ok, I've been reading some of the old posts and some of the articles. I have decided to cut my airbox and I have been thinking of doing a "home made" ram air. well when looking at it they are both the same(ram air, cold air). you are bringing air from lower to the ground into the car, ie colder air....."cold air intake" so whats the difference? the home made ram air set up look alot like cold air set ups, any difference, other than where the air filter is?
ideas, pros? cons? also where does the Ram air hood fall into this whole idea?
thanks
biker

The main difference between the two is thus:

A true cold-air intake has the intake end (usually the filter) physically seperated from the engine compartment, not just relocated elsewhere. This is usually accomplished with an airbox or a divider "wall" in a spot or inside the fender. The pickup may or may not be directly in any moving airstream.

A "ram-air" intake simply puts the intake end directly into the oncoming airflow when the car is moving creating the idea of air being "stuffed" into the intake by the force of the airstream. A ram-air hood falls into this scheme only if the scoop on the hood feeds directly into the throttle body. To be truly "ram-air" the entire intake tract from the opening in the hood to the mouth of the throttle body has to be sealed.

Obviously there's not a whole lot of room for that much ducting under the hood, especially for the miniscule gain it'd be worth. If you look at 4th gen SS Camaros under the hood and you'll see a sort of double-curly-Q tract from the scoop to the throttle body because the TB is directly underneath the scoop and an S-shaped tract would be too sharp and complex to funnel air effeciently.

You say the performance gains are minimal, well then I simply have to ask. What would be the gains theoretically on a ram air hood(fully functional), versus a cold air intake, versus a do it yourself ram air setup on a third gen camaro.

I plan on going to ram air hood for looks, but I am curious.

Biker, I cut my airboxes and installed ram air boxes on my Iroc I would be more than glad to take some pictures and send them to you if you want to see how my setup is. All I can say is it was one of the best mods I have ever done. It really works! There is alot more power and throttle response at highway speeds and believe it or not my engine pulls noticably harder at higher rpms then it did before..Just leave your email address here or pm it to me if you want some pictures.

"Obviously there's not a whole lot of room for that much ducting under the hood, especially for the miniscule gain it'd be worth."




I beg to differ,Although I have noticed more than a "miniscule gain" isnt that the name of the game? All those miniscule gains add up! Whoever doesnt think so look at my times. I dont think my times are too bad considering the miles and gears.

why not just post them here?? I'd be interested in seeing how you did it...

I have no problem with that at all. Would be more than glad to post them here but I am computer handicap so I would have to mail the pics. to somebody and have them post them for me. Who should I mail them to?Would you be willing to do it iroc4ever?

Email that is.

go ahead and post them on here.
I check this site on different PCs all day so I never know when i could save them
biker

L98jerry,

send me an e-mail with them pics. I am curious as to how your looks and how you did it. Thanks

pctec@surry.net

sure..send them to loozah@videotron.ca and i'll post them up here...
its really not hard to do btw..you just click on browse where it says attach file and find the file you wanna attach on your computer, then submit reply...

As I stated, the gains are miniscule. I never said they weren't "worth" doing. I simply meant that from my own personal view, there's not a whole lot of room there for the complicated ducting that would be required to have true and functional ram-air from a scoop in the hood on a tuned-port injected engine for the gain it would end up being worth.

I am in no way trying to talk someone into or out of doing anything they're considering doing in this case.

L98Jerry: Is your ram-air setup ducted from a hoodscoop to the TB?

I'd rather not block the radiator with ram air ducting. I need all that cooling air to go through the fog light holes and cool the radiator. Everyone knows how air starved the cooling system is on a 3rd gen is.

I will try to get those pics taken and posted today. I have my setup run through the fog light holes and I have not noticed any adverse side effects in terms of my engine running hotter. I made it through this past summer without any difference in temperature. As long as the plastic air dam is attatched under the bumper you should be fine.

every time I try to post a pic it says the file is too large. I will have to email them to somebody...

John Millican, you have a good point about cooling the radiator. However, Firebirds do not have these privisions in the front bumper...and solely rely on the airdam to cool them. I've had 2 cars now that VERY much depended on the airdam. And as such...as long as a thirdgen has an airdam, blocking the front of the radiator shouldn't be too much of a problem. That is unless the ducting used in front of the radiator blocks the air from the airdam.

send me them and i'll shrink them and post them...my email address is just above....

here are his pics...i'll leave it up to him to explain what he did...
looks pretty nicely done to me...

2

3

4

The reason for all the duct tape is when the boxes were made evidently he made them to fit without the factory air boxes cut out. What good is ram air if the boxes are still restrictive?I cut the bottoms out and had to use the duct tape to seal everything up. True it looks like $hit but it does work.

Thanks for posting them iroc4ever! Much appreciated!

looks good I'll get around to it sooner or later
biker

check this out
http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/in...il?v=1&pid=779

$130 bucks??? anyone??? anyone???

Thats pretty much the exact setup I have except mine looks like hell, is not stainless,but only cost me around $30 from ebay.

now that is cool! You think its true about the 12.5hp gain? I know Roy at Thirdgen Resource...so mayber he can hook me up with how to do it....

I can not honestly say how much H.P. the boxes gave me but I will say that anything over 40 MPH it pulled a little harder. It ran out of breath around 4,800 before the ram air boxes. With the boxes it will pull pretty good until around 5,200. I hope after I port the plenum and intake I can have it pulling until the 5,500 redline.That will be fine with me because I dont need to be turning a wore out engine like mine over 5,500 anyway!.

what did you search for on ebay to find it?? i tried ram air camaro and tpi... found nothing...

---------------snip----------------

I'd rather not block the radiator with ram air ducting. I need all that cooling air to go through the fog light holes and cool the radiator. Everyone knows how air starved the cooling system is on a 3rd gen is.

---------------snip----------------


This is something I'm concerned about as well. It can get ballz *** hot here in the middle of summer. (Az) Is there anybody from around here that's done something similar or the same that can elaborate?

Chris

I have almost the exact same setup that I bought several years ago except mine was a complete aftermarket piece. Unfortunately that company is out of business now but they were charging the same price ($130) for the whole piece, not just the bottom scoops. I have not had ANY cooling problems but you MUST keep your air damn in place or you WILL have cooling problems.

The Ram Air III box helped the 305 TPI gain 12.5 hp and 19.2lb-ft of torque.

I doubt that, as long as stock runners and base are being used that gains like this are typical. Id venture as far to say +6/+8 at the wheels, and no more.

On a 305 no less! Imagine if they had used an L98! I suppose the ram air would result in 20hp and 35tq

Worth it tho, I'd say just for the highway scream!

I havent seen any on ebay in a while now. If I run across a set I will let you all know.