I always thought the ram-air style air intake on the LS1 engines was very cool looking and more likely functional than any other CAI style ducting. I thought it would be cool to use an actual LS1 radiator support and air lid, but I quickly found out that would take too much fabrication to work successfully under the hood of a thirdgen, specially a Firebird. So I set that idea aside for abit. Advance recently had a sale... I think it was like 15% or 20% off ANY air cleaner in the store... so I found a nice little K&N filter with a 3.5in opening to use in a new CAI experiment. I always toyed with the idea of moving the top of the radiator about 2-3inches and sticking a tube down in there... So I decided to actually go through with it... My previous setup involved having 3in ducting from the TB to the MAF down past the charcoal canister and through a hole I cut where the K&N filter was right in front of the passenger side tire and behind the foglight hole. What I decided to do is move the radiator back as far as I could at the top, without the dual fans hitting any PS lines or the PS box... I cut a notch in the radiator support bracket and another notch on the actual radiator support. I stuck the new K&N right in front of the radiator. I figured the K&N is known for its highflow tendencies and would allow enough high-flowing air through it to reach the radiator...besides, I have cooling issues with my LB9 (as in, it runs too cold on the highways). For about a week, I ziptied the support to the bracket just to see if there were any problems. I noticed that the temp rose by a few degrees, but I think thats mainly because of the lack of a "roof" or "cap" between the support and the support, and not the angle of the radiator itself... I recently made an actual cap with spare plastic I had lying around...and soon I'm going to make walls on the sides so all the air being forced up by the air dam would forcefully have to pass through the radiator... here are some pics of the new CAI... Eventually I plan to get a wide K&N similar to the Corvette CAI...let me know what you guys think!...and yes, I did notice an improvement in engine performance...not 75hp, but definitely well-worth improvement!
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looks good, but wonder how much heat you will pick up from Rad.

 

Not a fan

The radiator will be hotter than your underhood air so the effects are nil

Additionally the radiator is leaned back so the air coming up will have a more drastic direction change so the radiator will be less efficient
Not that the air filter is blocking much of that

One final note:
Trim your plug wires correctly
You have too much length and they are flopped haphazardly around
If you like burning expensive wires then ignore this

 

My original concept is using an actual LS1 lid, but I didn't feel like paying $70+ for a lid... and there is no way to successfully make that work under a near stock thirdgen. As far as heat and the rad... Its picking up the air that is going to pass through the radiator... The radiator does get hot, but I've noticed the actual fins do not get as hot specially after driving it around... As far as cooling, it hasn't affected my daily driving. I've been through a couple of drive-thrus and slow traffic and I haven't noticed higher-than-normal temperatures. The fans still come on like usual. Either way, its only something temporary and I'll see how it works out in the long run. If I feel its worth it, I'll make better improvements, maybe move up to aluminum piping and such...

How do I trim the wires? For the moment being, they are actually held in place and out of the way of the headers by wire separators. I would play around with them, but some are 90* boots and others are 180* and wont fit under the header. They are regular Accel 8.8mm... I'll get MSD wires when I hit the lottery...

 

I have to agree that having the filter pressed against a hot radiator isn't going to help. Despite the air flow going from the front to back of the radiator, your intake will suck air through the filter from all directions and heat from the coolant in your radiator will be transferred to your incoming air. I think getting cooler air from the battery tray area (or beneath it) is your best bet.

 

how do you close your hood??

 

Its a cowl hood, I have plenty of clearance.

I'm going to the track on Sat and hopefully get some #'s and see if its better, worse, or same... I know what you guys mean about the filter sucking up hot air through the rad...I think I might work on some sort of separate housing and do some actual "ram air" box that starts at the bottom of the front bumper...

 

I think between the air flow at speed & the fan(s) pulling cool air in, heat from the rad is so minimal, it isn't worth thinking about.

Even sitting still, at idle, the fan(s) will be pulling cool air in, & your filter will pull next to NOTHING, in terms of hot air.

I wouln't worry about it.

 

yeah, thats what I was thinking too...I'm not sure if some of the people know that there is nothing directly bellow the CAI, just open road... Like I stated, I originally wanted to make a setup where the "roof" part (parallel and flush) with the rad-support, housed the filter and put a lid directly to the tb...just like LS1's... I'll see how this holds up at the track... I was looking into getting those wide Corvette CAI filters, but those are about $80 and I didn't want to spend that much on an "experiment"... I didn't mind spending the $25 for this K&N...

 

I just came back from the strip and there was a slight gain of .1 ...last time my best all motor was 15.5 and now it was 15.4 (thank you peanut cam) ...which may or may not have been contributed by the intake, but if it was, something is better than nothing. Every bit helps like air foils and coolant bypass. There still have been no negative effects of the "relocating" the radiator... So I'll continue with this setup and try to make improvements on it like using solid tubing instead of rubber...

 

If you start having cooling problems you will want to close off the sides of the radiator where it would have been close to the rad support before you leaned it back. The fan is not meant as the primary method of cooling. the lower air dam is supposed to provide a positive pressure in front for the rad, but with it leaned back like that the pressure can "leak" around the sides.
I would close that up either way.

 

Well the way I see it, and I very well could be wrong is, that this really would have no effect on the radiator cooling your car, or the radiator heating up your intake charge. Actually it's not even really "ramming" air anywhere considering the open element is open horizontally so if the air has enough force on it to actually force its way through one side oof the filter it probably has enough to force its way out right through into the radiator fins.

 

I don't have cooling problems, except that my car runs "too cold" so I'm not concerned about blocking some of the rad. As a matter of fact I've since acquired an air box from a F150 that has been gutted. Its shaped more like a "scoop" and its truly "ram air". I'm planning to seal off the exposed edges of the rad. I'm also planning to make a better version of the air dam. A more "scoop" shaped air dam that will "plow" more air in the air entry cavity in front of the rad...

 

That looks like a good idea.


I have a few thoughts though. Try a corvette elbow if you want more clearance. It was designed for just this arrangement.

Definitely shroud the radiator as well as possible.

You can make the top out of aluminum and use it to hold the top of the radiator.

And I think you should extend the plumbing in to the front fascia. Cut a slot in the black plastic just behind the bumper cap and rivet a small 1 or 2 inch air dam.

 

yeah, I've actually already shrouded the rest of the "air gaps", so all (mostly all) the air gets diverted straight through the radiator. I've also removed the front blocks from under the bumper (towing blocks??) and made the underside shroud a continuous smooth entrance... I'm going to update the thread pretty soon...I just got back from F-body Beach Week in Myrtle Beach and I just crossed the whole state of South Carolina in one night and I'm pretty tired!