How I got rid of my old style Banks airbox

Many who have the early Banks turbo complain that the airbox is very difficult to remove and re-install, and that it covers so much of the top of the IDI engine (most of the IP, injectors, glowplugs etc) that it has to be removed fairly often. It also uses a K&N air filter which many believe feeds dirt to the turbo and engine, as well as being very hard (and expensive) to find if a replacement is needed. It also doesn’t have a lot of surface area to flow well. I searched a lot on this and other forums, and only found a few people who have done it (that posted about it). So I thought I would try to make it a little easier on the next guy. Here is how I got rid of mine.

Parts List:

>6” of 4” ID tube, I used aluminum because it can’t feed rust to my turbo and engine
>Filter, I used a Donaldson B085011. I obtained it for about $32. Its supposed to be water resistant. It has a 4” connection and is supposedly good for 470 CFM. A paper filter from NAPA is available, I believe it’s a 6637 part number, and its 1” longer. I chose the Donaldson because of the better water reistance and the fact that it’s a little shorter, and its cheaper.
>Small (1.5”) chunk of 2” ID exhaust tubing, I would have preferred aluminum but I just painted the steel
>Intake hat from an ATS turbo, note that this intake hat is a mirror image of the Ford factory turbo intake hats, the factory Ford one definitely wouldn’t work because the opening is on the opposite side
>90 degree rubber elbow, one leg about .75” long and the other about 5.5” long. I just went to autozone and asked to look at their rack of radiator hoses in the back, and I found one, part number E70739, and cut it down.
>3” to 4” reducing rubber elbow
>Clamps for two 4” connections and one 3” connection, and you should already have two for the intake hat to turbo outlet
>Mounting band for 8.5” air cleaner, http://store.airflo.com/m002119.html I got the filter, 4” aluminum tube, reducing elbow, and clamps here as well. I also have about 3.5 feet of 4” aluminum left over, and some exhaust tube if some members want me to chop off a chunk and send it to them.
>Some sort of material to make a bracket to bolt the mounting band to, I used 1” angle iron
>Assorted bolts
>I also used black RTV to seal the intake to intake hat, and got a new rubber o-ring for the intake hat



The exhaust tube has to fit in the intake hat, with the o-ring making the seal. It’s a very tight fit, at least for the exhaust tube I got, so I ended up filing and then dremeling down the end to help it wedge in there. I also painted that piece to prevent rust (you don't want to feed rust to your engine). The rubber 90 degree hose will have to be cut to the proper size as well. I RTV’d the intake hat down. I would have preferred a proper gasket but I doubt I’ll have it off very often at all.

The connection from turbo intlet to filter outlet is pretty straight forward. I made a bracket for the air filter mounting band from angle iron (using a dremel tool and cutting wheel no less!). It bolts to a factory hole in the intake manifold. Yes, I still have to weld the bracket where I bent it, and paint it, I’ll just have to wait until I have access to a welder. I have a 3” body lift and still was tight on clearance, so I had to bring the bracket forward of the mounting hole because injection lines are in the way further back. This is a big filter! No way it would fit where I have it without the 3” lift, and its still tighter than I’d like. Anyway the bracket comes forward 3.5”, then up 2.5”, then over 8”. The filter mounting band is nice, it holds the filter firmly instead of letting it just flop around on the top of the engine. I doubt that would be good on the filter or the injection lines.

For the sake of keeping water away from my intake, as well as running a cowl induction, I would have much preferred an enclosed filter. However, with the room I have available under the hood I didn’t want to mess with one. I also didn’t want to relocate the driver side battery, or the coolant expansion tank and wiper washer reservoir. Having the filter over there seems like it would leak rain down on the filter in heavy rain. Where I have the filter is directly over the engine, in about as protected a spot from water as possible. Its going to suck some warm air but I’d prefer warm air over water. And at highway speed I doubt the air is more than a few degrees warmer than ambient temperature.

This filter is definitely an improvement. I haven’t had the chance to work it hard but I have much less black smoke, really only a slight haze when I’m really getting on it. It'll definitely be a lot easier to work on everything, the filter isn't in the way of that much, and its only a few minutes to remove and reinstall. I may have to shim the filter mounting band up with some washers to keep the filter from rubbing on the forward most injection line, I don’t want that cracking.

looks good. ill have to post mine now.

Awesome man good writeup!! i had an old banks turbo kit like that and that was my biggest gripe, the airbox is just a big PITA, Good job man that is very creative , I like it!!

similar to what I did. I ran longer tube and a different filter but the 6637 is next with cold ram air. short ram air def. does better than the banks box pos

Nice job. I hope to do something like this as well. However, since I have no hat, I wonder if I can just cut out the part of the box that connects the turbo to the manifold. Just so every time i open the hood I'll be fondly reminded of the violence I did to that f-ing box with a cutoff wheel.

What can someone use instead of a hat?

That's what I had in mind for mine, although I was going to use the Banks air cleaner setup for the sidewinder so I could pump cold air to it. I would really like to know your impression on how it affected the truck and if it did anything for your mileage.
Did you do away with your cdr valve?

Jeff

The sidewinder setup might be nice for a cold air. I'll run this awhile and see how it does for me. I didn't have any good mileage data before, I've only driven this truck 13000 miles in 3 years, and only about 2,000 on the current engine and fuel system. I will be interested to see if I can pull these pathetic little KY hills at 70 now, before I couldn't, it was pretty pitiful. I know that I'm getting a lot less black smoke now, before anything over 1/3 throttle or so and it was coming out pretty decent.

I had already eliminated the CDR. I'm not terribly happy with what I did, because now I have a bad oil leak. I'm pretty sure its the turbo drain line. I switched to a road draft tube at the same time I installed this engine and its turbo into the truck. I plan to try to route my crankcase into the exhaust and pull a vacuum that way, we'll see. I considered hooking my CDR back up to this system, but decided I'd really rather not risk feeding any oil droplets to my turbo, or the engine. I'd probably rather have an oil leak than replace a turbo anytime soon.

I considered hacking up the Banks box to get an intake hat only out of it. I came to the conclusion that the result would be horrifically ugly and oversized. It would likely be hard to get a tube around it to connect your turbo to your air filter. Plus that thing would still have to make two connections at once to install, and it would still cover at least the back four injectors and glowplugs.

I considered trying to design an intake hat on the computer and have it CNC'd out (I'm in school to be a mechanical engineer) but came to the conclusion that it would be way more trouble and money than its worth. I decided to try the ATS hat and see if I could get it to work and am happy with the results. It works well and looks pretty clean IMO.

Typ4 makes intake hats I think. I used one from an Ats and some extra pipe sine it wouldn't just pop onto my turbo outlet. Could get some 5" or so pipe and fab a hat yourself. Isn't hard at all f you can weld/fab a lil

Yah, a hacked box definitely wouldn't be preferable to a hat. I just don't know where to get one - or didn't until about 30 seconds ago. Keep us posted how she does.

There is actually a hat made into the airbox. Just cut and grind till all you have left is the hat. No problem hooking it up either or extra cost. It's a little work, but it would be worth it.

Jeff

nice i like it, i wonder if it would be worth the upgrade to do something similar on a factory ATS setup.

Jred said:

nice i like it, i wonder if it would be worth the upgrade to do something similar on a factory ATS setup.

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Sumpthin like this?

Disregard the current CDR tubing. Was temporary until I got a straight line piece of tubing to route back into the adapter.
ATS 085 system.
Uses a 2.5" to 3" radiator hose adapter off the turbo to 3" exhaust pipe where I drilled holes for CDR opening. I welded nuts onto the tubing for the CDR to mount to then made a bracket to stabilize the tubing. To get to the air filter I modified a PSD intake elbow to adapt the filter and angle to the 3" pipe and that was it.

Now my winter beatin work truck is turning into a hot rod.

I love the idea of eliminating the box, but i'm unsure how to route the turbo inlet. I have an air compressor where the filter in the OP is....

Matrix37495 said:

I love the idea of eliminating the box, but i'm unsure how to route the turbo inlet. I have an air compressor where the filter in the OP is....

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just stick a filter on the turbo inlet then . Spectre makes filters that fit 2-4" with size adapters included. Dunno about donaldson/6634 filters though

that or run the filter to the front or fender and run cold ram air