Water + Intake = Not Good

['94IDITurbo7.3]

last night we had a HEAVY rain so i decided that i would check out my cowl intake tube this morning. holy crap. good thing i did. there was quite a bit of water in there.

i think it is time for me to call it a day with the cowl intake. i want to use the left over 4" pipe from my exhaust and build an intake tube and stick a re-usable, dry element cone filter on the end of it. i want it to sit between the a/c compressor and the coolant puke tank, kind of "pointing" forward. i will then cut the factory intake scoop that sits over the battery to dump air right onto the filter, do a ram air set-up utilizing one of the bumper cutouts, and then keep my cowl tube connected to the firewall and kind of direct that towards the filter. hopefully that will help keep the under hood temps, while moving, just a little cooler.

I will need:
One of these - Bending Reducer
Two of these - T-Bolt Clamps
The filter - Amazon.com: AEM 21-2059BF DryFlow Air Filter: Automotive

with what i discovered on the way home from work i am DONE with cowl intake.

so today at work we had another monsoon. i once again pulled the intake tube off and it was full of water. i said screw it and just ran the intake box grabbing air from the engine bay(no intake tube at all), and holy crap! throttle response was much better, the truck was defiantly faster, i gained about 3 psi of boost, boost came on easier and faster, egt's were the same as before. so for now i am just going to run with the air box getting engine bay air until i can build my intake.

the cowl drains are just fine BTW. i park with the truck facing east, we get our rain from west to east, and the truck is facing slightly down hill.

 

[rhkcommander]

You should take a look at my photos, i have a setup similar to what you describe feeding into the banks turbo. Could go all the way to the grill for cold ram air intake

That water is just free water injection . That was one issue I had with cowl intakes. That and apparently added noise. I'm sure you could circumvent the water by adding a bend, similar to toilettes and sinks with a drain at the bottom maybe. But that would be much more complicated and space consuming.

 

[The Warden]

Thank you for posting this. I had been interested in doing a cowl intake (although, even before seeing this, I wasn't sure if it would be possible given the direction I'll be going in), but after reading your experience, any interest I had had just vaporized like a snowflake in the Mojave Desert. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with my air intake, but I think I'll have to get creative...

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

i didn't realize out much extra noise that cowl intake added. the truck sounds so much better with out it. i can actually hear some exhaust noise now.

 

[icanfixall]

The cowl area has a drain on both sides of it. They are way down behind the fenders. They fill up with leaves and crap. All you need to do is reach up behind the fender wheel well. Find the rubber drain that looks like what you find on boats for self bailing or the return line rubber flap on the sending units in the fuel tanks. Just squeeze it and all kinds of "stuff" runs down your arm as it drains out. Some water entering the cowl as your doing this will help flush out the stuff.

 

[gdhillon]

by cowl are we talking about the snorkel looking 'thing' that goes to the air filter?

B/c from what i understand your saying Gary is that the intake snorkel has tubes running down to the fender? When you say behind the fender wheel well do you mean from the engine bay or outside the truck?

 

[icanfixall]

by cowl are we talking about the snorkel looking 'thing' that goes to the air filter?

B/c from what i understand your saying Gary is that the intake snorkel has tubes running down to the fender? When you say behind the fender wheel well do you mean from the engine bay or outside the truck?

The cowl I'm refering to is the place between the windshield and the hood. The wiper linkage is found in this area. On each side of this there is a drain that runs down to behind the fender plastic mud shields. This area can also be reached by removing the passenger or dirvers side kick panels but. there is another metal panel under that and its really glued & screwed in place. This hand hold area is where all the crap builds up. Left there and it will rot out. Then the cab fills with water. Not nice. Like posted above. Just some runing water into the cowl area and squeezing the rubber boots will clean out the mess. And it surely is a mess running down into your armpits... A dirty job but it has to be done.

 

[gdhillon]

That makes a lot more sense, thank you!