More underhood temp measurements

From: svieth@ameritech.net
Date: Wed Jun 24 1998 - 18:18:57 EDT


I moved the sensor on my radio shack temp gauge closer to the
throttle blades in the throttle body. The sensor (about the size
of a Tylenol caplet) is actually attached to my s-bolt with
a wire-tie. The sensor is hanging in the air stream just above
the top of the throttle body.

Temps outside today in Milwaukee peaked around 90F and
have dropped to the mid 80s tonight. Driving around, my
air cleaner temps ranged from 135F to over 150F with the
A/C on. That means the Dak was sucking in air that was
heated up to 70 degrees over the ambient air temp.

This can't be good for performance.

I think we may be going the wrong way with the open element
air cleaners. We need to put more of the Dakota List Engineering
Dept. effort into sucking cold air from the front end of the truck
or the cowl.

I recently received the "Ram Air Box" catalog from Air Inlet Systems.
These setups look good but I'm not sure that I could fit a 14 x 3 air
cleaner under the hood on my truck. My 12.75" Mopar Performance
air cleaner hits the firewall in back and bumps the hood in front
(I noticed some new dents in the underside of the hood tonight).

Has anyone tried the Ram Air Box on a '97/'98 Dakota?

I may have to try the AirRaid system or the FITK.

The M.P. air cleaner looks great on my truck but the temp of the air
going into the throttle body has got to be hurting performance.

Comments, anyone? Does anyone have access to a dyno so
we could test the open element against AirRaid or FITK?
We'd have to include the temp sensor in the tests to monitor
air temps.

What about 1/4 mile times? Does anyone have any numbers
to support or disprove the open element air cleaner?

Has anyone else purchase the "Auto/RV" thermometer
from Radio Shack (it's only $15)?

-Scott "sweltering in Milwaukee" Vieth
p.s. I don't want to hear any guff from you folks
in Arizona. It's hotter here when it's 90F than
when it's 109 in Arizona.



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