bobcatnn

For the longest time I wanted to do a ram air setup through one of the dual snorkel kits, but having got one I noticed the passages are extremely small. It just doesn't seem like it would flow much air through. So what I'm attempting to do now is flow air through the passenger side inner headlight into a sealed top aluminum box. Anyone else tried this? It lookslike it will work pretty good as my stock air cleaner comes out the front of the TPI and towards the passenger side, from there I'll just plumb the box with an open air style cone filter into the box.

~*edit*~
I failed to mention that this setup might cause legality issues seeing as you remove one of the headlights, but hopefully not too much of a problem as it is only the bright light on one side. You still have the driver side bright and the passenger side regular headlamp.

THEGENERAL

i dont think id run it there maybe extend your tube farther up and go into the front end of the car so you can draw air from behind the grill in front of the radiator
just my .02 worth thou ...lol

ljnowell

no. one headlight is illeagal. and very stupid. its not safe, for obvious night driving reasons, and there are much better ways to do it. If you are actually considering this, have you thought about the grill in the front???

Air_Adam

Actually, if this is on a Camaro, just put the tubes directly behind the cutouts behind the headlights... lots of air flows through there.

bobcatnn

Hold on! Stupid, that is no way to respond to something like this. When you have some constructive criticism I'll listen.

It's only the one bright, you still have the one on the other side and the two regular beams that go to bright, I tried it yesterday and it seems to work just fine. The legality issue, I'm still working on that with the local authorities--they seem to like me thus far.

High airflow, yes, extremely. Your vehicle sees the most amount of wind resistance at the front bumper. Yes I have looked at the grill, too many corners for me and besides the dual snorkel is very restrictive. Besides, the mounting bracket for the headlight acts like a cone funneling air inside. I had to open it up a bit to fit the 3" intake tube, but so far so good. I'll keep you all posted.

ljnowell

Removing one of your headlights to put an air intake into it? That is definately stupid. I am not calling you stupid, dont misunderstand me. I have no reason to call you names, I dont even know you. Its not a personal attack I promise you . What I am trying to say is that there are better ways to do it. That way just isnt a good one. You need both of your brightlights. if you are going to remove one, you should remove them both. If you are seriously dead set on it, let me offer a suggestion. Our cars have seperate bright and dim lights. What if you converted it to use a single bright/dim, and removed both bright lights (but then you would still have brights too) and put the air intake on both sides, and make it a dual snorkel intake?? Just an idea, and it would keep you legal too.

bobcatnn

I checked that on my car first before I did anything. The outer lamps go on for dim and bright, while the inners come on only in bright--that's why I can still see just fine at night. I don't know if it's supposed to be like that or what. That is a good idea with removing both and having two boxes, I'll just have to fab something for the maf still. Right now, it has the flexible rubber intake tubing that makes a turn towards the passenger side and the maf hooks on the end. I should be able to figure something out. Maybe just pull the driver side inner light as well and make them look even--aesthetic reasons, and maybe legality reasons, lol.

Sorry for misunderstanding your previous post, I shouldn't have gotten so defensive.

MrDude_1

doesnt seem like a very "bright" idea to me....





seriously though, theres a couple things:

• The angle from such a setup would have to come back to get behind the radiator, then make a sharp bend toward the motor then another bend to go into the throttlebody.. not the best way to flow air.
• the stock TPI intake is not restrictive.. its actually a great design... it may look thin, but you'll notice that as it gets thinner, it gets wider, keeping not only the airflow the same, but the speed of the air is maintained the same, for a nice smooth nonrestrictive flow into the motor
• directly above the front of the radiator at speed, there is a high pressure area... fresh cool air can easily get there.

Red Devil

1. Been done before, lots of times, always was in the rags in the late '80s early 90's.

2. You guys do realize that you can run on just two headlights so long as they do both low and bright and are adjusted properly. The Pontiac F-body is notorious in it's use of only two lights in order to throw conformity a loop, in fact they go so far as to hide the bloody things as well!

ljnowell

Thats exactly what I was saying, dont take out one light, take em both out.

bobcatnn

That's exactly my thinking with the lights. I'll have brights and dim so I should be set. As far as the bends go, currently the setup comes out the front and then makes a turn towards the passenger side and there's the MAF and filter on the end. By making this sealed box with a tubed vent to the headlight I should be able to provide plenty of air to the box and then just suck out of the box. I'm going to try to attach a drawing I just whipped up on autocad then saved as a jpg, never tried this before, hopefully it will work.

MrDude_1

go look at a firebird intake.


compare.


then realize that this intake alone cost them 10hp.

bobcatnn

Alrighty, I looked at a few pictures and what the birds have seems to be a lot different then what I'm thinking. The box I have made has a direct connection to the air coming in from the headlight opening. The drawing is not to scale so it kind of doesn't do justice to the actual piece. The box fills that compartment in front of the inner fender where the battery used to be. It has a lot of room for air coming in and then being sucked through the filter. I might even make a cutout to let air come straiht from the passenger side as well, I don't know yet. I only just looked at pictures of the birds' though, I could be way off.

Rivven87

I'd skip the box completely... if you want air flow through the high-beam light's space, clear out all the crap for that light and open up the wiring hole that's behind it a little. Get a filter behind it and then straight to the MAF. A box would be restricting the flow just like the dual snorkels would.

But if you do remove one high beam, do them both. See if you can get an open mesh screen over the spaces, something nonrestrictive. I've seen more than a few of the old G bodies with things like that done, and they look kind of unbalanced when you look at them.

bobcatnn

How would a box that is too large restrict flow. The reason for the box is to insulate it from the rest of the hot air inside the engine compartment. This box goes from the edge of the radiator all the way to the fender--under the lip, from right behind the headlight--actually butts up to it all the way back to the wheel well. It is large enough to support the airflow and allows you to only get the cold air from the headlight hole. And yes, I did go through the headlight wiring holes in the mounting bracket. I actually opened them up a bit too.

Rivven87

It's just the extra turn, if the air doesn't quite have a direct path through it, it's got to slow down just a little.

It's worth the try, you can always alter the box later on anyway.

THEGENERAL

you say that you already have it started to make it run this way from what i understand ??? correct me if im wrong there ......
do you have a digital camera or access to one .id like to see some pics of what you are tryin to do here maybe it would make it easier to understand for some ..any time you can get fresh air instead of the underhood air your gonna have a gain albeit a slight one but your gonna gain some hp id say anyway

MrDude_1

here, i modded your drawing to point out a couple probs.


1. the air inlet space... behind the headlight theres a piece of metal. the hole is kinda tiny. you would need to enlarge it.

b. the way you layed out the components is too far apart. you dont have that much room... i moved the TB closer. notice how sharp that 90* bend is.... thats a big restriction right there...anything over 30* starts to become a major restriction....

3rd. my blue air flow lines dont show any filter. if you were to add a filter, the air would have to flow around where you have your box.. lets say a cone filter, that would make it so that the air would have to enter the filter, then do a 90* to go out the tube... not to mention the air going to the other side of the filter then has to do a 180 to enter the tube.plus this adds even more length to the system, thats already long.

Fourthly bird owners already have solutions to this that you might want to look into.

THEGENERAL

im not sure if there is an easy answer to this question or not ..lol..i would think the straightest possible route for the air the better ...correct me if im wrong there ..lol...and im sure that the cooler air will make the car respond better too but im not too hip myself to take out a headlight to gain that little extra added fresh air ....maybe there would be an easier way to route it into the fender some how ???

bobcatnn

I'm gonna see what I can do about pictures coming up, but the filter i have resembles an open air element on a carb'ed motor--square with rounded corners. Imagine the box sealing around the top and bottom edges and the draw is directly out the top center and out to where the stock air filter used to be. I'm not going for a "ram air" style cuz that to me is a complete waste except for the great access to cold air. I see there will be some sharp bends, but the next step is attempt to minimize them. Hopefully things will work well.

THEGENERAL

yeah i think with some pics it would make it easier to visualize the situation ...the drawings everyone is posting is okay but there are more things to consider that are on the engine to route around

Rivven87

The lack of battery is confusing me.

I use my snorkel, opened up a little more with some small aluminum angles in behind the fog lamp openings to direct air upward, though not directly into it.

bobcatnn

Well, I got the box in last night, no camera though so no pictures....yet. The wiring holes for the headlamp is going to work great for an inlet, and same with the fender opening--there should be plenty of air coming in that doesn't have to turn right there.
About the cornering--by placing this box how I am and having two inlets it effectively removes the 90ddegree turn the inlet air would have to make otherwise. The routing of coolant lines and headlamp wires is a little bit of a pain. The wires you just have to reroute and the coolant lines are able to be manipulated enough to run the one intake line around.

p.s. I almost removed my thumb last night when the cutting wheel I was using caught an edge and bounced out of the cut...thank *** I was wearing gloves and it only tore the glove open. Had I not, I think my thumb would be gone.

THEGENERAL

every time we fabricate our cars somehow theres always the possibility of gettin hurt.. been there done that ..lol...glad your alright thou ....so you put a inlet from the front and from the side on the box??

bobcatnn

I really wish I had a camera, lol, it would make so much more sense.

Yes, there are two openings. The main source of air comes through where the inner lamp was and through it's wiring hole--which has been opened up. 3 inch piping that is roughly 6 inches long, maybe less, and goes into the side of the box. Now, the side of the box that faces the fender also has a hole in it and it "draws" air from the opening in the fender--between the outer and inner fender...there's already a large opening there.

I have two 3'' dia inlets on the box and one 3" dia outlet to the maf and TB. From the box to the MAF, it's straigh. The only turn in the system is where it connects to the TB--the factory bend. I know this one bend is holding me back, but now I'm getting colder air to the intake, which will help.

THEGENERAL

oh yeah anytime you can get cooler than under hood temp air into the injection or carb your always better off no matter what anyone says...i dont think that the one bend your gonna have is going to be as restrictive as some think but i could be wrong..have been before..lol..but your gonna get better response with the cooler intake air for sure .....as soon as you can get some pics i would like to see how you set it up im sure alot of others would too ....sounds cool thou keep it up

Red Devil

IIRC that was only on the IIRC pre '88-89's that used that big *** S mounted off the box. I didn't find anything for loss on the '89 up. They used a different setup for the airflow.

THEGENERAL

in the begining of the post here you said you already got a dual snorkle kit ??are you gonna use it with the set up your building or are you gonna sell it ??

bobcatnn

Well gentleman, i had a horrible day at the track. fuel injection couldn't keep up with the motor--the stock fi, so i pulled the tpi and threw on a good ol carburetor. so right now the air intake fab is over. Yes I have a dual snorkel kit, wasn't going to use it, if you want it, i'll sell it to you. not sure what's missing from it as i never did use it.

2out_The_Left

great idea. i've seen this done using vent piping purchased from home depot. you can buy all sorts of sizes and elbows to run it up to the stock snorkles or the MAF on TPI cars. creativity comes in handy.

Air_Adam

That what I'ma do this summer... I'm leaving the headlights all there, but gonna hook up some heavy dust-collector type flexible hose behind the lamps, and the other end to my L69 air cleaner.

The only potential problem I can see is the battery... it might be too much in the way. Meh, I'll figure something out, or break something in an attempt!

-LiquidHalo-

all ya have to do it relocate to the hatch. BMR makes a bracket that BOLTS into where the spare is supposed to be you can pick up the wiring kit from jegs for 50-80 depending on the brand you like. relocating the battery is actually worth it. frees up a lot of space that can be used for other things, such as this. not to mention its much easier to run an amp if your into sound systems.

if you do relocate the battery, i would strongly suggest a dry cell. they have no spillage like regular electrolyte batteries and they last a lot longer also. i wouldn't want to be dumping battery solution in side my car.