DONE! Homemade CAI with ram air!

[Oshkosh]

So, how is the swiss cheese ,home depot intake working out?
It looks like it has all the benifits of a store bought cai minus a couple style points but extra points for being Yankee.
You've got more cfm intake at the box, a smoother high volume path to the tb how has it worked out for you?
I am in the planning stages, can get a Airaid Jr new for $113- weighing my options..
I'd like to retain some sort of box so the swiss cheese works for me, no ram air as I am out in bad weather all the time and would like more flow between the box and tb or as much as would benifit it anyways.

 

[linetramp]

I can tell you guys i did this exact same thing on my 2005 Durramax, and used a dryer vent tube from Home Depot ($8). I plumbed it in behind the tow hook, and it is sealed in the bottom of the air box.
After the last 40,000 miles I have had NO problems with clogging of the air filter. I do however now get some dead bugs in there, but the air filter never clogs or gets wet, even after an 8 hour drive on the freeway and it raining the entire time.
The Benefits, my diesel will run 10 degrees cooler on the freeway when the ambient air is 60 or lower. Even in the summer, when it's hot, and i coast down a hill, the motor temp starts to drop from 210 to 180. I can give you a guaranty that my modification made a difference.
Only difference is that I cut a 4" hole in the bottom of the air box, and sealed the tube so engine air isn't getting it, just cold outside air.

 

[White07Tahoe]

So, how is the swiss cheese ,home depot intake working out?
It looks like it has all the benifits of a store bought cai minus a couple style points but extra points for being Yankee.
You've got more cfm intake at the box, a smoother high volume path to the tb how has it worked out for you?
I am in the planning stages, can get a Airaid Jr new for $113- weighing my options..
I'd like to retain some sort of box so the swiss cheese works for me, no ram air as I am out in bad weather all the time and would like more flow between the box and tb or as much as would benifit it anyways.

Works great and no problems at all. I know its an ugly hack job but its very functional. I do wish I would have planned better and done a cleaner job but I never have to look at it so I don't really care. Even with the hood open, the box looks stock and that was the look I was going for. I live just outside of New Orleans where it rains alot and floods often. I have taken it apart a few time to check and make sure its not causing a problem and it is always clean. I haven't found any that you wouldn't find in a stock air filter and it has not been abnormally dirty either.
The intake is surprisingly loud, has a good deep roar too it. The least amount of bends and larger diameter intake tube the better IMO. That allows the most amount of air to move the fastest.
The day I did all of this was the day I had my truck tuned by Jason from BlackBear and he told me I had just as good, if not better, air flow compared to expensive intakes. So as long as its functional, I am happy.
I would recommend doing this just plan a little better than me haha

 

[Oshkosh]

I am still thinking,
I pulled my air box today cleaned it out and installed a K&N replacement filter, cleaned the MAF sensor...
I notice the factory box on my 2000 was ducted into the fender drawing outside air from behind the headlight,all sealed up with two intakes.GM tried to have a cold air...
So for starters I took out/popped the larger intake and that opened up the air box intake to twice the size of stock without cutting or any real mods.
The air box will still draw colder air from behind the headlight.
Going to run that and see if I notice any difference before deciding the best for me connection to the throttle body...
Already sounds better, like an old school quadrajet 4 bbl when I get on it...lol
Seems to pull better,seat of the pants, once it up shifts to 2nd off the line it takes right off with very light throttle,0-30 is almost instant with hardly any throttle effort.
I am going to go with the Airaid tube from the TB to the MAF as my motor has no clearance (TB to fan shroud) for much else ,seems allot tighter than your setup looking the the photo.
I should be into the whole setup with K&N/Airaid and enlarged intake box/fender openings under $80-.I will cut the fender opening to match the box and seal between the two with a rubber weather stripping similar to the factory only twice the air intake.
See how that goes...
Thanks for the motivation...