So I was cleaning my engine bay on my firebird, and I had an idea for the intake.

With the V6's, these cars have a huge amount of room between the engine and radiator.

Would it be a bad idea to fab up an intake that hung down right there to get the air in front of the engine?

 

if it rains your filter is going to get water in it. potential hydrolock situation. not the best idea.

 

No different than the 4th gen WS6 hoods, Just have proper drainage available.

 

Since it'll be right behing the fan maybe you'll get some boost. hahaha.

 

I love 4th gen WS6s!!! what do you mean by proper drainage? I don't know how those intakes keep water out either.

 

If you look at the inside of a factory one, it'll make sense.

The air has to make a 90 degree turn up, which "slams" the majority of the incoming water into a back wall, then gets "channeled" or caught & into a drain.

Direct incoming air, with no provision to protect against incoming water, would cause hydrolock during hard downpours of rain. BAD for a warranty.

 

Look into bypass filters, which are used in the upper intake tubing where water cant get to, allowing you to keep from hydrolocking but still getting cold air.

Like this

 

If you have the intake design that has a round filter way over by the fender...its a better location than in front of the engine. At best it will be a "warm air intake". For a real CAI you need to get the filter out of the engine bay. Like this......

 

Any intake drawing under hood air is not a "cold air" intake by any means as it is drawing in hot air. The "cold air" is air that is cooler than what is under the hood.

 

I guess my idea was to have the are filter as low as possible in front of the engine since the road is right there.

 

just because the filter is in the engine bay does not mean its NOT a cold air intake. look at the front of your car. the air-dam obviously directs air up through the engine bay and somewhat around the fender area. if you want to be safe and keep the filter in the engine bay just make some sort of tubing to direct air up into the location the filter is mounted. i don't have any pics at the moment but i took black flex tubing(kinda like dryer vent tube lol) and angled it thru the fender directly in front of the filter. kinda like a ram air effect but from under the car. and it stays dry. always.

 

How about doing this.

 

That is stock for Camaros, but that plastic piece won't fit over the Firebird radiator wall & under Firebird hoods.

 

it "could" fit. but whats the point when u have no air coming thru the front on a firebird lol. I think EVERYONE on this board should stop discussing the cai idea. its always the same answers.. they will never change. just get a ram air hood. then its done.

 

There are so many things that could go in there...but like you said "they will never change". If its not within the first 10 search results people think it hasnt been discussed before.

 

Good luck....Not only would you hafta cut the inner hood bracing for it to clear, but you'd hafta totally redo the latch, including how/where the piece on the hood attaches to.

I think I'm the only one who has actually TRIED it. LOTS of people will tell you it won't work, but when pressed for details, they can't give you ANY. Well, just "not enough room between the hood & the radiator wall". Believe me...That is the EASIEST part to "fix"!

 

Oh so true! And if the answer isn't OBVIOUS on the first page of that thread, it just gets asked again.

After 11 years of TGO, combined with the 5 or so years of its previous incarnation as simply a message board on the tufts.edu server.....There isn't much that hasn't been asked & answered 1000 times, except for new technology (like LSx stuff) or brand new innovations.

 

I didn't realize there was that much of a difference.
Learn something new every day.

 

Can I ask something?
Stephen, where did you get that plastic intake? I have never seen that before?

 

What plastic intake piece are you referring to? Pic?

The only one I see above is the STOCK piece from the V6 Camaros.

 

uhh, the plenum and lower half of the intake look like they're plastic in the above pics. Maybe they're not and it just looks like that?

DOH, my bad you just quoted mc87ss, the pics are his not yours. :P
OK, so same question to you mc97ss.

 

I think there is some confusion here.

I was referring to the plastic air intake pieces, in front of the radiator/between the headlights, not the intake PLENUM pieces after the ribbed plastic tubing.

 

I know that's what people HAD been talking about, but I asked a new question.

 

They are not plastic. The motor was in the car when we got it so i don't know much about it.
We have since pulled the motor and working on building a 350 for it.