Im having trouble with edelbrocks strut tower brace,my hood wont close!!!
It could close,but it would be flexing the hood a bit.do I have to remove my heat blanket under the hood to achevie that extra 1/8 inch of clearance I need? WTF in my opinon edelbrock sucks! If some one could post a pic of ther edelbrock strut tower brace on ther firebird/trans am please do so,any other input is much appreciated,thx

 

Though I have no experience with Fire/trans, I understand fitment is an issue. A search might have provded the info you require (I hope you mocked up and didn't drill the holes in advance).

JamesC

 

yes i mocked it up,measured it,followed the instructions precisley but...didnt check the hood clearance before I drilled,It seemed like a pretty straight forward install,honestly it think this would fit an iroc just fine because the irocs nose doesnt slope downward,like the firebird/trans am.
Im wondering if quality control @edelbrock let one slightly out of tolerance piece slip through.
I always use the search engine before I post,but ther was nothing addressing this exact issue.

 

Nevermind, you guys talkn about TPI cars

 

If that is Edelbrock part number 5226 (for TPI cars), it says...
"Notes:V8 with TPI (tuned port injection). Some vehicles may require trimming of hood understructure."
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

If you only need that 1/8" clearance, you could take a hammer and just tap that part of your hood in a little to make room. The heat shield you have should be able to cover the dent and no one would ever know... except for you of course... and the people that may read this thread.

 

[quote=racing geek;3703073]If that is Edelbrock part number 5226 (for TPI cars), it says...
"Notes:V8 with TPI (tuned port injection). Some vehicles may require trimming of hood understructure."
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

awww damn...I wish i would have read that ahead of time,I guess it pays to do your home work before you but parts.thx alot man I really appreciate your reply.

 

DO NOT HAMMER!!!

I had a slight fitment prob under my hood, for different reasons. The hood is basically made of all the same material, with slight thickness differences. When you hammer, your just gonna dent your hood.

Same thing happens, when you take a pair of pliers, or something and try to "twist it" into shape. It may work if you heated it up with oxy/acetylene, but not as it is.

Dont ask me how i know......

I would recommend taking a grinder, or a dremmel tool to it, and just grinding away the peice.

You can cut out alot of the "structure" though, and nothing should happen. Thats basically what the factory did for the formula, "power bulge" cowl hoods. They just cut away large chunks of the structure, and the hood worked fine.

 

That's good to know. In that case, XxCoLTxX, I wouldn't use the hammer method.

Online170, I noticed you have an RS so I would like to know if you have tried the Edelbrock 5226 STB on your car. Will it clear camaro hoods? If it clears the plain stock hood, I'm sure it will clear an IROC hood... right?

 

Crap.

 

I can see why you would think i own an RS.... Actually its just a nice picture i saw while reading an article on HotRod. Every camaro ive ever owned (with the exception of the 2.8L) was always carbureted, and none of them have had an STB on it. At the moment i have a firebird. So sorry, but i dont know.....

I just had a clearance issue in my firebird with the hood closing, because of my holley DP carb, and the edelbrock RPM intake.

So i went through the trouble of getting a flat hood, and cutting a hole in it, so i could close my hood. I almost kicked myself, when i realized, that i could have gotten away with trimming part of the hood structure rather than cut the entire part out. I also tried the hammer before doing any cutting, and even some pliers, but i was just denting the hood from the inside. (i didnt care about my paint, but you might).

 

edelbrock brace on my 83 ta with powerbulge hood. no hood clearance issues but it touches the c/c plates so to align it u have to remove it.

 

thats the edelbrock 5227, they want to know about the TPI version (the 5226).

 

I have the tpi version on my camaro but I do not have the stock hood. I have a cervini's cowl hood and it clears with no modifications.

 

I had to remove the heat blanket and cut some of the under structure out of my 87 bird to get it to fit. What I did was lay masking tape upsidedown on the strut tower brace and gently close the hood to see what sections needed removed. But Edelbrock still sucks, I did not want to cut anything.

 

I really dont wana cut the under side of my hood,Im thinking about notching the strut tower brace on a lathe,then repainting it.honestly id rather have a small dip it my bar then cut on my car. Ive seen the BMR brace,It fits very nicely with no mods.

 

Instead of cutting the hood or STB, you can shorten the 2 mounts by the strut towers, thereby lowering the cross piece, if you have the room to do it between the plenum & STB of course.

Like this...

Maybe between removing the insulation you can gain a 1/2" there, then shorten the mounts themselves and gain another 1/2"? For a extra 1".

 

Yeah,thers not enough room,my L98 tpi sits a bit higher then your Ls1(very nice btw)Ive removed the heat blanket,Ive already shaved the mounts like yours and elongated holes on the lathe so that the stb can actually sit on the plenum,of course I wouldnt mount it that low,but I wanted to check to see if it would close and it does,but... you can see the hood is sitting higher then the fender,therfore its still hitting...thus my only 2 options besides cutting my hood is lathing a section of the bar..or getting a Ls1 dropped in,LOL

these realy wernt ment for the firebird style car,edelbrock prolly had a camaro for mock up when they fabbed this piece for mass production...

 

That's not my LS1. A local guys red 92 Z. I'm still sporting my white 87 GTA. I'm fixing to get an Edelbrock STB. If it hits, I guess it'll stay off until my new fiberglass hood comes in.

 

no dont get this brace,I would suggest hotchkis or bmr... hind sight is always 20/20

 

With a new hi-rise hood though, wouldn't there be no problems? If so, no big deal.I'll have an extra 3" or so.

 

the stb only hits a small part of the under hood skeleton,and only on the drivers side,It looks to me like a 2 inch section of the hood frame needs to be cut,I imagine formulas have no problem(has stated earlier in this thread),and your high rise or any cowl hood should work great

 

Ok, this is for all the people that posted about the STB fitting their camaro with an aftermarket hood... do you happen to have a stock hood you could throw on to see if it will fit? I would like to get this but I don't want to cut up my iroc hood.

 

I have a Edelbrock STB and it fits fine. The two braces that run to the cowl need to be mounted on the bottom and not the top. Will post pic a little later

 

Formulas (at least mine) had similar problems but on the passenger side where there was framework. I had to remove the hood liner, elongate the holes, connect the bars running from the brace to the cowl from underneath instead of on top as shown in the directions and still had to trim a 2" section just above the main brace. I also had about 1/8" clearance from the plenum. I've since removed the brace and am working on a design of my own.