see how this type of mod is a no brainer for us gear heads. Sorry for the sarcasm and I hope I explained whats behind this in a way that makes a little more sense.

[Lex Talionis]

didn't need a lesson. never said I didn't understand. reread my post. I was implying, much like capnkirk52, that using home dryer ducting is pretty funny.

 

and as for the 500 posts, maybe before you start spouting off about some bling comments, you need to go search around and see what I have done personally for modifications (and supplied in detail here for others to follow) a heck of a lot more than most.... HID lighting installs (yes, under the hood), LEDs all around, custom made one of a kind LED puddle bulbs, hitch, modified mud flaps, speakers all around, .. and the list goes on.. but even easier, just click my gallery and look at photos.. might be easier for you

[Stumpalump]

didn't need a lesson. never said I didn't understand. reread my post. I was implying, much like capnkirk52, that using home dryer ducting is pretty funny.

 

and as for the 500 posts, maybe before you start spouting off about some bling comments, you need to go search around and see what I have done personally for modifications (and supplied in detail here for others to follow) a heck of a lot more than most.... HID lighting installs (yes, under the hood), LEDs all around, custom made one of a kind LED puddle bulbs, hitch, modified mud flaps, speakers all around, .. and the list goes on.. but even easier, just click my gallery and look at photos.. might be easier for you

I see your home brew struff and I gotta respect that. I mainly build off road rigs where everthing needs to be modified. I guess the dryer duct apears cheezy but you can get real nice metal flexible tubing for the same thing and it would look trick. I'm sure the aftermarket makes some nice duct work for this kind of stuff but I realy just got a kick out of how the extra vinyl duct I had laying around sliped right on and I had great cold air in 15 minutes. Sorry again for the sarcasm but where I hang ( the off road world) we get a ton of smart azz web wheelers that all they seem to add to a discussion is to find faults and twist what you say. Hopfully in my quest to tweek out the Edge I'll find the folks more level headed. Got any performance mods on your mind yet? I see the rig has two nice resonators and twin tips so Im gonna try an aftermarket free flowing muff and leave the rest stock. This will keep the noise down and still look stock. Once I get it broken in I'll fool with tricking the air inlet sensor into thinking it's 20 degrees colder outside. This will change the fuel and timing maps just enough to feel but not really so much as to hurt anything. I'm at high elevation so all you can do to improve flow in and out up helps a lot.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Stumpalump

[Lex Talionis]

2 guys here have done muffler tweaks.. one did a Gibson and the other did a Flowmaster (he even posted a sound clip in this mods section of the forum)... there is a good chance, as more people do them, I will make a selection based on others feedback. Muffler is something on my mind for sure.

 

seems like you might be a guy you would take to the computer tunes you can dial in and upload to your car people are selling and talking about here in this section of the forum.

 

anyway, if you want to get technical on why I personally snickered about the dryer ducting is, besides the fact it is dryer ducting.. (1) how well would it actually stand up to level of air input - as we all know, dryers do not put out that kind of force of air (2) though it is somewhat firm with the ridges, will it crimp or bend or fold or distort with that kind of pressure flowing through (3) does having the ridges every inch or so in that ducting create turbulence in the tubing at that volume that it would not actually flow freely, instead creating eddies and turbulence currents in the actual ducting, as it seems most true after-market cold air rams use a smoother tubing, and often they are metal.

[Stumpalump]

2 guys here have done muffler tweaks.. one did a Gibson and the other did a Flowmaster (he even posted a sound clip in this mods section of the forum)... there is a good chance, as more people do them, I will make a selection based on others feedback. Muffler is something on my mind for sure.

 

seems like you might be a guy you would take to the computer tunes you can dial in and upload to your car people are selling and talking about here in this section of the forum.

 

anyway, if you want to get technical on why I personally snickered about the dryer ducting is, besides the fact it is dryer ducting.. (1) how well would it actually stand up to level of air input - as we all know, dryers do not put out that kind of force of air (2) though it is somewhat firm with the ridges, will it crimp or bend or fold or distort with that kind of pressure flowing through (3) does having the ridges every inch or so in that ducting create turbulence in the tubing at that volume that it would not actually flow freely, instead creating eddies and turbulence currents in the actual ducting, as it seems most true after-market cold air rams use a smoother tubing, and often they are metal.

I think the ridges that have the most effect are the ones in the air boots and air box themself. Going from a 1 1/4" snorkle to a huge in comparison duct would still be an advantage. Especially since now it's added to a high pressure zone of the vehicle. Any turbulance would still have to go thru the filter, box and stock air inlet boot anyway so I don't think the need for smooth is not as criticle. I guess with the nice 4" port that ford allready gave us a guy could fab up hard smooth pvc pipe with the ruber couplers to fit the air box that they sell in plumbing from Home Depot. By looking at your ride you would want to paint it black and use nice stainless clamps to give it a factory look. I'm afraid what we will get from the after market is a new throttle body air tube with a clamp on cone filter. Maybe some type of air dam so they can call it cold air. They call that cold air but unless the air comes from a point other than the engine bay then the added air gets offset by heated air. Anyway look down the driverside next to the snorkle and see what I mean as far as acessing the good air that you want and if you or sombody comes up with somthing nicer,smother or better then let us know. I may plug my intake muffler ports but I won't spend the money on one of the plastic tube type replacements that will soon hit the market. They want a few hundred for somthing that is really not a whole lot better than modifing what you have. One more thing I learned from the LT1/LS1 crowd is that if you open up the flat spot behind the air dam then it will force air in. The problem is that unless this air is only forced into the air duct then the air coming in will compete with the air coming thru the grill adding a tad bit of drag and compete with air flow thru the radiator. I guess some folks analize this stuff way more than me with just a hunk of dryer duct. For some folks the Edge is their baby and thats OK. They will spend the money and time for absolute perfection. Thats what I do but I have a pecking order on what ride gets what. Jeep, Ford 8n tractor, pickup used to tow Jeep, wifes car then my company Edge. You would think I'd leave the dang thing alone. Never gonna happen!!

[NYEdge]

I think that the overall idea is a good one.

Perhaps the material suggested (dryer hose) is not the professional type of material most people are used to seeing in modified vehicles, but simplifying a solution is usually the best way to get started and then it can be refined.

I also think that if a mod performs its designed function, its a success.

 

I'll be looking into this mod with perhaps a more refined finish and I applaud anyone that tries something new.

[capnkirk52]

We all know the concept. Just use something that looks good like a plastic of aluminum tube instead of dryer hose. Thats all we're saying.

 

As far as a 10k or 18k mod like the diesels or a resistor on the MAF, why not just buy a tuner and then you can have full control of timing and fuel? I know its cheaper but the gain is going to be minimal compared to a tuner/custom tune.

 

Just MHO.