Intake Heat Shield
 

So I got the S&B intake system and I recently took off the heat shield and set it up like the ssdiesel intake so I can hear the turbo. I was wondering how much power, if any at all I'll loose doing by loosing the heat shield? I have stock exhaust.

Thanks

You have made a cold air intake into a hot air intake.

Since diesels want as much oxygen in the air charge as they can get for best performance you have limited what it gets bu sucking hot air-less dense air charge.

That combined with the fact that the turbo heats the air when it compresses is limits power-the main reason why intercoolers are added.

These turbo's don't whine like a ford so do yourself a favor and close the airbox back up and live without the turbo noise.

I just put the heat shield back on, still got a little whine. There is a removable piece on the front side where the surge tank is, I've never had it on, do you think it will make any difference?

You want all air for the engine to come from outside the truck,if there is any underhood air entering the filter box it will reduce what you are trying to achieve with a cold air intake.

Here's the bad part about that scenario, all the outside air has to come through that little hole on the side of the front fender. When I drove it yesterday, I was able to produce clouds of black smoke, something I couldn't do with the heat shield off. I think the problem with these setups is that you can a cold air intake but you have to receive a lot less air or get a bunch of air that is already warm. The worse part is that the smoke didn't clear up very fast and it smoked more than usual, but without the heat shield on I was able to only produce a very small fraction of what I can now. I think the hole for the cold air isn't big enough, do they make ram air for these? Or is possible to put a side scoop on the passenger side to basically give a better air supply to the intake. Going from price difference between the S&B and the ssdiesel intakes, its 200 bucks for the heat shield and I don't want to waste that. When the heat shield is off, my filter sits right by the intake hole so it should still receive a good amount of the cold air and have a better breathing apparatus on the other sides of it.
Have you seen any 6.5s with side scoops for the intake? I got my spring break next week and will probably have time to be able to do that, won't look pretty but could make a huge difference.

Check to see if there is a snorkel in the fender-it needs to be removed.
Air Box Modifications

My bad, I gave you misleading information about the smoke:w2:. When I was driving without the heat shield, I would keep the engine a little more wound up so I could hear the turbo. When I was making all that smoke I was going about 11 mph in third (1050 rpm or so), so no wonder it was making smoke when I floored it. I drove it again just now and had it up at 25 in third and hardly any smoke.
There is a snorkel that runs up to the the fender from the outside, but nothing I could see in the fender wall. If the snorkel is the one that runs from behind the passenger side marker light up to the fender wall, I don't see the point removing it. Just be grabbing underhood air then.

With the cold air system, how much of a difference would buying the diamond eye 4in system have on it? A rough estimate on power gain and mpg gain would be very helpful.

Thanks for the help, my apologies about the misleading info.