2.7L Intake Resonator Removal

I'll start this post by saying I wasn't expecting any horsepower gains or the truck to suddenly sound like a V8. I was in the process of re-installing my blacked out headlights and noticed an intake resonator in the fender. Knowing what I know now (how much of a PITA it was to remove), I would have left it.

Deeper sound, sounds more like..........a...........four............cylinder? LOL, who'd thought? I was impressed by the size of it, which aside from not reading about this on here, is the only reason I'm posting it. Suffice it to say it is staying out...my finger tips and knuckles are already thanking me

Size:



Deeper grunt under WOT, louder midrange howl...hard to say if I gained or lost any power, but we'll see. It doesn't feel any worse for wear.

 

what is all involved in removing it from the fender well??

 

Remove five or so screws from the fender flare and the two securing the bottom of the liner to the front bumper (both face the road in front of the wheel). I removed the fender flare for better access, but that wasn't needed in retrospect. In fact, now I need to buy 9 more clips to secure it to fender since they all broke on me.

The hardest part is removing the black plastic clips holding the fender liner to the body. They have square shanks with two little buttons that need to be depressed for the clip to become free. The problem is, the 'buttons' are on the other side...not the side you're looking at. Three of these are easily accessible from the engine bay...take a look, you'll see them. For the rest, you're going to have to get creative. You may break one or two, but it depends how old and crapped up yours are. Only take out as many as you need to access up over the liner!

Peel the liner down and you're looking right at the resonator. Remove two 10-mm bolts securing resonator, and wiggle it out. You'll probably need to jack the truck up to lower the wheel and gain clearance. Buttoning things up is the reverse.

Sorry for no pictures, but I was fighting daylight. Unfortunately, my epoxy garage floor is still curing and I've been relegated to working in the driveway again. Doh! It's pretty straight forward, although a bit of a PITA. Not sure it's worth the trouble yet...

 

okay thanks. i dont know if ill do it, but thanks for the post

 

Anybody know of any negative effects to this? I might do this later on today. So after you remove the bolts and wiggle it out, is that it? Then put the flares back on?

 

Yep, that is it. I recommend not taking the flare off since the clips will surely break. Work with the fender liner...hingsight is 20/20 and would have saved me $20 in clips from the dealer!

I can say there are no negative effects to removing this (yet). OEMs use these chambers to reduce NVH, so aside from the growl, there should be no adverse effects. Please let me know how you feel about it when it comes out. It could all be in my head, but the midrange feels meatier now. It took a couple days of my driving cycles to let the ECU learn, but it does feel slightly different now.

The inlet to the resonator is about 63 mm; outlet to the airbox is about 103 mm. So, removing this definitely removed a restriction in the stock system. Is it enough to show a difference? Not sure without a dyno. Feels peppier to me, but the butt dyno is notoriously sensitive after you've busted knuckles and spent money. YMMV.

If I had a decent software setup to datalog, I'd like to monitor MAF voltage with and without the resonator installed. The only downside I can think of is the resonator straightened out flow enough before entering the airbox to provide nice laminar flow through the MAF for smooth fueling. Some engines are this sensitive...I haven't felt any fueling glitches yet, though.

 

I should also add, it might be a good idea to buy a cheapo velocity stack of the proper dimensions to stick that in the airbox inlet (through the fender wall) so the flow entering the box is smoother. I might get around to this eventually.

 

i took mine off today notice a little more air coming through but most of all is the grunt to it, maybe a lil more midrange also but fairly simple to do, thanks for the post

 

Good to know that I'm not crazy...I thought there was more midrange. Hard to claim anything without a dyno, though. Glad it worked out for you!

 

could this be considered a cheep alternative to a cold air intake?

 

It is still drawing the same air, possibly just more of it. I won't claim anything with a dyno plot to prove it....but maybe its worthy of the 'cheap mod' status.

 

i would say its fixing for a cheap mod

 

anybody that did this mod notice any performance increase?
i've got my charcoal filter out and didnt notice anything from it
working on getting the afe pro dry and was gunna look into doing this mod as well

 

I just did this an notice nothing at all not even a "grunt" granted I have exhaust but I just cut out a pretty rectangle under the resonator, removed the 2 bolts an ripped that some bih out...but yea I notice nothin lol