shipfitter_sjd

Hi,

I have a '92 Camaro RS convertible with the 305 and TBI. It is bone stock. I want to do (or purchase) the dual snorkel modification to my aircleaner and retain a stock appearance. My question is this (I do not have any experience with TBI): Is a 4 barrel factory (or after market) air cleaner interchangeable with the air cleaner for the TBI? Same size openings and recesses?

Are there any good modifications for performance for this engine that are easy on the wallet, don't require a major rebuild, and will allow me to retain the stock appearance of my car?

Any comments will be appreciated!

Thanks,

Steve

azvolfan

Hi Steve. And welcome to Thirdgen.

To answer your questions, I think most aircleaners that will fit a 4bbl will fit a tbi. You may have to watch your distributer clearance in the back. The dual snorkel is a good way to get more air to the engine. The only problem is that they are getting to be a bit expensive. Some guys are even making their own out of two air cleaner assemblies.

Some cheap mods you can do for increase performance are the Ultimate TBI mods. Do a search in the TBI board and you should come up with loads of info.

Although not free, the other mods you should look at are headers and exhaust. Those will be your most basic and will show some results right away.

Here is a picture of my dual snorkel.

del91_305

azvolfan, that dual snorkel setup is awesome.
Steve, welcome to our family. If i was you, the first thing i would do to your car would be your exhaust. Buy a 3 inch cat back exhaust system. You should find this for a coulple hundred dollars. you will notice a big difference from this and will also give you a really mean sound. excellent for the money. and for you intake, i just bought a open element breather and i am very happy with it. You need to open it up and let you engine breath better. these are just a few basic to start with.

azvolfan

Kingsport, TN.......go Vols!!!!!

Frik92RS

Welcome to the board and here's a FREE MOD!

Everyone knows that a cooler motor makes more power right? Well if you've still got the stock hood here's a free mod to reduce underhood temps. There is a gasket running along the back of the hood, remove it! With that out of the way hot air can escape from the engine bay rather than being trapped. It's a must if you go with the open element air cleaner. When I did mine it stopped that 'opening an oven' feeling when you opened up the hood, it really works.

Course soon after I got the cowl hood

I second the exhaust. I put a Flowmaster American Thunder 3" cat back on my car and it remains the single best power adder I did. Once it's on there you'll think it's a whole new car!

azvolfan

I agree. The borla was the best mod I have done so far. (Not that there are many to talk about)

shipfitter_sjd

Hey!

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will certainly take them under consideration as time and money allow. Right now, my main consideration is to keep the car looking as stock as possible....inside and out.

I LOVE your dual snorkel set-up. That is what I want to achieve, just not quite as flashy.......not that I don't love chrome, I do......it is just that I want to do something different this time around from previous projects. It is nice and that is what I want to do. So as soon as I find a suitable donor or two, I will be off and running.

As an aside, I went to www.ramairbox.com and checked out their products. Very nice, but probably better suited to an engine bay with more room and less emissions equipment.

Again, thanks for the warm welcome and the feedback. I am looking forward to exploring this site more fully as time allows and perhaps even asking more questions!

Steve

camaronewbie

Welcome! I'm fairly new here too, but email me anytime about anything, as I'm like you, trying to retain stock look, but make some fun mods and on tight budget.

I made my own dual snorkel - looks alot like the pic above, just not chrome. I cut a square hole in my air cleaner housing, added another metal snorkel from any old air cleaner housing with rivets and JB Weld, added square flexible hosing from AutoZone (name was Mighty something), and an extra plastic scoop on pass side. Sprayed black with .94 can of Walmart paint. Removed coolant bottle and added smaller bottle under plastic cover where the hood latch is up front. Total cost was under $20, really was noticable improvement. I'll try to get some pics up - just got digital cam yesterday.

I will do Ultimate TBI mods next - but I did remove that silencer ring in the air cleaner that is mentioned in the Ultimate TBI mods section while I had it off.

Are you auto tranny? Another fairly cheap SOTP (seat of the pants) mod is the rear end. I just switched from the 2.73 peg leg granny gear rear to a 3.08 posi rear. 3.42 gears are better, but I got 3.08 rear cheap and took it - the whole rear cost me $125 from the junk yard with a 6 month warranty - took me a solid weekend to swap rears, install new rear brake parts, and I spent another $175 on new rear coils (Advance Auto), shocks (KYB at Advance Auto), and polyurathane sway bar bushings/endlinks and traction bar bushings (Prothane from SLP) while I was there.

shipfitter_sjd

Hey,

Thanks for the reply and the tips.

I would like to see pictures of your air cleaner and how it all came together.

Thanks again,

Steve

brodyscamaro

I would just do an open element

arrowcamaro

iTrader: (2)

I agree. The borla was the best mod I have done so far. (Not that there are many to talk about)


thats why you havent done many other mods....you spent it all on you BORLA exhaust

azvolfan

Actually it was not too bad. I got it installed for $400.

steve8586iroc

AZ, what did you do, go to Az. for the National Championship game against FSU and never come home. You need to come back to the real world and the home of the VOLS. East TN.

Steve

azvolfan

Steve,

I moved to Cleveland, TN in 1975 from Pennsylvania (yep that's right I'm a damn yankee). I lived in Cleveland for 6 yrs. Junior high and high school. Went to Cleveland High. Moved out to Phoenix in June '81 after my first year of college at UTK. No matter where I live I will always be a big orange fan.

Got my drivers liscense in 1978 while living in Cleveland. My first car......a 1967 Firebird.

FreeLoader

How did u get a chrome one, did u do it yourself? It looks incredible.

I'm also noticing that you seemed to have no problem getting around the a/c and the smog box, did u have to get a longer tube for that?

Also, I'm probably gonna need to be smacked for this, but i think when the dual snorkal setup comes into play, the tornado would be a great addition to the setup, because if you think about it, the two tubes bringing in air will just smash into eachother and cause a delay in air getting in, while the tornato will use the dual setup to its advange to create the toilet bowl affect, so in my opinion you might wanna look into getting one, but make sure you can return it if it don't work.

azvolfan

I took the cleaner assembly to a plating shop here in Phoenix and had them chrome it for me. It was $85. The a/c hoses were not a problem. I hade to move the coolant recovery tank to the other side a remove the windshield washer reservior.

The other obstacle was the air diverter valve. It is right in the way of the passenger side snorkel. I had to shorten the pipe that it sits on. It can probably also be relocated.

azvolfan

Oh and by the way, your right. Most people on this board would smack you down for your comments on the Tornado. Popular consensus is that it does not work.

FreeLoader

how did u move the tank, did u simply remove it and change the way the wiper fluid tank works so it becomes a recovery tank or did u just move it to the opposite fender well? also, the air diverter valve, how did u, and how much did it cost, shorten it?
and you had to extend the hoses to the recovery tank, where did u put the extended hoses?

I know, typically the Torando doesn't work, which is obvious to see in most cases, because it only spins till it hits the throttle body, and it also in many cases is moving up an intake pipe which really helps nothing, all it really does in MOST cases is allow the car to pack in more air by using the slinky effect, BUT in YOUR case, if you think of your air intake assembly as a toilet, and the air as water, you could use the tornado to spin the air inside of the assembly and slowly and gently flow into the throttle body, instead of it just smashing into iself and be sucked in to the throttle body, which should cause a far bigger increase then it would on almost any other car. I would at least hit autozone and see if they carry it and TRY it on your car, its at least worth a try.

BronYrAur

iTrader: (1)

I disagree. It is not worth a try, unless you consider losing 30 bucks or whatever it costs as well as losing some top end horses worth it. The tornado isn't going to spin any air smoothly through the throttle body, its going to be a big air restriction especially at higher RPM when the engine requires larger volumes of air to flow into it. They will hit a big metal object in the middle of their path known as The Tornado. It's a worthless mod.

FreeLoader

you'll lose no money, you can return it if it doesn't work.

azvolfan

I removed the washer tank completely. No more windshield washing on my car. I moved the coolant tank to the other fender (I used a tank from an '86, it's smaller). Then I rerouted the overflow hose. If you look close you can see it behind the a/c and alternator. Seems to work fine. Just no windshield washing.

azvolfan

As far as the diverter valve pipe, I ordered a new one from the dealer (@$18) and had a buddy take out about a 1/2". You just have to make sure you take the 1/2" out of a part that will not interfere with how the valve sits. The pipe bends around a bit when it comes out of the air pump. So you can't cut off just any part of the pipe. Also make sure you done cut off so much that the plastic cover will come in contact with the manifold. It only lowers it a little, but it does help.

RSCamaroGuy92

Flow tests show that it doesn't work on tbi cars, the reason being this..... IF you have an open element air cleaner, Then the intake is sucking air through the throttle body, OK? Now, did you ever open the flaps of your throttle body and look inside???? All you see is a metal base that basically will destroy any circular motion in the intake. The tornado does work decent for TPI cars, but that's a different board. Its just something to get in the way and waste your money. I don't have anything against it, it just doesn't work, trust me.

shipfitter_sjd

Dual Snorkel Update

Dual Snorkel Parts List:
GM Parts used:

Description Part Number
Quantity

Right Hand Hose 14083990; Qty: 01; Price = $26.39

Left Hand Duct 14070917; Qty: 01; No Longer Available From GM

Right Hand Duct 14070918; Qty: 01; No Longer Available From GM

Left Hand Hose 14073299; Qty: 01; Price = $17.31

Air Cleaner Assembly (fully assembled) 25043641; No Longer Available From GM

TBI To Air Cleaner Seal 25511809; Qty:01; Price = $2.72

Cooling System Mod

GM 170 Degree Thermostat 10220957; Qty: 01; Price = $8.62

GM Thermostat Gasket 10105135; Qty: 01; Price = $1.72

If anyone has the left and right hand ducts available (part numbers 14070917 & 14070918) I would be interested in purchasing them.

I am also interested in any other member's pictures of their dual snorkel air cleaner mods. Mine is in progress. Just need the ducts and a little more ambition!!!

1992 Camaro RS convertible
305 TBI

Waltur69

very nice info will be doing some of this soon

Schurkey

Keep in mind that some of the info presented here is flat-out WRONG. For example:
Removing the seal at the rear of the hood doesn't let hot air out. It lets cool air in. This seems like a benefit, until you understand WHY GM put that seal there to begin with.

Allowing cool air into the engine compartment from the rear, kills the efficiency of the air flow through the radiator. The engine compartment might be cooler, but the cooling system--radiator, fan, water pump, thermostat, etc--is working harder.

Cowl hoods improve power because the cooler, higher-pressure air from the rear of the hood is ducted directly into the air cleaner, not the engine compartment in general. This is why the air cleaner is sealed to the hood with foam or rubber seals. The factory-spec cowl hood system doesn't reduce the efficiency of the cooling system.

camaro_92RS

Hi everyone , i just picked up my 92 camaro 4 months ago . Loving it has been about 25 years since owning a v8 .Now i know what ive been missing. I did a little work on the cooling system and it paid off. My engine is now running about 20 degrees cooler. It really is amazing just how many third gen camaro owners there is out there.