Sorta I suppose it is just the aluminum part that smoothes air into the intake manifold along with alledged good KN air filter...toss the KN get a premium Napa with the sock prefilter ...platinum series I think and yer golden.
So it's an air-smoother thingy!
I base my opinions below on my non-professional knowledge of aerodynamics and hydrodynamics (same thing because air acts as a fluid and the formulas used are basically the same).
I think the deep dish functions to accelerate air flow (at higher volume) into the intake. It obviously causes more air to be pulled through the whole filter and directs that air straight down to the intake. - whereas without it the air would come through the filter more slowly (less negative pressure) and that air may tend to travel more slowly from the top if the air cleaner to the intake. You would have more volume of air in the air cleaner without the dish but none of it being directed straight into the intake. Maybe it's just lazy air hanging around up there in some turbulence until it diffuses down through the intake. (I'm exaggerating for effect but maybe it's not an exaggeration!)
Also the larger air cleaner compensates for the loss of volume due to the dish while at the same the dish directs the incoming air straight to the intake. So there is no air volume lost and it is now being directed straight to the intake.
Needless to say but Gale Banks and his team knew what they were doing and there was a proven increase in performance with the power pack. More air yields more efficient combustion with more power, better fuel economy and less contaminates in exhaust (smoke/pollution) (clearly seen with turbos). Larger exhaust was part of that system. Larger and/or less restrictive exhaust reduced back pressure (more-so as RPM increases) and that helped in a couple of ways that I perceive - reducing back pressure in the combustion chamber during the exhaust stroke conserves some energy that would otherwise be wasted with less fuel required per RPM or higher RPM with same amount of fuel. Perhaps these are very small improvements but for increasing performance and efficiency or setting speed records they make a difference.
When I first bought my truck I began to worry about the engine, thinking there was something wrong because it didn't smoke. It seemed to run really good though. Finally, I figured out that the banks power pack system was one of the reasons for that as well as precision timing back in California where diesel smoke is not appreciated.
May as well get this out of the way: What about that Ford 'Soup Bowl'? What's happening with that??? It looks very similar to the Banks and Ray-Well designs, doesn't it. I've never been close enough to one to examine it in detail but I've always thought that it serves the same purpose as the Banks and Ray-Wel, intended or not but it's hard to believe that the Ford engineers didn't understand the effects on air-flow from this 'soup bowl'.
I am 100% convinced that this configuration, like the Banks and Ray-Wel pulls more air through the air filter. I can see that but I'm too tired to try to explain how and why this occurs. The Ford one is not as well designed and I think that is due to cost cutting- it appears to be an inexpensive light gauge sheet metal stamping.
I've read comments elsewhere that this 'soup bowl' was created to reduce noise. My response to that is, (I'll be nice) "You have to be kidding!" There is acoustic (and heat) insulation on the hood above that almost touches the top of the air cleaner, acoustic insulation from the air filter and in my truck the whole engine compartment is insulated.
How much noise comes from the intake with the air cleaner assembly on anyway? I don't think I can hear mine but the Banks air cleaner is heavy cast aluminum about 1/4 inch thick, maybe thicker in places and I am using a WIX filter that has an open cell black foam cylindrical piece that slides over the whole filter (so it should last a long time).
OK, I already know that noise reduction in these IDI's was a big issue that needed to be addressed at some point in time. So maybe the soup bowl was an over-kill in that attempt.
Does anyone know what year Ford began to insulate the whole engine compartment. Same question for the 'soup bowl' air cleaner. If the 'soup bowl' air cleaner appeared in a model year before the engine compartment insulation then it was most certainly not for noise reduction because it would have made virtually no difference in noise. IF they occurred in the same model year then the 'soup bowl' could have been over-kill on noise reduction. If the soup bowl occurred after that, then again it was most likely not for noise reduction.
For all of the above reasons I think that the 'Soup Bowl Modification' eg, cutting off the dish in the lid, is based on simplistic reasoning, not properly thought out and probably counter-productive. Things are not always as simple as they first appear- air flow is one of those since air is normally invisible. Any perceived benefit is due to the placebo effect (which is a very strong psychological effect that almost everyone is vulnerable to) and additionally I think this modification is more likely to decrease efficiency and performance rather than improve it.
I could be wrong about this high tech Velocity & Flow Increaser Jet Nozzle configuration, more commonly called around here 'the soup bowl."
I could be wrong, maybe it's just a low tech noise sucker-upper thing.
Tired and worn out - Once I reach a certain threshold I can get stupider by the minute while writing posts in forums and I keep on going until I'm in a dream state and typing while half asleep in auto-pilot mode and I could wander from wiring about what is inside of a grease zirk to telepathic communication with life forms in distant star systems = if I don't get off of this computer! That's usually what happens but I've been a very slow learner about this.
