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Air Intake

The air intake on my '93 U280 has had a piece of vinyl riveted to the inside. The vinyl does not allow the engine to breathe in cold fresh air but rather it breaths the hot air from the engine compartment. To exacerbate the problem I have an exhaust manifold leak so the engine is sucking in exhaust fumes through the intake. This just does seem right to me. I have always thought the colder the air the more dense and the more oxygen. I am preparing to replace the vinyl with screen mesh (to keep the bugs out), any reason why I should leave the vinyl there?

Roland

Re: Air Intake

Reply #1 –
Roland, I would not place anything over the air intake, it will just restrict the air flow further.  You have an air filter that will take car of bugs or anything else that goes thru the intake.
Gary B

Re: Air Intake

Reply #2 –
Gary, you are right, think I'll just take the vinyl piece off.

Roland

Re: Air Intake

Reply #3 –
Roland, I am not familiar with your air intake, however on my 01 coach, the air intake is up high center with the rear camera, the issue I have, the air filter fills up very quickly, brother had the 03 coach, same results, then he purchased a 06 Phenix, air intake on side up high, air filter goes much much longer, does not attract the dirt like the rear center intake.  Why I am having Xtreme/Rance work out modifying from origional intake to a side intake like on the newer coach. 
I do not seem to have the heat issue, just the dirt collector location.  Also for me, getting rid of the huge muffler and going with the resonator reduced the compartment heat a lot
Good luck
Dave M

Re: Air Intake

Reply #4 –

Roland,

Does your air intake look anything like the attached pictures?  With the side ventilated air intake, there may be two issues.  First, rain blowing onto the side of the coach could enter the air filter.  That is why a baffle was placed in front of the intake opening.  Secondly, on occasion, birds were building nests inside the air filter.  When I bought our U-280 in '03 the service manager said that once I was on a long trip that I could if I wanted, remove the baffle.  The original baffle was a circle of fiberglass that barely fit into the square opening and seem to me to be overkill.  So I reduced the size and modified the shape to a teardrop.  It still prevents water from rain (and overzealous rinsing of coach with a water hose) from entering and yet allows  air more access from the louvers.

Frequently I found large leaves (oak especially) and even letter-sized pieces of paper inside the air filter cartridge that significantly reduced the surface area for air intake.  Therefore, I fashioned a screen of 1/2" hardware cloth that fits over the opening in front of the baffle.  See attached photos.

I believe that after '92 FT modified the configuration of the air cleaner canister so that air enters the outer circumference of the filter and that clean air from the center is drawn into the engine.  In my year it was just the opposite:  Air enters the inside of the cone-shaped filter, is drawn through the filter and then enters the engine intake from the outer circumference of the filter.

Re: Air Intake

Reply #5 –
Don

My air filter intake resembles yours. There is a baffle attached to the thing but it is quite large and barely fits into the square intake hole. I think I'll follow your lead when I modify the air intake. Thanks.
 

Re: Air Intake

Reply #6 –
Dave

My air intake is on the side of the coach very similar if not identical to Don's. Not sure I would have any problems with birds nesting as we fulltime and move around a bit. But I do like Don's idea of a medium size mesh screen that won't restrict the air flow but will discourage critters from nesting.

Roland