I'm putting an LQ9 with a Holley Lo-ram in my 1983, would a TPI air box with the baffles cut out work for me or would it still restrict too much? I really like how it looks and where it pulls air from compared to an intake inside the engine bay.

 

I used the TPI intake on a 5.3 swap I did and it worked well. I switched to a 4 inch system when I went to an LS3. One problem I had with the TPI intake was when I tried to use a MAF with out a screen. The piping from the filter assembly to the throttle body is very short and downward sloping . That caused air to flow past the MAF erratically and the car was untunable. A screened MAF solved the problem.

 

I'm not using a MAF, the Terminator X uses a MAP sensor at the back of the manifold. I'm not going for high RPM, probably have the rev limiter set to 6500 or so

 

If MAP reading at full throttle stays within 2 kPa of atmosphere then it's probably working good enough. If it has more pressure drop than that, then you might want to weigh options and figure out whether it matters to you.

I have 1 kPa drop with my intake, but no ram air effect so I got to pay attention to those things.