Homemade Air Intake

[clayt22]

I'm looking to buy a '98 Dakota R/T but I have a few reservations about it. The main one would be the air intake that it has installed. It looks like nothing I've ever seen before. It comes off the top of the block and there's a tube parallel to the ground and there are filters on each end of the tube. The dealer bought it off a guy a few weeks ago and can't tell me anything about it. I've tried to contact the previous owner a few times but I'm told he's a trucker and isn't home too much. I've looked all over trying to figure out this set up and have come up empty. The truck looks great for a '98 and has low miles. I thought about buying it and putting on a new intake just to know exactly what I have but should this type of modification be a red flag for buying it? Thanks for any advice you have.....

[Blue99DakotaSport]

If you have any mechanic friends, or just one that you'd trust, I'd ask them to take a look and make sure the setup he's got on there doesn't have any other modified parts other than the intake (ex. the manifold, throttle bodies, or other things in that area) and that the setup hasn't damaged the engine interals in any way. If those things check out, It should be easy to pop it off and slide a new Airaid or K&N one on, or even a stock one from a junk yard if you're not interested in spending much.

If there's a whole bunch of highly modified parts on there, wouldn't touch it, because he either drove it hard or used it for something I don't know anything about. Good luck dude.