Cowl intake issue

Bodil40

New Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2019
Messages
21
Location
Hidalgo county, texas
I recently decided to build my own version of THOR's cowl intake system with a 30 dollar autozone filter and some elbow grease, saving me about 170$! I noticed though now since the jeep is taking in much cooler air, i am getting a high voltage reading from the number 1 intake air temp sensor. I wanted to ask if anyone has been able to clear the check engine light after doing such a cold air intake. I understand that the jeep is probably running lean now. I looked at THOR's install instructions and they seem to completely gloss over this error code from your air intake temp sensor as being an issue. My setup is almost identical to THOR's intake system so I'm wondering how others may have dealt with the code, if anyone could chime in. Also I've attached pictures for better explanation and so if anyone would want to build a true cheap cold air intake for themselves, you can reference mine. I would highly recommend it, I noticed increased throttle response instantly and for 30$ i think it's a no brainer, plus it sounds cool!


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Attachments

  • TJLJ-Intake-install-2019-v2.pdf
    1.8 MB · Views: 88
Did you leave the front plastic fitting on the valve cover capped off with a blue rag OR was that picture taken while fabricating the cowl cold air ?
The front fitting needs to be attached to the intake tube to remove vapors and fumes.

The blue rag is temporary, i am going to get a small filter for it. Would it be better to route it to the intake tube? Anyways i got the check engine light to turn off after fiddling with the sensor a bit! i think the tube was dirty on the inside. No more scary lights for now!

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One question… won’t the filter get soaked if it rains?

Potentially. Like many, I have a Windstar cowl intake with the filter easily accessible in the engine bay. Last year, for the first time in 8 years, the cowl drain was clogged during a very heavy downpour. The cowl filled with water, soaked the paper filter, and suffocated the engine. A similar thing happened many years ago during an ice storm that encased the front of the Jeep in ice while I was driving, including sealing the cowl vent and eventually suffocating the engine. That was an interesting problem.

The Thor version with the filter buried, inaccessible and fully exposed is even more vulnerable to getting soaked.

In my case, I pulled the filter canister into the engine bay, removed the wet filter and drove to the nearest auto parts store to buy a clean and dry Ford Windstar air filter. Then I went home.
 
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