What is the thing on the intake in the attached picture? With the intake pipe in place it hangs down right behind the fan. Seems like it would block some flow through the radiator and does not appear to have any purpose.
Thanks.
-- Jim

 

On my Lincoln modular, there was a similar module to reduce intake noise, but it was removable and you could make it a little more throaty by taking it off.

 

They are acoustic dampers. They are designed with a specific volume and shape so that they will resonate at specific frequencies, to absorb noise pulses that would otherwise either annoy us, or make the car too loud to pass regs. Their proper name is Helmholtz resonator. If you want to see some pictures and a lot of math go here.

This source provides a good layman's explanation, (before hitting the heavy math).

 

Chris,

Very good references (technical and simple)!
Thanks for shedding some light on this tuning aspect of our inlet duct.

Ford appears to have done a significant amount of sophisticated acoustic modeling and analysis of this inlet duct. I believe I will leave mine alone....

 

Thanks for the replies. Great links, Chris.