colt44

When I bought my '95 19 years ago, cold air intakes were just becoming popular. I thought the idea behind them was sound [ cool air = denser air more O2| but cold air intakes were still new and none was available for XJ. One day I was changing air filter and I noticed air intake opening at front of air box was small and had a pretty good lip around it to quite the intake sound. I took the air box out with the intention of making hole LOTS bigger and when I did I noticed a block off plate on radiator core support directly in front of air box. It was held in with a couple of sheet metal screws so I took the plate off in minutes. Then I cut the front of the air box out so there was only enough plastic left to support the top securely. Now, the intake sound increased a lot especially at large throttle openings. Air is still filtered just as before,[ don't cut the top of box ] but now I had my cold air intake. When you take that blocking plate off core support, it opens up to grill right next to head light bucket but not behind A/C rad. You can actually look in the hole from front and see right into bottom of air box so I know a lot of cool air is getting blown in there. Now, before anybody says this will screw up your engine or something, I did this 19 years ago and nothing bad happened. The intake roar is noticeably louder but I never checked gas mileage or power as XJ was fairly new when I did it. I imagine that block-off plate was put there for some kind of cool air intake Jeep never used as it's in perfect location for one.

djb383

Plate could be there to lessen the chance of water ingestation.

colt44

Maybe, but in last 19 years I've driven through some pretty horrific rain storms and even some deep puddles, and never had a problem. The hole in core support is as high as headlights, and if you're in water that deep something else is going to happen. It's about as high as an after market cone- type filter sits.

EZEARL

Yep,it was right in front of my K&N. No problems in the 2+ yrs it's been gone. Wonder what it was for?

DaveD

1995 was only 14 years ago..lol...sorry had too...seriously though, do you know if the 97-01 have that same plate?

salad

Stopping water like djb383 said... A Jeep is an offroad vehicle...

'97+ does not have this, the sheet metal is different. Cowl intake is a better choice.

F1Addict

I'm gonna start calculating my age using whatever kind of math you're using.

2WDUnderachiever

Umm...

weebur

My '97 has the plate. I removed it by using small vice grip pliers and turning the screws till they fell out, the pulled the plate back through the hole. I did this thinking that it could serve as a cold air intake. I opened up the hole in the air box to about the same size as the hole in the support, then made an aluminum box (about 3-1/2 X 4-1/2) that extended to about a 1/2" from the hole.

I checked the air box for water after a few rain storms and found none. I've been running like this for a couple of years now with no problems, but have the same crappy gas mileage.

I've done a lot of reading about upping gas mileage and there is a big group of people out there (I think they're called Hyper Mileage or something like that) that believe that warm air intake is better for DD and gas mileage, and cold air is better for performance.

So, with that thought in mind, a couple of weeks ago I made an aluminum cover for the intake and then cut three 2" holes in the bottom of the air box. One on the rear, one on the fender side and one on the bottom. This is no big deal because I can easily put some patches over the holes.

When I get around to it I plan on driving around with my scanner hooked up on live data and see what the Air Intake Temperature is in different driving conditions. I wish I had thought to do that with the cold air intake hooked up.

djb383

Haven't yall read the posts here where Bevis or Butthead said "I hydrolocked my XJ, I didn't think the water was that deep" (key words, didn't think). I don't believe rain or puddles would be even a slight issue as there are small drain holes at the bottom of the box that would drain rain or puddle splash water.

When driving off into water that "I didn't think it was that deep", the plate may prevent for second or two a "Big Gulp" from entering the air box. As Mr. salad said, cowl intake would be a way better choice.

Isn't the factory hole in the air box something like twice the size of the throttle body? Seems to me the throttle body and those tiny intake valves are the intake restriction, not the air box. The only way to have a "true" cold air intake is to seal the box from sucking any "under hood" air, otherwise one still has a hot air intake and an increased chance of water ingestation.

bigvig

Yeah, if this were 2009.

colt44

Yeah, you guys are right about cowl coldair kit, but this was free 19 YEARS AGO!!!!!