Yesterday I had to take the L in to order the parts for my I/C that has now started to leak when I met the owner of the dealership who also is an L fanatic. He’s had one each year they were produced and he is waiting for his new 2001 to arrive (siver this time). Right now he owns a white 2000 with all the mods and also runs with NOS at the strip in the mid 12’s without slicks. The man knows his L and loves them.

While talking L’s, out of the blue he pops up with, whatever mods you run, NOS, chips, etc. DO NOT use the ram type air the picks up from underneath the truck. It will pick up all types of crap and crud from the street and stick it into the engine (unless you clean the filter once a week). It will also pick up water. He said he didn’t care how careful one is someday they will get water up into the engine and when that happen, "you’re screwed"

He was extremely harsh about this mod and guess what, there I stood with ram air that picks up from underneath the truck. The owner never saw my L. So he did not know.

He made me feel like I should run right home, jack up the L and strip the mod out of the truck before something happens

For someone that is an expert, has all the means and personnel to have installed and has installed all the mods to have such strong feeling about a certain mod, what is your opinion?????

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Jim
Jim@FordMotor.cc

Black 00, #1008 of 4966, 4.10's, SuperChip/R9, JL’s Ram Air,
AIM 2" drop, AutoMeter Boost and A/F Gauges, chrome wheels,
Cobra Throttle Body, Mobile1 w/FilterMag
2000 E320, 1993 Cobra R, 1959 Corvette, 1949 Plymouth Coupe




[This message has been edited by FORDSALES (edited 01-06-2001).]

 

I have had mine on ever since they have been available. I have over 35 K on my truck and drive it like a "raped-ape" on highways, country roads, and even dirt roads. I have never had a problem, In fact Once a month I would pull the air filter off and shake any leaves or debris that was accumulated...no biggie
As for the water, Dont go driving into a flooded roadway.
I will however be taking mine off for the winter, NJ gets a little too crazy with the Sand and Salt spreading on the Turnpike...LOL Doesn't seem to have slowed me down at all, still running strong.

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Spiro-"The Greek"
BLK. #1476

Best run to date
12.373 @110.15
Best 60` 1.76
@ 4800 lbs.
On Pump Fuel
_________________________
JDM Engineering- Ford Specialist
_________________________

Johnny Lightning Performance
http://www.webtechnik.com/johnnylightning

"Empty Pockets Racing"Drag Race Team NJ-DE
Spiro99SVT@aol.com
LAUNCH HARD !!!

 

Very interesting. I wonder what his opinion is on leaking intercoolers which injest 100% glycol directly into the engine.

The filtration system will handle the particulate picked up by a ram-air system, and the amount of water injested from moisture through the filter would be minimal IMO.

As I have posted previously, my truck is going in next week for replacement of my second intercooler. I have never added glycol to my intercooler reservoir because I wanted to minimize potential damage that might be caused by injesting serious amounts of glycol/water. I figure I have run 4 gallons of glycol through my engine because of the intercooler problems without any noticeable short-term problems.

It's interesting to me that a Ford guy would be concerned about a ram-air system that to me is not nearly as serious as an intercooler problem, that by design, is flawed and dumps glycol directly into the engine.

This would indicate to me that Ford perceives the intercooler problem as a potential threat to the longevity of the Lightning engine. If you have a leaking intercooler, get it documented ASAP, and please do not continue to add coolant/water if it is disappearing from your intercooler reservoir. Guess where your coolant is going. The intercooler problem is too well documented to allow Ford to void the warranty because of a ram-air set up. My $.02

 

I would expect to see more water-ingestion from the a ram-air system using hood inlets, because they are more open to the elements.

There is no vacuum inside the JL ram-air system, so its not going "suck" any water in. The only water you would get to the filter would be that that was blown through through the tube. Perhaps if you hit standing water at a high rate of speed, you could manage to get some up the tube.

Even then, the filter might get wet, but it should not allow appreciable amounts of water into the intake.

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Regards,
Gordon

'99 Red Lightning
Johnny Lightning Superchip
Johnny Lighting Ram Air Kit
Century Tonneau
Best 1/4 mi. ET: 13.249 secs

 

With having this out for some time now i havn't heard of ANY water problems at all! i know there is a very small chance of water getting into the engine ive tried my very best to get water up there it just won't go up that far..1 of the reasons is that it's not a tottaly enclosed unit,with a suction effect that would enhance the chance of sucking water.it also gets it's air from the sides of the filter which helps not to have that suction effect from the scoop underneath. i do agree we should remove the filter and clean the end of the filter as often as the conditions demand.those in more sandy and dirty area's should do more than those who don't have those kind of conditions.i myself live on a dirty gravel lane and i clean my filter about every 2 months. but never have seen an access of dirt.i just want to keep it as clean as possible. hope this helps a little and if any concerns just e-mail me! thanx

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93 cobra 10.90@127.00
99 lightning (black)
e.t. 12.41 @ 110.8
best mph 110.8
60 ft. 1.79
JL superchip
JL ram air
JL Powercooler
2# pulley
Level 10 shift kit
SuperChip Dist.!
(Man i love this truck!)
_ _ _________________ _ _
JohnnyLightning Performance
E-mail: jlightningracing@cs.com
WEB:webtechnik.com/johnnylightning

 

Spiro - I have been pondering the purchase of the JL filter and ram air kit. I believe you have been running both for quite some time - did they make a performance difference on the street? Thanx for any info! Cruiser

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#39 '00 white lightning
API trans chip
ASP 2# blower pulley
K&N filter (stock box)
Borla exhaust

 

That's interesting. I don't think any leaves or crap like that is going to get by my air filter,or at least the last time I checked it wasn't. As far as rain or water goes if it's a fully enclosed system,especially up top like a hood scoop it will definitly allow some water through,however it would be extremely hard for water to travel up without it being a enclosed system. The ram air I made for my old 93 Stang never had a single problem one,and I plan on buying Johnny's ram air for my Lightning and personally I wouldn't worry about it. The thing that gets me the most is he's running nitrous with his blower and creating extremely high cylinder pressures and that doesn't seem to bother him at all?!

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00 White Lightning,R9 Superchip,Homemade induction with cone type K&N filter,Magnaflow Muffler. 93 Ford Ranger,FI 302 with 185 AFR heads,GT-40 lower intake w/Downs upper,65 mm TB,66 lb injectors controlled by Western Motorsports SDS fuel injection,TDC Stage 2 twin turbos,AOD trans w/Lentch strip valvebody,10 inch convertor and single input shaft,8.8 rearend w/mosier 31 spline axles and 3.73 gears,and plenty more !!

 

After the 1500 mile trip back and forth from IL to PA i had the JL ramair on.My truck looks like a salt factory.I have the outwears on the filter so im not worried about debris/water.Makes me feel better when i drive in the rain with it.

 

This discusion has occured many times on the C5 Corvette Forum. I've got a Vortex Ram air system on my C5. It is a true ram air system, more so than the L system. It pulls air from 3 1/2" off the ground, a lot lower than the L. My car is lowered 2" and it's got 50,000 miles driven with the mod. I've driven thru rain, standing water, etc. with no ill effects. This also seems to be the consensus of the Corvette forum too. If, say you drove off a bridge, the motor were to ingest large amounts of water the concerns would be: the mass air flow sensor would probably fail and under extreme conditions the engine would probably go into hydraulic lock which could cause a bent/broken rod or two not to mention potential supercharger maladies....highly unlikely. It would need to be a tremendous amount/volume of water. Remember the old carbuerator days? When your motor carboned up you'd pour a quart of water down the carb as fast as you could without flooding it out to disolve the deposits on top of the pistons. The point I'm trying to make is... Drive the darn thing and enjoy your ram air system/horse power increase...... My .02 cents!!!!!

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2001L, red (on order)

1998 C5 coupe, 6sp, Z51, red, ( many, many mods)

1969 Vette coupe, 496ci stroker big block, aluminum heads, 4340 crank & H-beam rods, JE 10.8 pistons, roller everything, McLeod dual disk clutch w/ aluminum flywheel, Richmond 6 spd, 3" dual exhaust, 300hp nitrous fogger, no strip time...

1985 FoToLet, work truck, 85 Toyota 4x4 (started as), Reading bed, ladder racks, 8" lift, 33 x 12.5's, Vette 350 4 bolt motor, Hooker Super Comp headers, Ford 9" rear, Toyota front diff, turbo 350 coupled to a Toyota tranfer case, 410 gears, a/c & power steering. f-a-a-s-t A/C & heat calls..... my specialty.

[This message has been edited by Undy (edited 01-06-2001).]

 

The Shipping/Receiving guy at my work is a gearhead but drives MOPARS. Anyway, his wife hydro'd their R/T Neon after he constucted an enclosed do-it-yourselfer ram-air and she took on a "puddle." D'oh!!

Johnny, please correct me if I'm wrong here. The JL Ram-Air is not an enclosed system, therefore it does not create vaccuum in the tube only. The key to its performance gain is the forward movement of the vehicle bringing up a cooler and less turbulent charge of air. This, in turn, cools the ambient air being drawn in from the front of the engine compartment. When obstructed, there is not enough vaccuum to bring H2O up the pipe. If you drive slowly through a deep puddle and submerge the inlet scoop, the engine will draw its air from the engine compartment only.

Henceforth, the performance requirement at this time is moot for it is highly unlikely any of us(ok, a couple maybe) would head into a deep puddle at 45 + mph. Hello.... McFly

sorry for the long post.... boring Saturday night. Need beverages....




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Brake Late, Dive Deep

Speedin Bob
Owner/Operator/Pilot of the "Red Rocket" (your mileage may vary) Lightning #2504, 6/17/99
NLOC # 438
**detuned for winter**
times irrelevant
removal of chipenfilter and ram air kit, return to stock airbox, 17" Expy rims with Comp T/A tires (they were cheap ok) Winter dualers to follow.

Summer setup
13.56 @ 100.89, 1.97 60' on F-1's (still learning)
JL Ram Air, R9 Chip,Keyless Entry, Retrax Bed Cover, Shackles, Wet Okoles, Mobil 1/FilterMag, Clear Corners
Autophysics filter FOR SALE [9" x 3.5" Red Trim]

 

Ding ding ding ding ding! WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

Thanks Rich..

 

Speedin Bob! did you ever see charlie brown when he was listening to different tunes on the piano for the right one? thats how i feel and now like charlie brown THATS IT! your right! JL

------------------
93 cobra 10.90@127.00
99 lightning (black)
e.t. 12.41 @ 110.8
best mph 110.8
60 ft. 1.79
JL superchip
JL ram air
JL Powercooler
2# pulley
Level 10 shift kit
SuperChip Dist.!
(Man i love this truck!)
_ _ _________________ _ _
JohnnyLightning Performance
E-mail: jlightningracing@cs.com
WEB:webtechnik.com/johnnylightning

 

Thanks Johnny!!!

Now we have something to counter and/or refute "uninformed" individuals when they spout this nonsense.

 

I have a cobra ram-air hood fully functional along with JL ram-air system and have driven it in the rain many times and have never had a problem with anything!
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HIGH ROLLER
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