Air Intake - Diesel Forum

93ford250diesel · 04-13-2007, 02:41 PM

Are there any mods I can do to the air intake on my 7.3 non turbo to get a little air into the motor. have read on here about a soup bowl conversion or something in that sense. I dont want to turbo the motor because $3000 is what I paid for the truck so it is hard to spend the same money and just get a turbo. Any opinions are welcome

Thank You
Dan

DSBlack · 04-13-2007, 03:01 PM

Do a search on the soup bowl mod. Someone has posted photos in the past. I believe that it is just cutting off some restrictive parts of the air cleaner housing. hopefully someone will come along with a link to the photos soon.

DSBlack · 04-13-2007, 03:10 PM

CLICK HERE

Try the links in this thread. sorry do not know how to make it a neat little link.

<font color="blue">edited to fix link </font>

Snotzalot · 04-13-2007, 03:32 PM

Don't waste your hack saw blade, it doesn't improve anything except your ego.

luckys420 · 04-13-2007, 07:08 PM

last i asked about the sou bowl, it was pretty much unanimous that the soup bowl is there to quiet the intake and it has no restrictive properties. Verified by a dyno, right?

DSBlack · 04-13-2007, 09:41 PM

Ok, What else can he do? If this has no effect.
Bigger exhaust and better filter?

arthurgoboom · 04-14-2007, 01:07 AM

As I recall from the soup bowl discussion, we determined it made no difference because the guy doing the testing did not turn up the injection pump to take advantage of the increased airflow. He had no pyrometer on the engine and didn't want to damage it.

Someday when I am really bored and have nothing better to do, I'll have to mount an IDI intake manifold on the flowbench and test it with and without the soup bowl. I think I have an air filter housing around here somewhere, and I have a spare engine I can test on.

asauer · 04-14-2007, 01:17 AM

I would think it would obviously help the airflow out (cfm), but as to whether or not it is a difference worth anything or not is another question. I did the mod to my friend's truck. Figured why not? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img] But I agree- if the IP is at the stock setting (which doesn't blow black smoke, hence not 'needing' the extra airflow) there won't be any difference at all. I'm sure it's still extremely small at that. COULD even hurt the airflow a little- the soupbowl could act as a 'waveguide' of sorts. Heck I dunno. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bleh.gif[/img]

DevoK12RS · 04-14-2007, 01:35 PM

The soup bowl mod will make it easier to change your air filter. I don't know of any improvement or decrease in performance. I have seen a Banks air cleaner cover that had that same 'bowl' in it. I believe it was on an NA engine and not a turbo, but I'm not sure.

To the OP, I would do a ram air mod with 4" ducting. I've not seen any water anywhere- even after driving in hard rains, and it's got to increase air flow. Have I measured anything? No.

Okie's pix
Zigg's write up

Best of luck,
Devo

93ford250diesel · 04-15-2007, 02:44 PM

So after hearing all of this about removing the soup bowl is not a big deal in any power gains I think I will just leave it alone. All I ended up doing was removing the air intake setup all the way to the air filter housing and I got a deeper sound when I get on the gas, or at least I think so. Thanks for all the help

Thank You
Dan

DevoK12RS · 04-15-2007, 09:50 PM

You probably do have a slightly deeper sound, but you are also getting warmer air to the engine now. I'm told that is not best, but I don't have the knowledge to confirm or deny. I'd do the ram air.

luckys420 · 04-15-2007, 09:57 PM

93ford250diesel ,
I sent you a PM

agnem · 04-16-2007, 10:32 AM

Gale Banks actually did that back in the 80's, which lead to the development of his NA stinger kit for our IDI's. His air filter housing had better flow properties and he had graphs and illustrations that documented it. He also had proof that the soup bowl was too restrictive. Wish I had kept that stuff to scan and show you. There are many doubters that the soup bowl mod does anything, however there isn't anybody who has been able to prove that it hurts anything, so depending on which of the 3 air cleaner styles you have, you probably have nothing to loose by doing it, and potentially something to gain from it.

LMJD · 04-16-2007, 10:57 AM

[ QUOTE ]
His air filter housing had better flow properties and he had graphs and illustrations that documented it. He also had proof that the soup bowl was too restrictive. Wish I had kept that stuff to scan and show you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yea, well you believe everything you read? Way back before I put my ATS on, after reading Banks stuff, I hooked up a PROPERLY WORKING 6" diameter shop vacume/pressure gauge, ran a temporary vacume like from engine intake to gauge, hooked my tlr. up, went up a nearby grade so my engine was demanding maximum intake air, after two trips I couldn't get the vacume gauge needle to even quiver.
[ QUOTE ]
Wish I had kept that stuff to scan and show you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Or more to the point, wish I'd have written down the reply from the Banks "tech" when I asked him to explain my results, simply priceless!

idieselman · 04-16-2007, 11:13 PM

Millions of $ worth of testing equipment and dyno #'s against a vac gauge? Guess who gets my vote! I was running the stock assembly and then an open element before I did the cold air induction and I can gaurantee if you go the 4" intake through the core support you will notice a difference. Check in the photo section under my username for some ideas.