O.K.

I have been working on this awhile and it grew into a little more of a project than I originally thought.

I wanted to make the Hood Scoop functional. After examining the profile of the truck and the numerous discussions on this, I decided to go another route.

I wanted to put an intake to the grille. I saw two (2) ways to do this.

1. Lower grille funnel and run a hose to under the inner fender and come up into the engine compartment under the air box (TRD intake).

2. My second approach was to take the URD and Volant intake and blend the best ideas from them. This was the path I took.

I already had a TRD intake, so this is the basis of my start.

I cut a 3" diameter hole into the TRD box and glues in a short piece of aluminum tubing. This was done with a quick setting 2-part epoxy.



I siliconed a plastic mesh to the inside of this aluminum tube. This does two (2) things.

1. It keeps big crud out of the intake box.
2. It acts as a coalescer. If water gets into the duct, water will coalese on the mesh and then drip to the bottom of the intake box. It will drain out of the original air intake into the box or it will drain to the grille. The duct is sloped downward to the grille.

I shot a little black paint on it, just to make it a little cleaner.


I bought a straight section of 3" diameter silicone tubing and joined it to a 45 degree bend. I joined the sections with a 1 1/2" long piece of 3" aluminum tubing. I bought both of ebay. These are common supplies for making intercoolers.






The black plastic ties was to holds everything together during the mock up process. ( I did not have my hose clamps yet)

I originally started with 4" hose, but found it a little tough to fit. As a result, I dropped down to 3"

Here is a pict of a 4" hose at the mock up stage.


The end of the 3" 45 degree lateral, I put a 3" X 4" silicone adapter or reducer. I keep red tubing under the hood for wow factor. Once the tubing is in front of the radiator support, I switched to black. This keep the scoop and duct from being an eyesore form the front of the truck.





Where the 45 degree lateral goes through the radiator support (behind the headlight) had to be opened up. I believe this step is also a requirement of a URD. I stole another idea from URD and used a plastic trim piece to clean-up the cut-out. I used a dremel tool with a cut-off wheel to make the cut-out. I went through about six (6) wheels.



I bought a used Hallcraft intake for a C5 Corvette of ebay. I like the curvature of the intake. I cut this in two (2) sections and used a bench grinder to shape the bell in the middle of the intake. This could also be done with a stock Corvette intake, the aftermarket Hallcraft just looked right to me. I would not buy one of these new, because of the cost. Once I got it to the shape I wanted, I used silicone and glued it to the 3" x 2" reducer.




This is what it looked like when I got happy with it.



This is what it looks like, when assembled.







A couple of things, I did here. I rolled the 45 degree lateral downward to the scope. This will inhibit water from entering the intake box. The scoop is also nicely tucked to one side of the grille, so not to block the radiator.

This is a pic with the grille reinstalled.



I need to do some testing, but on my maiden voyage tonight, air intake temps were 1~2 degrees over ambient temp ( as read by the scan gauge).

At idle at a stop light, temps rose to 10 ~ 12 degrees over ambient. They dropped 5~6 degrees at 30 ~40 mph.

I will give a follow up in a week or two.