Windstar Intake Clearance - Hitting Hood

For whatever it is worth, I have a Windstar intake I am going to be dyno testing on the '97 that I have. I am planning to do the tests with the hood closed this time, and make it as real world as possible. I do know that the filter element in the Windstar vs stock TJ flows 100 CFM more and closer to what the engine uses at WOT.

jjvw said:

Is that a fair and accurate portrayal of what is being stated? No one is claiming that the PCM sees excess horsepower being generated and is actively putting an end to that disobedience.

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I wasn't trying to point that at you. There are many on this forum that preach that though. I was agreeing with you from a practical perspective for the vast majority of people who might do this mod. The last bit was for them.

Jezza said:

For whatever it is worth, I have a Windstar intake I am going to be dyno testing on the '97 that I have. I am planning to do the tests with the hood closed this time, and make it as real world as possible. I do know that the filter element in the Windstar vs stock TJ flows 100 CFM more and closer to what the engine uses at WOT.

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This is actually something I'm interested in. How does the older jeeps with a distributor handle all this compared to the newer ones with coil packs? I honestly don't know how the computer, temps and ignition timing work together on these older jeeps.

Same(ish) PCM 97-04. I wouldn't be surprised if they tweaked a few parameters over those years, but I doubt they changed anything cosmic.

This doesn't really pertain to the OP's original question specifically but seems like a good place to put the info.

Main housing is from a Windstar, and shortened. I've seen some mention the snout being so small on the Windstar, which is true. I think it's something like 2-1/4." So I grabbed a larger Econoline air box and grafted the snout end of the housing onto the Windstar box. That snout is closer to 3", I can't recall exactly. Then the rest of the intake plumbing is full 3" with it necking down to the throttle body with a 3" to 2-5/8" 90°.

The fitment is really tight with the hood down. There wasn't much wiggle room to make it all work. But if I can make this work with this circuitous routing, there's no reason it can't be done with standard throttle body placement. It'll just take some fiddling.

I've got other variables at play here that are giving me some intake temp struggles, but for a stock Jeep I think by far and away the biggest source of heat for IATs is going to be the intake manifold's proximity to the exhaust manifold. I'm planning to pull the intake manifold off in the near future to gold-wrap the bottom of it.

Worth noting the IAT sensor is in the intake manifold in the JTEC era TJs and they moved it to the intake tube in the NGC era TJs. I've moved mine to just below the supercharger.

Nice work. I was similarly worried, especially about how close the nose of the filter element itself was to to the opening of the shortened filter housing. I basically chopped the opening off and used 3" intercooler piping to get more clearance but I like this better. Didn't even know that Econoline housing was a thing.

Anybody know how big the little rubber intake horn opening on the factory jeep airbox is compared to the Windstar box?

SkylinesSuck said:

Nice work. I was similarly worried, especially about how close the nose of the filter element itself was to to the opening of the shortened filter housing. I basically chopped the opening off and used 3" intercooler piping to get more clearance but I like this better. Didn't even know that Econoline housing was a thing.

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I believe the Econoline snout is also a couple inches longer than the Windstar snout. The Econoline and F150 both take the same air filter but not sure if those boxes are actually the same, I never bothered ripping one out.

I originally was trying to fit the entire Econoline box into the engine bay but there just wasn't enough room to do it. Maybe without AC lines in the way and bending the oil dipstick tube. Then you'd have the box pointing downward pretty far to clear the hood and you'd need to route the pipe back up to go over the valve cover.

SkylinesSuck said:

Anybody know how big the little rubber intake horn opening on the factory jeep airbox is compared to the Windstar box?

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If your talking internal-Might be off a mm but I think the factory is 47mm. The cross over tube is 50mm on the factory.

SkylinesSuck said:

Anybody know how big the little rubber intake horn opening on the factory jeep airbox is compared to the Windstar box?

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It's like 2" IIRC. Playing around the green Jeep picked up 2hp just pulling that 90 degree air horn off.

Yeah, it was the air horn I was talking about.

The inlet of the OEM Jeep air horn is a little over 1.5” or about 40mm.

Dayum, that's tiny.

Jezza said:

It's like 2" IIRC. Playing around the green Jeep picked up 2hp just pulling that 90 degree air horn off.

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Thank you. It is refreshing not to hear the the old line that a totally stock TJ air box will support the airflow requirements of a Pratt and Whitney J 58 .

ColoJeep said:

Thank you. It is refreshing not to hear the the old line that a totally stock TJ air box will support the airflow requirements of a Pratt and Whitney J 58 .

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Does it not? Did Jeep forget to figure that out?

bluescapegoat said:

This doesn't really pertain to the OP's original question specifically but seems like a good place to put the info.

Main housing is from a Windstar, and shortened. I've seen some mention the snout being so small on the Windstar, which is true. I think it's something like 2-1/4." So I grabbed a larger Econoline air box and grafted the snout end of the housing onto the Windstar box. That snout is closer to 3", I can't recall exactly. Then the rest of the intake plumbing is full 3" with it necking down to the throttle body with a 3" to 2-5/8" 90°.

The fitment is really tight with the hood down. There wasn't much wiggle room to make it all work. But if I can make this work with this circuitous routing, there's no reason it can't be done with standard throttle body placement. It'll just take some fiddling.

I've got other variables at play here that are giving me some intake temp struggles, but for a stock Jeep I think by far and away the biggest source of heat for IATs is going to be the intake manifold's proximity to the exhaust manifold. I'm planning to pull the intake manifold off in the near future to gold-wrap the bottom of it.

Worth noting the IAT sensor is in the intake manifold in the JTEC era TJs and they moved it to the intake tube in the NGC era TJs. I've moved mine to just below the supercharger.

View attachment 553368
View attachment 553364
View attachment 553362

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Great info.what years are these intakes coming off of?

I used this thermotec insulation on the bottom of my intake. It hasn't peeled off at all.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermo-Tec-1...zed-Barrier/dp/B00029KC2K/?tag=wranglerorg-20

I've considered wrapping the primaries too. Might do that eventually

bluescapegoat said:

This doesn't really pertain to the OP's original question specifically but seems like a good place to put the info.

Main housing is from a Windstar, and shortened. I've seen some mention the snout being so small on the Windstar, which is true. I think it's something like 2-1/4." So I grabbed a larger Econoline air box and grafted the snout end of the housing onto the Windstar box. That snout is closer to 3", I can't recall exactly. Then the rest of the intake plumbing is full 3" with it necking down to the throttle body with a 3" to 2-5/8" 90°.

The fitment is really tight with the hood down. There wasn't much wiggle room to make it all work. But if I can make this work with this circuitous routing, there's no reason it can't be done with standard throttle body placement. It'll just take some fiddling.

I've got other variables at play here that are giving me some intake temp struggles, but for a stock Jeep I think by far and away the biggest source of heat for IATs is going to be the intake manifold's proximity to the exhaust manifold. I'm planning to pull the intake manifold off in the near future to gold-wrap the bottom of it.

Worth noting the IAT sensor is in the intake manifold in the JTEC era TJs and they moved it to the intake tube in the NGC era TJs. I've moved mine to just below the supercharger.

View attachment 553368
View attachment 553364
View attachment 553362

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I did something similar just out of aluminum pipe.

SkylinesSuck said:

Anybody know how big the little rubber intake horn opening on the factory jeep airbox is compared to the Windstar box?

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There's not a great way to measure with a caliper, but this is close.

Jezza said:

There's not a great way to measure with a caliper, but this is close.

View attachment 553706

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I no longer have mine but found a socket that snuggly fit into the horn and used that to gauge the caliper. But Not trusting my memory now or that earlier measurement I put out there.

Wildman said:

THOR makes a kit to do it with. They put the air filter inside the cowl.

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I have no idea why anyone would want to do that. My kid has a Thor intake in his XJ. It is noisy AF in the passenger compartment. I find it annoying as hell.