[INTREPER]

I was looking at the air intake set up for the commander this morning. It looks as if the air box has a tube extension that goes from the front of the box, to the front of the grill. Weird being that the hole is facing down, and not out infront of the grill. I think i'm going to cut this tube up and get it to face the front of the grill for a little more air into the box. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[ArloGuthroJeep]

Probably designed like that so dirt and water aren't forced into the intake.

[INTREPER]

I think this week i'm going to remove the accordion tube and secondary air box and will replace it with a smoth tube of aluminum. I'll then cover that up with header wrap or something. That should get a lot of the restriction out of the way. Anyone else tried this?

[SYCOHEMI]

Still waiting for my intake kit to get final approval from K&N and the powers that be so I can install it on my vehicle.

[simioh]

i pulled the intake appart too, and also thought that scoop out the front should be facing forward, but since people will use this vehicle for offroading i suppose the air box would be filled with mud, dirt, and all that stuff. what i did was drill several holes at the bottom of the box. to take that scoop off the frunt i think u need to take off the whole front grill. im not looking for that much performance off of it since i have the 3.7, but like the post said, i would want it to "breath a lil better"

[INTREPER]

IN order to handle the snorkle you have to take the grill apart. It's super easy. You remove the 6 pop up screws, pull them out, and up comes the grill.

This weekend I took the entire air box out and made my own.

1. removed the secondary air box
2. removed snorkel (way too much restriction for air in this little snorkle)
3. replaced secondary air box with a 3" piece of pipe with a 90 degree elbow. I used all the stock hardware/rubber couplings to connect all the new pieces.
4. replaced factory filter with K&N panel filter
5. still need to paint new piece of pipe

The results were great! It's got more torque on the bottom end, and shifts much easier and quicker under full throttle.
Best yet, no noise on top of the factory set up. At least not for me.

So far i've gained 3 averega miles per gallon on one tank of gas driving up and down the freeway. I was only getting 12 mpg, and now am getting 15.

More time will tell. I will get some pics of the set up when I finish painting it

[odell]

holy cow, 3 more mpg's? That's the only bad thing about the commander, is the HORRIBLE mpg's with the 5.7 L. Thanks for the post, maybe I'll try it also.

[SYCOHEMI]

3 more MPG's is HUGE. I think I am doing better now too, with my Gibson Exhaust. I can't wait to get my K&N. If I can get 15-16 MPG, I will be very pleased.

[INTREPER]

The thing you have to remember with this truck is that it's heavy. IF you take it easy on the gas pedal, she'll do fine around town.

[INTREPER]

Some quick pics of my intake (not done yet. Still have to paint her).




The following is the snorkel coming from the air filter box directly to the front of the grill. Keep in mind there's a flap missing on the very front. Notice the plastic rivets? I accidently broke the flap when removing it.


You guys notice how restrictive this things looks? No wonder the commander feels chocked.


With my home made intake, I left the airbox snorkel off. I didn't feel that the intake was sucking in any of the engine compartment heat when in motion. It gets tons of flow in there while moving. Every time I stopped to check the temp on the intake and air box, it felt cold to the touch compared to the palstic engine cover. It was about 62F the day I did this.

Here's what the air box looks like now with the snorkel removed.


The second item of restriction is the silencer box. As you can see from the pic, the air flows through a bunch of little chambers. If you look through the air box you also notice holes through the main chamber that allows air into the small square areas. This is done to make the intake very quiet.


I also replaced the stock air filter with a K&N. With the combo of those items, the butt dyno liked the results. The shifts are tighter at higher RPM. RPM's will hit red line if I want them too. Before it wouldn't. And now it gets going quicker from a dead start. I really didn't notice a diffrence in noise from the intake either. Go figure.

Overall, i've spent about $60 on this so far. The K&N filter being the most expensive so far at $55.00

[XKShawn]

Thanks for the info and pics. I'll probably try this as well and see if I can improve on the 11.8 mpg I'm currently getting.

[Brian87gt]

I had a friend fab it up for me, my MPG shot up almost 3 mpg. I have the 4.7

[adhir]

Your pix are gone. Anyway you could repost them, or send them to me via email?

Thanks

[Virmagicus]