Deck plate vs. big ass hole

Contemplating doing the deck plate this weekend. I never offroad and actually seldom drive the truck in general, so I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to just cut a big hole in the airbox and not worry about a deck plate at all.

is there a performance gain from a bigger hole, or will it be the same?

obviously if it's the same performance, it makes sense to do the deck plate, just so I have the option of closing it up.

tia.

 

how will you ever see it? It's behind the headlight, no?

well, that would let a lot more air in... or out...

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

I think it's worth spending the 5-10 extra minutes to do the right job. The longest part, IMO, was cutting the out hole in the box either way...

Plus, if you ever drive in the rain or want to sell the truck, it will be a lot more functional. And yes, there is a difference between driving with/without it.

 

a 4" hole is really all you need. there wont be a big difference between 4" or a 6" or how ever big you plan to make your "asshole". To me it was worth it to order a deck plate for 15 bucks and have the option to close it up at my convenience.

 

good advice. thanks for the input guys. I will opt to be able to close my big asshole when I deem necessary.

 

And when you get a big ass hurricane in Houston and the streets are flooded, you might want to be able to close that puppy up...

 

also a good point, although one I'm not terribly worried about. The water would have to be what, 4' deep to directly affect the intake? Still, point taken.

 

Or you can do what I did. Cut a 6" hole and put a wire mesh screen over it.

 

that won't stop any water though

the point of the deck plate mod is one minute it's a hole, the next it's a sealed unit again where no water will get into your intake

 

How do you know?

 

I am guessing bow (bumper) wave pushing water up into and through the grill, or he was washing his engine and forgot to close it....

 

D'oh!

Same thing happened to me in Mexico with a rental car, but it didn't have no deckplate. Just sucked up a bunch of water from a very wide but shallow-looking puddle hiding a deep pothole in the middle! And I was just driving through fairly slowly...

I am sorry to hear you had a Ranger. You have recovered nicely.

 

cool stories, bros...

 

I've never fought a deck plate, but I'm a pretty big asshole, so I bet I could take it.

 

Does it affect emissions or inspection testing? I live in Mass, where they will fail you if you have one of the old green plates. Claiming they are night reflective enough

 

at least screen it to keep the critters out. i screw it back in if i'm cleaning the motor at the car wash.

 

I don't see how it possibly could. It's just letting more air into the engine.

 

Cool where do i get the prefabbed plate from

 

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=10114&subdeptNum=11317&classNum=10554

it's the first one listed: 4" black for $12.95

your MAF would have to be quite out of whack to not be able to adjust fuel trims accordingly. We're not talking about adding a supercharger here, we're talking about a tiny amount of additional air.

If you are worried about it though, I guess that's the beauty of the Deck Plate. You can always close it up before an Inspection...