What I don't like about the setups pictured is hot air. You are trading more airflow, which you need only a small part of the time, for hot air that costs you power ALL the time. Watched some dyno testing where intake air temp was incrementally increased by 10 degrees starting at 75 or 80F. Power started to drop at about 100 and had dropped about 5 percent by 150F and went rapidly downhill from there. Was dyno testing a Cummins a few moths ago on an engine dyno and you could see the power go down the hotter the room got. Hot air is less dense with oxygen than cooler air. Also, the hotter tha air going in, the higher the EGT by the same amount (unless you are intercooled).
The factory Ford data says the engine will use 430cfm@ 3000 rpm to make 190 hp. What we need to know is how much air the factory filter can flow. I'd be willing to wager, it can flow more than enough to keep up with the engine.
If you want to find out if more air will do you any good before you waste time and money:
Make sure your air filter is new. Replace the restriction gauge with one that reads actual number Filterminder, Donaldson informer, etc. OR, make a fitting you can install in place of the filter restriction gauge so you can hook up a vacuum gauge (preferably one with a large dial that reads from 10 inches to about 30 and can read individual inches of vacuum). Go out and do some balls-to-the-wall testing and record the amount of vacuum generated making sure you are at full boost. Whatever vacuum is generated is the restriction in the filter and housing. Generally speaking, if you stay well below 15 inches of vacuum at peak power at redline, you won't gain much by reducing it. Zero is ideal of course but the power difference between zero and 10 inches is nothing. You can start to measure a little power loss above 15 inches and the losses increase rapidly as you go higher.
Anyway, it still comes back to cool air. Assuming you can use more airflow, you could gains some power with a freer filter and then lose all you gained by sucking in hot underhood air (On a hot day, I measured my underhood at 160F going down the road). If you are going to build something, make sure it's an enclosed system that's ducted to the coolest outside air you can get.
. no, i have them saved on my computer for reference and times like this. in the first pick he only moved his washer fluid tank, the overflow tank is still in factory position. he does not have an A/C compressor either so that gave him for room. there is also one member on here that i know of put his filter behind the passenger side battery.
