Hello all, I have a bird with a 334 and holley 600, was looking at making a true c.a.I. system.
Not an off the shelf one.
What I was looking at doing is basically using an existing aftermarket air cleaner, making it enclosed with tubing, and running the tubing to the front hood vents. Cut out the metal under the vents and attach it there, so that way I would be sucking in air from in top of the hood.
Would a setup like this work? Never mind ugly, this thing could be a double in any Mad Max film lol.

 

Anything is do-able. If you want it to draw from the top of the hood (not an ideal location without a forward-facing scoop) you might find it's easier to build a seal up between the outside edge of the air cleaner housing and the underside of the hood and then cut holes in the air cleaner lid so it will suck the air in from above the air cleaner- no need for hoses.

 

I'd take cold air from the base of the windshield cowl like Smokey Yunick did.

 

I used my IROC TPI intake (with cold air tubes running down to the fog light area) and mated that to a sealed air cleaner with a tube as you mention. Works on the Camaro, but probably not on a Trans Am.

 

I don't have much room there, sadly. I run a 2" carb spacer, with the most backwoods lookin carb cowl/cover bolted to my hood lol.

I realize anything can be done, I just didn't know how effective it would be sucking air from the front vents atop the hood.
Sounding like my best bet is to just make a cowl and make a home made shaker type setup. The uglier the better lol! She's a junkyard dog