Can any normal drop base air cleaner be used with a stock tbi unit? Or, will a regular base air cleaner fit under the stock hood?

 

unless you have a scoop or cowl, you're probally better off with the stock air cleaner. If you have a stock hood, an open filament air cleaner is only going to get hot air and is going to hurt performance. But to answer your question, only a drop base will fit under the hood of a camaro, a firebird has a greater pitch on the hood and sometimes not even a drop base will fit. If you want a regular base air cleaner your going to need a hole in your hood for it to stick out of, or a cowl/scoop.

 

A drop base will fit fine but, may just barely rub the harness plug to the coil (as mine does). A standard base will fit if you remove the factory spacer ring (so stated in the TBI tech article).
As far as performance, I don't see how it could make it any worse the the 1"x2" inlet of the stock piece. But, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

 

just going by what everybody else says, i've got an open element and a cowl