im building the cold air intake for my 97 bta-like the whole truck,i,m making it all myself,i plan to fit the intake scoop abpve the roof as i hit mud and water a lot,my question,s are:-

1/will the longer intake path effect performance in any way?

2/would it be best to keep a uniform diameter all the way to the turbo?

3/how do i avoid turbo damage from rain,do i make a water trap like on boats?

hope someone can help out,i know all this is a bit OTT for a non competition truck,but after a lifetime of dragracing,if the power is there-take it,never decrease it.
thanks all/

p.j.

 

I have ram air and can shed some light here, first off mine is homemade and has 2 PVC pipes 4" feed to the airbox area so the BHAF has cool air to breath from rather than underhood air, I do have a raain dropout built in so moisture doesnt get to the filter, I also have a temp sensor in the intake plenium just before combustion so I can monitor air temps and adjust my butterfly valve/plate at the inlet of the ramair, this function is cab controlled with a simple turn of the **** of a retrofitted throttle cable from a firetruck control panel

attached is a pic of under the hood you will notice I switched places of the battery and the filter to optimize space as well as function, this ider was so grand that DC started using the same concept starting in 03 with the model change.........Whit lives on with no compensation though

anyway after all said and done I personally would look into ramair from a new hood, the deal is the air next to the highway is preheated from the black asphalt.

try to keep your piping as close to the motor as possible, keep it dry also

 

thanks for taking the time whit-that was just what i needed,i had to know that i wouldn,t be cutting any power,i,d love to make it easy and fit a hood scoop,but the hood is only 5'-8" off the deck and would suffer water ingress,so roof top looks to be the best for my use.
i had wondered about reducing the diameter of the inlet pipe in places to produce a vortex effect that may increase inlet gas speeds,but im just building a dirt hauler,not a diesel nascar.

the idea of using PVC pipe had not occured to me,that,s a great idea,im going with that-thanks.