Have
you been putting off installing a cold air intake on your Hemi Ram
because you didn’t want to give up the stock air resonator chamber?
Can’t part with the “HEMI Magnum” on top of the engine? Have you been
concerned about mud, snow, or high water getting into a low-hanging
aftermarket air filter? Well, the folks at Advanced Flow Engineering
listened to those concerns and came up with their newest cold air intake
– the “High Breather”.
The
aFe “Stage 2” High breather cold air intake is a marvel in engineering
–and it looks fantastic under the hood. The massive high-flow intake
filter sucks in cold outside air from high atop of the engine bay. The
kit comes with a heavy duty heat shield to protect the filter from the
heat produced from the exhaust manifold. The factory “accordion” style
tubing is replaced by aFe’s smooth black tubing – less friction means
higher flow of air into the throttle body.
Installation was a breeze (less than 15 minutes with simple hand tools).
The instructions were one page and simple. The first thing with any modification under the hood was to disconnect
the negative from the battery. Next was the removal of the factory air
box and “accordion” style air tube. The final removal step is to
separate the breather hose from the stock air box (the filter side).
The aFe heat shield utilizes three of the four rubber grommets from the
lower half of the factory air box – so don’t pitch the old parts too
far! The aFe heat shield fits perfectly in the original plastic nipples
that held the stock air box – only one bolt has to be removed from the
upper fender area to secure the heat shield in place. The heat shield
is more of a box than a shield… all possible heat sources are restricted
with this system. The smooth, straight air tube fits right into the
factory air resonator (stamped “HEMI Magnum’) with a rubber connector
and two band clamps.
The
next step is to attach the aFe high-flow filter to the other end of the
air tube (inside the heat shield). I was amazed at how huge this filter
was!! It was one of the biggest air filters I have ever seen – and
here’s a big plus: it is an open-ended filter!! No top cap on this
baby – air coming in from the passenger side grill goes right in through
the top, as well as the sides. A very nice design indeed.
Another nice thing about the Stage 2 is that it has an aluminum cover
over the heat shield box… not an open top that relies on the actual hood
to seal the box like some air intakes on the market. The cover is
stamped “aFe”, is secured with three screws, and looks great in contrast
with the black heat shield box.
The
breather hose fits on the nipple that jets out from the air tube – no
cutting of the breather hose required. I also liked the idea that the
air flow sensor stays right in the factory plug – didn’t have to mess
with that pesky piece of plastic!
Once
the cover was secured and the negative back on the battery, we strapped
the truck on the dyno. We saw a 10.3 increase in rear wheel
horsepower! Great looks, extra horsepower, and still have the “HEMI
Hat” on top of the engine… what else could you ask for? More
importantly, the piece of mind knowing you have an aFe cold air intake…
dependable and capable - make this mod #1 in my book!
This is an example of
how aFe responds to it's customers. We asked for more choices for Hemi
cold air intakes and aFe delivered. The ability to adapt quickly and
produce such quality pieces sets aFe above the crowd of filter
companies.
