So, as of right now I got a TBI 305 with a 14 by 3' K&N cloth filter open air element (with open top also). A friend gave me a 1' TBI spacer with swirl design that wouldn't fit on his truck. My air element almost touches my hood, so in order to add an inch below the TBI I would need to remove an inch from my filter.

Is it even worth it? Wouldn't the inch smaller filter bring total air flow down below what it is now even with this TBI spacer that probably doesn't even help air flow in the first place?

My guess would be no, not worth it, but figured I'd at least ask before throwing it away. Also, when I get my cowl hood I'd have the space to pop the TBI spacer on without getting a smaller filter, would it be worth it then?

Thanks for any info!

 

You know I have not installed one on my car yet. But if I did find one cheap enough I would try deffinately. Now I'd rather have the 3 inch filter over the 1 inch spacer. But in the future if you do get a cowl I'd change and see how it does.

 

I have found mixed reviews on the spacers. From what I have read and heard I would not sacrifice filter for a spacer. I would save it for when you get your cowl hood then give it a try.

 

@ronusmcmma

Did you always have that hood or did you add it on yourself? I'm trying to figure out if when I get mine, it's gonna come down and cover my filter as is or if I'm gonna have to raise the filter to get it to sit in that hole with the hood closed.

 

I know a 14 inch cleaner wont clear my hood using the hypertech powercharger also

 

wht is the hypertech powercharger i got sum hood clearance just dont understad how it wrks plz explain

 

googled.

> http://www.jegs.com/i/Hypertech/533/...oductId=746434

> http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/50080/10002/-1

From what it shows it basically looks like it diverts the engine bay air and if you have a cowl it seals it just right to suck only the air from the cowl hood?

IF that is true, how high does this sit? I have a tbi w/ cowl, i was looking into something like this. Please post pictures of your setup an how it works please? thanks!

 

You seal the air filter from underneath with a air tray.That is a Goodmark steel hood that I bought about 3 years ago just befor getting the car painted.

You can get cool air being pulled/pushed through the cowl opening with a X-Stream filter top. Thats all I'm doing with mine. Only the filter top and a small amount of the other filter fits inside the cowl hole on mine. A lot of the cowl hoods out there don't have a round hole like mine. Most I have seen have a large opening at the windshield and gradually slope to the front remaining open the hole way down. I would amagin if you had a hole like mine with a tall enough cowl you could raise the filter into the opening if you wanted. Ether way I recommend the X-Streem filter top for any cowl. Heres one more photo of my hood.

 

Yeah I have the same hood Ronus. I cut out the back of it where all the little holes were to make it open though.

 

this is what i did with mine. I took a stock/close to stock. Cut out the bottom so the powercharger sits in there as so. It unshrouds the injectors and smoothes airflow into the TB. I'd like to believe so anyway. Car feels pretty peppy. With teh cowl hood you can really hear the car sucking. I have a flow through lid on the top. It slighty sticks through the hole in the hood. I wanted to get it sticking higher into the hole I was going to run a xsteam assembly like Ronus has but the 14 inch one hits the hood with the powercharger installed. I'll probably get the 11 inch version

 

Oh yeah I have since removed the nipple in the powercharger and located my Intake air temp sensor there. Just used some epoxy to hold it in. Nothing fancy no one is going to really be seeing it.

 

UnderCover89TBI,
What did you use to cut the cowl opening? Do you have any photos?

 

I was hoping that item was something like this.



I want something to surround my air filter and have a stripping like this that can press against the hole that the filter sits in to make a nice seal so only air from the cowl comes in.

Also does that item even work? or is it pointless? that we were discussing earlier

 

I used an air saw. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

Yeah eventually my plan is to make something like that also. making some sort of air box with foam or rubber that seals against the hood when down. I felt an increase when I installed the powercharger. I moddeed the air cleaner, installed the charger, and put a flow through top on at the same time. You can hear it sucking like crazy.

 

thanks for the input. It just doesnt seem like it would work.. idk why, but its decently cheap i may try it with the xstream top.

 

Yeah especially since jegs makes one for cheaper ya know that's more worth it. I cut the bottom of the air cleaner out though.

 

What do you mean you cut it out?

 

look at my pics i posted that is not the factory hole on the bottom of the air cleaner. I did not see a point in "unshrouding" the injectors and having a hole that doesn't really utilize the bowl deisgn.

 

here's a shot of the back of my goodmark cowl hood I cut out the center as seen

 

You know what ? I really like it. I have had basically the same idea but have to tell you that its looks like a fairly easy job but I have found with this car nothing gos easy. Man I just have that leave it alone for awhile syndrome. And with the new paint it just worries me. Can I ask you about rain? Do you find it to be a problem at all?

 

Umm rain is a non factor. little droplets will go in there but that's about it. I have not seen any problems from it. I just figured a bigger hole will take in more air and let more air out and I thought all those round circles looked tacky. Well I had the hood off and I used an air saw with a flexible blade and just cut away.

 

very nice man. i might end up doing the same and then ill put the xstream filter on.

 

that's how ya do it!

 

Is there anything (direct bolt on) we can buy that can kinda seal our air filter area to the hood like they did with the old school cowl setups? Kinda like this...



What about a powercharger, think that would work with a bit of modification to seal to the hood?

 

well the powercharger is not big enough to do that so deffinately not.

 

THATS THE PICTURE! there was a base picture ive seen before that inspired me to build that. it comes down to a 15" x 2" cake mold pan and universal weather stripping to make that. about $50 when your done, but seems to be worth it to trap the warmer air away from it.

 

Yeah I am going to do something like that. With the xstream lid on the filter. Should work well.

 

ok here is my air cleaner if i get the power chargerwill it go in the air cleaner or wht im confused on how i wuld set it up

 

it would go beneath the air cleaner and then the air cleaner would mount on top of it. should work I guess. Its just the hole for the air cleaner isnt nearly as big as the powercharger.

 

advance auto parts sells spectre air cleaner, complete with top air filter, aoe 14" air filter with carb/tbi bottom plate for $70, which is awesome, k&n for all the parts to complete this makes over $200, it has 1400cfm rating as well, still want to make a dish plate though like in the 60s camaro picture posted.

 

OK, I found a site that has all kinds of cowl components. Its Goodmark .If you punch in "cowl" in the "keyword" search box then go in to about the 4th page they start to show parts for cowls.You have to dig a little but the parts are there. Or maybe call them and they can give you a part # on what your looking for. Here's the link = http://www.goodmarkindustries.com/

 

I dont really see anything on there that will work good on our cars.

 

I just thought maybe some one that can fabricate could use some of their stuff.
It was asked were to get cowl parts and Goodmark is it.They may not be exactly perfect for our cars but that's were the fabrication comes in.

 

I gotcha man. I think I misinterpeted your original post. I thought they had stuff distinctly for 3rd gens

 

We have one or two guys on TGO that have made their own bottom tray and used that with some fire retardant foam around the top to make the seal.Maybe one of those guys will see this and add some info. They do sell the actual cowl air cleaner rubber seal on Goodmarks web page.

 

If you have a summit catalog they have a tray designed for use with hood scoops located in the scoops and hoods section its a metal sheet with foam around it im sure that could be fabricated. I really like the design of the one posted above. If I decide to utilize my cowl in that design then that's probably what I will imitate. I still kind of want to do a CAI kit