Exhaust,intake,throttle body spacer

[Hunner]

I have looked at a lot of high dollar bolton stuff online. In the process of deciding and not having picked out a muff, I just took off the stock one, used part of a 180 mandral formed piece and poof. Straight back turn down about the same heighth as it was on the other side protected by the spring shackle.
Idles with just a little Hum, not loud in cabin at 65, a little Hum at 65 pulling boat, (it is a Hummer) but stomp it and it talks! Seat of pants dyno says, oh yeah, if a Magna flow is low resistance go figure no muff resistance. Figure HP gains with any muff and then no muff. Dyno results in about a week. Kept Cat and res which must be like an old Cherry Bomb glass pack to be this quite with no muff.
Im working "with" a local manufacturer of throttle bodies and air intakes. I just happened to be the first H3 to drop by. Tuesday we are going to try a Colorado throttle body and make any mods on the CNC. Then fab up an air intake. Dyno for results of HP, torque and then do some MPG. Results on a Colorado were 10HP and 6 FTLBS 1 to two MPG. We will see. Pics to follow also.
I tried to be brief! Now if I could put a fuel cell in that hole for more range........

[GotSandH3]

Its great seeing people out there getting their hands dirty! I had my muffler and resinator cut off. Had a flowmaster 40-series with two turn downs welded in where the resinator use to be. I love the sound and performance of it. I plan on putting a Y-pipe right before the muffler so I can have an open exhaust for wheelin when I need it. I love trying new things and give props to the people that do too!! Keep up the good work and keep us posted on the progress!!

[Hunner]

I got the true flow air intake installed today. I will drive with the open exhaust and this intake until Tuesday. Im supposed to get on the dyno then and compare the other mods.

[Hunner]

oops dropped the photo! Im still grinnin from the exhaust so its hard to describe the intake. Seat of pants dyno feels more responsive throttle and more acceleration. Im noticing a little lower rpms at 65 mph. Hmmmmm

[smh3]

question, how did the throttle body spacer do? Have you thought about a commputer tune yet? I have also felt the same from my true flow.

[GotSandH3]

What all comes in the true flow kit?? How much does it run?

[Hunner]

Tuesday Sept 26 is when I go in to try the Colorado plate or make one. I will let you know then but they expect it to perform as stated in my previous post about the same as the truck. However with my other mods it might do better. They want to prove to me its not hype. I am a photographer and Im documenting their procedures for them.
This is the best site for info on the true flow but I found it at Carolina Trucks for $205. I could have made one but it would take some time and I was lazy. I have a Cummins so already new about the boots. I had everything but the little vinyl tip to block off that hose you dont use on the Hummer. The kit is for the Colorado that apparently does use it. I found a package of 4 at Lowes for $.92.

http://www.premierhummer.com/hummer-h3-true-flow-intake.html

[Hunner]

Computer mods are still in the beta mode right now. I found one laptop program but its $500. These guys use it for R&D. I will do some more checking.

[MountainBlue]

Computer mods are still in the beta mode right now. I found one laptop program but its $500. These guys use it for R&D. I will do some more checking.

PCMforless.com is doing a tune now for $199

If you want the exhaust open you need to get rid of the crushed piping in the downpipe, before and after the cat. And the intake, the part that is restrictive is the pipe that goes into the wheel well, its like 1.25-1.5" , freakin terrible. With everything opened up, the H3 does have more punch, its just the AWD system saps A LOT of power. I've heard its like a 39% driveline loss from crank to wheels.:mad:

[Groundpounder]

I had a True Flow installed last month. Nice improvement and good pick up. I had the muffler replaced with a True-Flow. I took off the resistor, however, at 65 the steady hum from the exhaust started to give me a headache after about 30 minutes. I had another resistor put back on. Now it all works fine.
I noticed the True-Flow did lower my RPM's. I am at 2000 at 60 MPH. And punch....nice to keep up with a BMW. They backed off when I hit the turn signal. :excited:

[Hunner]

Im aware of the "fresh air" thru the fender idea. Back in 95 the same company that is working on the air intake now made the one under the hood for my Cummins but after boosting everything else I added the scoop and the hole in the firewall at the base of the windshield high pressure area.

[Hunner]

It worked! Boosting 40psi it needs air! 300hp and 600ftlbs. I kept it down for towing. How would you ever control that in a Hummer?

[Hunner]

Here is a mock up. Im going to have to use a smaller scoop, maybe! I used a piece of an old grill on the truck scoop. H3 will need a mesh screen of some sort to filter out bugs, or not. Water will drop out in the box if it makes it that far or can insert a plug for really wet weather if it scares me. It should drop in the gap between the scoop and inner fender. It does on the truck.
I only have 3400 miles on the H3 I cant quite get up the nerve to cut a hole yet. I found that painting the scoop with matching paint made it last a lot longer. Just another crazy idea. I mean if you want outside air this will work. I will post pictures of what they make for my H3 Tuesday. They are probably going to make it an open shield type. Their idea is more air is better even if some of it is engine heated. The air under there should exchange at a good rate so we will see. I like the idea of the stock box for offroad. Just need to open up the thru the fender snoot. Im working on that whether I use the scoop or not.
On the Dodge Ram it was Ramair I guess this would be Humair? Now if we could actually use the fake air intake..............

[wpage]

LOOKS INTERESTING. Have you considered warrentee implications. For your intake ram. Have you though about runing a 3" flex tube up from your existing starboard bumper hole routed up thru wheelhouse into a cutout.
This would be less intrusive and also removeable when going in for service...:beerchug:

[Hunner]

PCMforless.com is doing a tune now for $199

If you want the exhaust open you need to get rid of the crushed piping in the downpipe, before and after the cat. And the intake, the part that is restrictive is the pipe that goes into the wheel well, its like 1.25-1.5" , freakin terrible. With everything opened up, the H3 does have more punch, its just the AWD system saps A LOT of power. I've heard its like a 39% driveline loss from crank to wheels.:mad:

"normal" ratings are usually quoted at the flywheel or crank however you want to say it before the tranny, take away about 25% at rear wheels with an auto. So if your figure is right its taking a little more.

[Hunner]

LOOKS INTERESTING. Have you considered warrentee implications. For your intake ram. Have you though about runing a 3" flex tube up from your existing starboard bumper hole routed up thru wheelhouse into a cutout.
This would be less intrusive and also removeable when going in for service...:beerchug:

If the air intake mods dont affect warranty why should they care if I cut a hole in the flare? If I have a wreck and damage the flare it does not void the warranty. I have considered the options and may try to get more air under the fender but the hole needs to be bigger going into the inner fender so they would see that anyway. My dealer installs intakes and throttle bodies and cranks up torsion bars and none of that effects warranty. Corrugated flex hose is really restrictive. Smoothe bore is best. I dont think in the wheel well would be good too much mud and gunk flys around in there but maybe somewhere up front. I think I will go wheelin tomorrow and think about it.

[ChevyHighPerformance]

If the air intake mods dont affect warranty why should they care if I cut a hole in the flare? If I have a wreck and damage the flare it does not void the warranty. I have considered the options and may try to get more air under the fender but the hole needs to be bigger going into the inner fender so they would see that anyway. My dealer installs intakes and throttle bodies and cranks up torsion bars and none of that effects warranty. Corrugated flex hose is really restrictive. Smoothe bore is best. I dont think in the wheel well would be good too much mud and gunk flys around in there but maybe somewhere up front. I think I will go wheelin tomorrow and think about it.

I think wpage is saying to run a pipe directly from your your passinger duct (right below your turn signal) into the fender area. This would flood this volume with cooler air.

[wpage]

Here is a mock up. Im going to have to use a smaller scoop, maybe! I used a piece of an old grill on the truck scoop. H3 will need a mesh screen of some sort to filter out bugs, or not. Water will drop out in the box if it makes it that far or can insert a plug for really wet weather if it scares me. It should drop in the gap between the scoop and inner fender. It does on the truck.
I only have 3400 miles on the H3 I cant quite get up the nerve to cut a hole yet. I found that painting the scoop with matching paint made it last a lot longer. Just another crazy idea. I mean if you want outside air this will work. I will post pictures of what they make for my H3 Tuesday. They are probably going to make it an open shield type. Their idea is more air is better even if some of it is engine heated. The air under there should exchange at a good rate so we will see. I like the idea of the stock box for offroad. Just need to open up the thru the fender snoot. Im working on that whether I use the scoop or not.
On the Dodge Ram it was Ramair I guess this would be Humair? Now if we could actually use the fake air intake..............
Where you show your mock up. Is where your stock cold air intake is located in the fender wall. Look from inside your engine compartment. In the air handler there is a 2.5" opening that leads to a air conditioning type filter that connects to a air plenum (chamber) between fender and wheel housing.
If you cut in at that point you may want to 1st pull off your fender to be certain to enter where you should. Otherwise you may miss your mark and have issues...:beerchug:

[Hunner]

Where you show your mock up. Is where your stock cold air intake is located in the fender wall. Look from inside your engine compartment. In the air handler there is a 2.5" opening that leads to a air conditioning type filter that connects to a air plenum (chamber) between fender and wheel housing.
If you cut in at that point you may want to 1st pull off your fender to be certain to enter where you should. Otherwise you may miss your mark and have issues...:beerchug:

That is the "hole" idea!
On the truck I just put a pilot hole from the inside in line with the inner fender hole. I do think a hidden intake could work. There of course could be issues of submerging it which I dont plan to do. Im going to have to pull the inner wheel well liner to get in there and see how. A snorkle of some sort would work as well but Im not sure how it would look and the issues of the length of it.
I ordered some flares that came with metal/plastic push fasteners to replace the one time use ones on there now. Im going to see if they will send me some extras.
Thanks for all the input. I really enjoy the chance to discuss the H3 with other owners. This seems to be a popular subject.

[Hunner]

If you have not had this apart here is the "snorkle" end that goes into the inner fender. I stuck my hand down in the fender and all I felt was the back of the park/turn signal lamp. There ya go just take out the light and you got air! Trying to come up from the hole in the front cowl would be tough for clearance reasons and dirty wet air down that low. I really dont see how the air was getting in there except for a few small stamped holes and gaps. They had a foam seal like for what? Maybe the obvious to keep out some heated air but everything in there is heated. Im sure some engineer had a plan. I took off the snorkle just for grins because I want the stock lid on the box. It really muffels the sound back down to acceptable.

[Hunner]

Snorkle removed. All of this together may finally add up to 2 mpg which would be nice but probably just fun. That is why I bought my H3.

[wpage]

If you have not had this apart here is the "snorkle" end that goes into the inner fender. I stuck my hand down in the fender and all I felt was the back of the park/turn signal lamp. There ya go just take out the light and you got air! Trying to come up from the hole in the front cowl would be tough for clearance reasons and dirty wet air down that low. I really dont see how the air was getting in there except for a few small stamped holes and gaps. They had a foam seal like for what? Maybe the obvious to keep out some heated air but everything in there is heated. Im sure some engineer had a plan. I took off the snorkle just for grins because I want the stock lid on the box. It really muffels the sound back down to acceptable.
You hit the nail on the head about a engineer having a idea. Many threads have eluded to this mystery intake. How to increase air flow w/o a turbo will certainly improve performace. Did you find room to insert your fender scoop and hit this existing "snorkle"?
Like to know what that engineer was going off the end of that pvc end pipe!:beerchug:

[Hunner]

Oh I can make it come out right. I was not going to connect them. Just provide air into the space between flare and inner fender like on my truck. That way any bugs or FOD (foreign object debri) and water fall out by gravity and the engine can suck outside air instead of ambient air trapped in there. I really was not expecting the air to "ram" into the engine with much result. I thought it would be better for the engine to pull what it needs. What the heck do I know? On the turbo idea, after driving this Cummins since 95 which is a six cylinder but a big one Im not sure it would help at low rpms. It takes some throttle before the turbo spools up. Towing it works great because the engine has to work so calls on the turbo to boost. Just my imagination at work.

[socal-h3]

how are you getting "lower" rpms with small power gains? i dont think that adding power to the engine has any affect on your cruising rpms. that has to do with the gearing in the tranny and hp does not change gearing. am i over looking something here?

[Hunner]

Well more torque is what I understand to push you farther on the same rpms. It was the same on my truck.

[Hunner]

Ok got the mock up or protype today. Just wanted to post that an AirMax intake for a Colorado truck will not work on our H3 because of the air conditioner hose over there will not let it line up. So they made me one. They pulled it off to make a cad drawing and have one laser cut and powder coated. Im going back Wed to put the prototype on and drive it for a few days to see if all works well.
The throttle body spacer by them works on the H3 and the stock air will all go back on. The True Flow would work as well.
SOPD will have to do for comparison to a Colorado because the dyno is not for four wheel drive. I guess GM either has one or matamatically figured HP and torque.
For now we used the bellows coupler from the stock setup. We increased the tube size over the True Flow pipe from 3" to 3 1/2" same size all the way from throttle body to filter. We were making this up as we went along and decided with the full volume pipe we could leave the bellows to allow for engine torque and movement especially in low range and uneven terrain. Just a thought. I know it does not look as smoothe but they wanted to try this for now. More later, I have started a mpg log but I think the first tank is going to be poor, I can not keep from WOT to hear and feel it! Im still running no Muffler and straight pipe where it was but left the cat, oval pipe and resonator for now.
I still have mixed feelings about the open filter off-road but after all the engine is going to suck in whats out there. I now have the options for either. Water is my main concern about the wide open exposed filter. I guess in monsoon season I can swap.

[Hunner]

Here is a close up of the protoype. They glued in the spiral flow section. Im getting dizzy just thinking about all this. Its a section of plastic tubing, very thin that has a spiral twist raised ridge for about four inches. Whatever.........

[Hunner]

Gang machining on the CNC

[Hunner]

The mother load!

[ROADNOTCA]

PCMforless.com is doing a tune now for $199

If you want the exhaust open you need to get rid of the crushed piping in the downpipe, before and after the cat. And the intake, the part that is restrictive is the pipe that goes into the wheel well, its like 1.25-1.5" , freakin terrible. With everything opened up, the H3 does have more punch, its just the AWD system saps A LOT of power. I've heard its like a 39% driveline loss from crank to wheels.:mad:
I installed PCMforless Sunday, lots of fun. Hows this idea; take off the front drive shaft for M-F driving. I haven't looked under there, but it seems like it would be the equivalent of shifting an old T-case into 2H, unload that ~39%. If anyone gets to this before I do, be sure to mark the orientation of the flange/u-joint so you can return the D-shaft to the original postion; its balanced (for 100 MPH?). GM tried this "full time 4WD" ~30 years ago on the K5.

[ChevyHighPerformance]

Ok got the mock up or protype today. Just wanted to post that an AirMax intake for a Colorado truck will not work on our H3 because of the air conditioner hose over there will not let it line up. So they made me one. They pulled it off to make a cad drawing and have one laser cut and powder coated. Im going back Wed to put the prototype on and drive it for a few days to see if all works well.
The throttle body spacer by them works on the H3 and the stock air will all go back on. The True Flow would work as well.
SOPD will have to do for comparison to a Colorado because the dyno is not for four wheel drive. I guess GM either has one or matamatically figured HP and torque.
For now we used the bellows coupler from the stock setup. We increased the tube size over the True Flow pipe from 3" to 3 1/2" same size all the way from throttle body to filter. We were making this up as we went along and decided with the full volume pipe we could leave the bellows to allow for engine torque and movement especially in low range and uneven terrain. Just a thought. I know it does not look as smoothe but they wanted to try this for now. More later, I have started a mpg log but I think the first tank is going to be poor, I can not keep from WOT to hear and feel it! Im still running no Muffler and straight pipe where it was but left the cat, oval pipe and resonator for now.
I still have mixed feelings about the open filter off-road but after all the engine is going to suck in whats out there. I now have the options for either. Water is my main concern about the wide open exposed filter. I guess in monsoon season I can swap.

Did you match the ID of the stock air tube where the MAF is located?

[Hunner]

Actually no. I did ask about that. That is about 2 1/2 right at the sensor on the stock air box and opens up to 3 1/4 on the short stub that connects to the accordian type stock hose. Mine is a 3 1/2 piece of pipe and slightly less id. I will check that for info. Just the thickness of pipe less. If I understand it right it wants to meter 5% air but Im not sure about how all that computes.
We road tested and everything checked out. Then about an hour later I got the check engine light. They took that one off and made a new one moving the mounting point closer to the engine end. I have been about 100 miles since then and no light. It is a protoype. Im surprised it has worked so well. They wanted to make sure I had enough flex between ridgid mount shield and engine. I think that sacrificed the smooth transiton I wanted. We are not thru yet.
The True Flow design pipe is really a great idea and could be made easily. I think I found a source for the silicone boots. They have some generic black ones where I did all this for $15 each. Without opening the stock box you dont gain more air. That setup would work well if you put on the top for off-road nasty conditions. It still improves performance with the lid on but not as much. I let the air down on my tires off-road so I could easily swap intakes. For casual off-road it would probably be ok either way. I go to a park, SuperLift here in Arkansas on weekends and drive alot so I would like it covered for that.
Any input is appreciated. More experimenting is needed.

[ROADNOTCA]

I installed PCMforless Sunday, lots of fun. Hows this idea; take off the front drive shaft for M-F driving. I haven't looked under there, but it seems like it would be the equivalent of shifting an old T-case into 2H, unload that ~39%. If anyone gets to this before I do, be sure to mark the orientation of the flange/u-joint so you can return the D-shaft to the original postion; its balanced (for 100 MPH?). GM tried this "full time 4WD" ~30 years ago on the K5.Scrap the idea removing the front D-shaft. Because of the diff in the T-case, there is no 2H mode, yet.
:OWNED: