To accomplish this mod the vacuum line to the thermac must be plugged(just go to the parts store and tell them you need some vaccum caps)There should be a hose coming out of the tb unit just take it off and put a cap over it., the IAT (Intake air temperature) sensor must be removed from the stock aircleaner(Unclip it to get it off and then later remove the rest of it form the old air cleaner and clip it back together. It can be relocated to the open element base but is not necessary. Power may be gained by relocating to a cool area. Behind the fileter are some already bound up wires and cords i just stuck it between those and it stays just fine.Any Non Drop aircleaner will work. All will give noticeable gains. In my personal opinion just spend a little extra cash and get the 14x3 non drop base form k&n. It is only $70 and comes with the filter and warrenty. Take note of the gold iridite finish spacer ring on the TBI unit. This serves to lift the stock drop aircleaner so it does not interfere with the TBI components which surround it. ( You will want to remove this gold ring it just lifts right off) If you go with the 14x3 which i once again recomened you will need to extend the bolt that the wing nut attaches to.To do this unscrew the bolt, just turn to the left.(to do this you have to take off the old filter first)Once you have the bolt unscrewed go to a hardware store and tell them you need some coupling nuts. You also will need a little piece of a bolt. Attach the coupling nut to the part of the bolt that screws into the tb unit. Then screw the extension piece of bolt (that will need to be around 1.5 inch to 2 inches) into the other side of the coupling nut. Then screw the whole piece back into the tb unit. That way you can still use your original wing nut. MAKE SURE IT IS NOT EXTENDED TO FAR OR IT MIGHT POKE A HOLE IN YOUR HOOD. Also if the bolt sticks up to far you will run out of thread to tighten the wing nut down. If this happens just put a couple of washers around the bolt and then tighten the wing nut.
.
****NOTE**** If your air cleaner housing rubs against the coil wires, I suggest adding a piece of cardboard to stop the rubbing, if these wires ground out, your car is screwed, big time. You will be stranded on the side of the road. ON MINE IT DIDN'T EVEN COME CLOSE JUST TAKE A LOOK REAL QUICK BUT I DIDN'T NEED THE CARDBOARD.

 

pictures. shall we make it a tech article now. Blue's got the words, i got the pics.















[This message has been edited by snflupigus (edited November 14, 2000).]

 

[This message has been edited by snflupigus (edited November 14, 2000).]

 

The metal piece that is attached to the exhaust manifold, once the metal hose is removed from it, does it need to be plugged with anything? Won't it leak exhaust fumes? What can be used to plug it up?

Also, did you just us a normal breather or a open element breather for the crankcase breather tube in the valve cover?

I'll be putting a 2 1/2 cowl hood on this spring when i get the car painted so I'll probably go with a 4" K&N filter n base.


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EVILFACE
"Never scared of the things men fear"

http://www.evilface.com/evilscamaro.htm

Stock 305 TBI Auto,
Flowmaster Muffler, Full 3" Exaust, B&M Megashifter
Runs A Blistering 16.5 @ 81.5 mph

 

Its just a heat stove, all that thing did was heat up the air that came into the filter assembly to help the car run better in the cold weather, it doesn't actually shoot exaust fumes, just heat from the headers, u can pull it now cause there is no need for it. As for the crankcase, I am using the normal breather right now, but I am going to get an open breather when I get the time to go to the part shop and find the right size for my crankcase. But the normal breather works fine too.

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Eric Natzke
91 Firebird 305 TBI (ZZ4 summer of "01")
ASCD Ram Air Hood-3" custom exaust-Flowmaster 80 Series-No Cat-Edelbrock TES Headers (coated)-March Pulleys-TBI Spacer-K&N Open ELement-TransGo Shift Kit-B&M Supercooler 28,000 GVW-Hypertech Thermomaster-160 Stat-3:42 GM Gears-Auburn Posi Unit-Edlebrock Strut Tower Brace-MSD Superconducters-Accel Cap & Rotor-MSD Blaster Coil-Rapidfire Plugs-265/50/R15 Tires-Emmison's all Gone
http://members.aol.com/j007golden/91firebird.html

 

Hey, Blue92,....If You read this again, I just wanted to ask, Do the pics here match up with what You wrote? It seems like there are some things in the pics that were'nt in the text. Maybe not, but it seems like it.
I'm very interested in doing this mod, I just don't want to mess anything up. I already have an open element K&N (14"x3")I bought one of those black plastic spacers to lift it up, which helped, but it was still kinda touching the plug wires. So, I got another one. Is it ok to have it raised with two of those things? or is it too high, now? I have a 3" cowl/ram air hood, so the air cleaner is still not touching the hood. (If I had a stock hood, it wouldn't even come close to shutting) also, is that heat stove thing on stock exhaust manifolds only? I have headers and can't remember seeing that in there. I'm gonna go look today and see what's goin' on in there. Thanks for all this usefull info! Brant

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Everything I know I learned by messing it up at least once.

 

The only thing that is different in the pictures is i didn't really talk about the heat stove i didn't take it off and i dont know if it is only on stock manifolds. Even if it is it doesn't matter because you dont need to do anything with it anyway. I dont know about the wires. When i bought my filter it came with a black ring that is used to make it air tight that sits around the throttle body i figured people would know what to do with it. Anyway i have a stock hood and it doesnt really look like it would fit but it does. It just puts a little tear in the blck crap attached to the hood.
Mine really didn't even come close to touching the wires at all. Did you get the none drop Base?And did you take of the gold ring?
And the iat thing i didn't tape it anywhere i just stuck it between two bound up wires in the back on the passgers side.

 

The third and fifth picture down are the two iat parts. The 3rd one down is the one that you pull out of the stock air cleaner. The 5th one down is the one that you unclip from the stock air cleaner.

You have to take the 3rd one and clip it back on to the fifth one.

Other than that they match up to me except that air cleaner was a drop base which is what you dont want. Unless you have a customized 454 tb like snflupigus who posted the pictures

 

I really am getting sick of this topic. Not about the quetions i just keeping forgetting little things and am about ready to kick my own A**.

Anyway one other thing i forgot is the PCV filter you can replace it with a valve cover breather. Or just take off the filter pieces from the stock filter and re-attach them to the hose.

Sorry i forgot this.

 

Hey, hey... sorry...not meaning to bug You , here. It just seemed that the pics had some stuff in them that You didn't address...which isn't Your fault.
I went and looked at My engine, a little while ago. I have the exact air cleaner pictured above...which I now know is a DROP base....Hey, I learned something! I'll look for a non-drop, soon. I took the extra spacer out because it doesn't touch anything with just one...so, that works fine. I re-located the iar thing to where it shows in the pic.
I don't see a gold ring except the big one that the air cleaner (and spacer) sit directly on. Is that what You're saying to take off? With this drop-base cleaner it would definately hit the plug wires...but with a non-drop one it might not.
I'm really sorry if I made this more confusing and bugged You with it. I just get excited to hear about ANYthing that will hop up this sorry LO3, Ya' know?
Oh, also... That stove thing is on stock manifolds only,it seems. I don't have anything that looks like that on mine.(I have headers)Even though that's not anything You originally mentioned...
once again, I'm sorry...and thanks for this info! Brant

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Everything I know I learned by messing it up at least once.

 

Correct, the stove whatever tube is only on factory manifolds. It is actually not attached to the manifold, but to a metal heat sheild type thing that is bolted around the exhaust manifold.
Mine is a drop base, if you have a non drop, you will remove the one inch ring that sits on top of the tbi. I have a drop base because of my custom throttle linkage i made for the 454 tbi.
the iat can be just put anywhere.
plastic spacers, ok, but the coil bracket bends, just bend it back a bit and everything will clear, if you have a non drop, like blue92 said, shouldnt be a problem. ill have the finished tech article on my site, and thirdgen can just link to it, in a day or so. K?

 

I was getting pissed at myself not you. No you didn't bug me i just kept remembering things right after i posted something new thats all.