Stock Airbox Mods-Part II

lonerider · Jul 1, 2004

Hello To Each and All,

First I would like to thank everyone for their time,efforts,and knowledge in the discovery of our Titans. Nissan owes a debt of gratitude to the people of this forum!

Now to my observations and questions of airbox mods.

I have performed the stock airbox mod of removing the external air tube extending into the box (per Juma's post of this mod.). Instead of using a dremel tool,I found it easier to mark with a pencil the tube portion to cut to make it flush with the opening. Remove the lower airbox via two screws(1 inside the lower box and the other on the wheel well) and pull straight up to loosen the grommet hold fitting. The tube can then be separated (with effort) from the airbox and cut with a hacksaw. Don't worry about damage to the upper and lower plastic tabs holding the external tube to the airbox as with re-assembly the two parts are held together anyway.

I can't say that I have noticed a big difference(yet?) with this mod but it is a part of improvements that do add to the sum of gains. More importantly,doing this mod brings up the question of adding tubing to the end of the airhorn for a "ram air" cold air induction! The inner fender well area does allow for us to receive "cold" air but,it is loaded with many turns and flow-blocking items.

Of course,there is no free lunch so here are the problems: 1.)Where to begin the "ram" entry? 2.) Can the ECU(engine computer) handle the increased air flow? 3.) Can the stock airbox(and thus flat stock air filter)handle a ram effect?

Yes, I have thought of installing the aftermarket Volant or K&N total air systems,but neither is a "ram" system and both must still pull through the 'dirty' area of the fender well. My living in California and having visual smog inspections also plays a part in keeping a visual "stock" looking airbox. I will be installing a drop-in K&N air filter in place of the stock paper filter.

My questions also are: 1.) How do you remove the headlight assembly? 2.) How do you remove the insert in the foglight tunnel for those of us without foglights. I tried to remove both of the above and was afraid of breaking the plastic parts or worse. These two locations are possible entry points for the ram air system.

Entry points: 1.) Going behind the headlight to open at the radiator grille. This is a tight and twisty route that will call for fexilbe ducting to even have a chance to fit! This route is 'dirty' but,less cutting is necessary to connect airhorn to ram opening. Also,why do we have those plastic deflectors on the two ends of our radiator grille openings. It looks as though they direct air towards the center grille opening. I do not have the 'Tow Package' and thus maybe(?) these are only added behind the grille end openings as not that much cooling is needed?
2.) Foglight tunnel opening as the entry point for the ram opening. While this is a great opening and attachment point, cutting through the plastic shelf that is behind and below the headlight would be necessary. It also looks like this piece may be a brace of some sort? Nice smooth elbows and smooth ducts appear possible on this route instead of the 'dirty' flexible aluminum tubing necessary on route 1. above.

By the way,there is plenty of room(almost 6 inches) between the airhorn opening and the fender to easily install a deflector or better yet, a 90 degree or less elbow heading towards the front of the truck for your ram entry.

In the spirit of this board and its great and heplful people, I am trying to make this something we all could tackle and that would improve our performance also. Yes, the pros would remove fenders,panels,make specs.,and charge us big money but,it's nice to buy $20 of materials and take a Saturday afternoon and feel good that we can still do some things ourselfs. It won't be perfect,it won't give you 20+ hp,it won't make you rich,it won't settle any arguments,it won't help you lose weight, but it will be your's to share and care! Invite over some friends or better yet have your spouse or kids help and share in what's important(them and your Titan) in your life!

Let me know your thoughts and results!!!

Thanks Ladies and Gentlemen.

juma · Jul 1, 2004

my observation on "ram" is it doesn't work very good especially if it comes through a long tube system. the longer the tube, the more restricted. Our system is something like '87 mustang 5.0 design and longer tubes in the fender well didn't help on them. The best ram design I ever saw was a big plastic funnel (two feet wide that necked down to 5 inches) that fed from the gap between the engine hood and the grill and was attached directly to the throttle body. the radiator is too high to do that on ours. My thought would be to open the air box outboard side to match the size of the hole in the fender liner and some way seal up the box to the fender liner. If I could make some kind of airhorn "lips" for inside the fender that would also make it draw a little easier.

by far the thing I've done that feels the best is keep the air cold by insulating the duct from the MAF over to the TB (three layers on the bottom), TB bypass (whisper), removing that decorative shroud over the intake runners, and wrapping the TB in insulating header tape. In effect, this keeps air volume up even though the system can't draw as freely as we'd like. juma

Maxhawk · Jul 1, 2004

Hello To Each and All,
My questions also are: 1.) How do you remove the headlight assembly?

I did a short writeup on replacing the headlight bulbs and it shows where the screws are that hold the headlight housing in.

http://maxhawk.bravepages.com/misc/titan_bulbs.pdf

Good luck and thanks for all the hard work.

In many cars, including my Audi, there is PC software that will let you monitor various engine ECU parameters via the OBD-II port. Anyone know if such a thing exists for Nissan? You could monitor MAF rates, timing, O2 sensors, etc to determine if a particular mod is doing anything. Dyno time is expensive (and inconvenient), and most butt dynos aren't very sensitive

.

juma · Jul 1, 2004

Maxhawk said:
I did a short writeup on replacing the headlight bulbs and it shows where the screws are that hold the headlight housing in.

http://maxhawk.bravepages.com/misc/titan_bulbs.pdf

Good luck and thanks for all the hard work.

In many cars, including my Audi, there is PC software that will you monitor various engine ECU parameters via the OBD-II port. Anyone know if such a thing exists for Nissan? You could monior MAF rates, timing, O2 sensors, etc to determine if a particular mod is doing anything. Dyno time is expensive (and inconvenient), and most butt dynos aren't very sensitive .

Exactly....I just got back from looking for an ACTRON III scan tool at pep boys, but they were out of them. they are on sale for about 199 bux here if you can find one. Hopefully, saturday the "truck will be in" and I can get one. The others available start at about $500 so I was especially interested in the Actron. ratings indicate its not as good as others but for the money, I thought I'd try it. Juma

ps, great write up on the headlights!

Big Platinum · Jul 1, 2004

Hey lonerider, don't know if you saw this but might help a little. There is a rubber flap right next to the windshield washer resevoir that blocks incoming cold air from coming in between the bumper and headlight. If you remove it you can pull in a little extra clean air rushing in from the front of the car, combine that with the fender opening and you have plenty of air for the motor to breathe. Now just gotta find a way to tie it in to the stock air box and you'll have plenty of air.

juma · Jul 1, 2004

Big Platinum said:
Hey lonerider, don't know if you saw this but might help a little. There is a rubber flap right next to the windshield washer resevoir that blocks incoming cold air from coming in between the bumper and headlight. If you remove it you can pull in a little extra clean air rushing in from the front of the car, combine that with the fender opening and you have plenty of air for the motor to breathe. Now just gotta find a way to tie it in to the stock air box and you'll have plenty of air.

hole saws work pretty well to make "drilled airboxes." juma

lonerider · Jul 1, 2004

Thanks everyone for your input and thoughts.

The link provided by Maxhawk will be quite useful as I am use to older American vehicles with 4 screws to remove and the total headlight housing is out!

Per Juma's post and now Big Platinum's reminder,the rubber washerbottle flap would allow for warm air and require holes in the airbox. This is not exactly a route I wanted to go but,more air though warmed is the goal so...

I may limit my efforts to some sort of elbow to direct air into the airhorn from the fender well area.

Hey Juma,how about using the AC compressor to route connections to those two now unused throttle body warm coolant passages? Yes, I did the coolant bypass mod and since nature abhors a vacuum(and vacuum plugs) we must connect something,right?

Thanks and keep up the good work everyone.

Big Platinum · Jul 1, 2004

Acutally the air coming in from next to the washer resevoir shouldn't be too warm, it's on the other side of the radiator and if you reach your hand through the gap between the bumper and headlight, you can see it has a pretty straight shot.
I did this on my K&N setup and seemed to help a bit, the engine doesn't feel starved for air. Anyways, just a thought.

juma · Jul 1, 2004

[
Hey Juma,how about using the AC compressor to route connections to those two now unused throttle body warm coolant passages? Yes, I did the coolant bypass mod and since nature abhors a vacuum(and vacuum plugs) we must connect something,right?

yeah, a lotta guys on the impala forum worked that idea for several years but nobody came up with anything functional. I guess the ford lightning engineers finally did come up with something where they cool the air with the air conditioner and its got enough to last for a minute and a half and that works real well. juma

JBWilkins · Jul 2, 2004

In many cars, including my Audi, there is PC software that will let you monitor various engine ECU parameters via the OBD-II port. Anyone know if such a thing exists for Nissan? You could monitor MAF rates, timing, O2 sensors, etc to determine if a particular mod is doing anything. Dyno time is expensive (and inconvenient), and most butt dynos aren't very sensitive

.[/QUOTE]

There's a product called the CarChip (which Sears even sells) that plugs righ into the ODBII slot and should give you this info... I believe you can monitor realtime with a laptop or plug it in and download the information later......It should monitor all ODBII compliant controls.....

www.davisnet.com is the manufacturer's web site....

juma · Jul 2, 2004

JBWilkins said:
In many cars, including my Audi, there is PC software that will let you monitor various engine ECU parameters via the OBD-II port. Anyone know if such a thing exists for Nissan? You could monitor MAF rates, timing, O2 sensors, etc to determine if a particular mod is doing anything. Dyno time is expensive (and inconvenient), and most butt dynos aren't very sensitive .

There's a product called the CarChip (which Sears even sells) that plugs righ into the ODBII slot and should give you this info... I believe you can monitor realtime with a laptop or plug it in and download the information later......It should monitor all ODBII compliant controls.....

www.davisnet.com is the manufacturer's web site....[/QUOTE]

interesting but doesn't let you monitor your sensors like the maf, iat, oxy, etc. Juma

Roundeye Drifter · Feb 4, 2005

There is a place in the UK that makes very nice ECU monitors. I have one in my Scooby. I belive they also make a Universal and MoTeC. Their website is http://www.psi3.co.uk/. Also. Hello everyone.

mlucero · Mar 12, 2005

Hey lonerider ,
I did the air box mod about 2 days ago, and also droped in the K&N filter (did not notice any change until I put in the new K&N filter), it did take about two days before the ECU "adjusted" and now I can tell a difference, in mpg and acceleration, in fact getting on the freeway today I had to gun it and that is when I noticed it right away.
I am also looking into trying to route more air to the fender horn going to the stock box, I did not want to add another hole to the box itself. Will let you guys know what I come up with... :smoke:

sc186 · Mar 12, 2005

Ford's system cooled the aftercooler liquid on the prototype L's. Very innovative design that seemed to produce great results for a short time. Too bad it never made it to production. That would have been sweet.

rholland · Mar 13, 2005

I going to put a remote thermometor under the hood that I can read going down the road, I have a feeling that while you are moving, the air temp by the air box is no different from the outside temp. If that is correct, then the K&N or cutting away a big part of the stock air box would be OK. I will see tomorrow.

mlucero · Mar 13, 2005

rholland said:
I going to put a remote thermometor under the hood that I can read going down the road, I have a feeling that while you are moving, the air temp by the air box is no different from the outside temp. If that is correct, then the K&N or cutting away a big part of the stock air box would be OK. I will see tomorrow.

Cool, let us know what you find. My initial assumption is it should be very close.

rholland · Mar 14, 2005

I drove 26 miles to work, with the thermometor under the hood. The outside temp was 43 the under the hood temp was 60. I will keep it under the hood so I can see what effect the hotter outside temps will have as spring gets here

Stock Airbox Mods-Part II

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