Well I finally received all the pieces and assembled everything. It all fit perfectly. I even had lots of room to install my nozzle for the nitrous. Once the hood and bumpers are finally painted I will post pics. I think I finally got a good allignment on my hood after a few hours of adjusting things Anyhow here are the pics of the modified RA2 airbox from ramairhoods.com with my MAF and a TPI MAF bellows from an 85-89 Camaro.

 

Front view of airbox....

 

Looks good. now I gotta try it on my car.
I've got the HSR on the car and it sits higher than the TPI which hopefully doesn't cause too many problems.

 

razor, could you do a step-by-step tech article on how you got this box to fit? I'd love to ditch my stock box and open the hood up.

 

Zepher by having the HSR you will have an easier time. When you move the airbox ahead it tilts the box forward. This raises the back of the airbox which will change the angle that the airbox meets the throttle body.

 

3.1, I will put something together listing what I changed and why I did it that way.

 

Awesome

 

Sorry for the long post...

Well the first thing I did was relocate where the RA2 airbox mounts. It is designed to mount to the top of the rad shroud with aluminum brackets supplied with it. The mounts screw onto the airbox and then into 2 bolt holes used by the shroud. I took the mounts off and tossed them. I drilled my own holes inside the airbox to allow me to mount the airbox farther ahead to make sure I had enough room for my MAF. I mounted the airbox flush with the front edge of the rad shroud. This gains some extra space that you will need to fit the MAF inbetween there. If you have speed density you don't need to do this for the extra space but I reccomend trying it as there is another benefit. This moves the airbox closer to the inside of the hood. If you look at where I cut the two holes in my hood, the airbox will now sit about 1/4 inch away from the holes making a tight fit there. It also changes the angle the airbox sits. The airbox is designed to sit back father as I stated so the mould on the bottom of the box is meant to mate with the way the shruod is shaped. By sanding in certian spots on the belly or bottom of the airbox it will still sit very nicely but at the same time the back is raised quite a bit higher. It causes it to sit at more of a tilt rather than just sitting basically flat. When the air comes in from the hood snorkels it does not have to be sucked down as it passes over the top of the airbox but rather its forced right into the airbox with no other place to go. No its not ram air thats not what I am saying its just a good supply of ambient air. This is why I put a dam on the back of the airbox that fits the contour of the hood. This creates a great seal which traps the cool air in the airbox and does not allow hot air to be drawn from the engine bay. I have contact on the entire sides and back of my filter lid now. The intake bellows should take all the flexing of the engine so the airbox will not be lifting up.

Now that the airbox is mounted in place I had to take the top lid and sand it down at a taper starting at the center and working out. I removed 1/4 inch from the center and as it tapered to each end I increased the amount of plastic I removed. At the end I took it down close to 1/2 inch. This gives the airbox a slight curve which makes for a good starting point to try to match the contour of the hood. I also took the airbox where the filter sits and ground 1/8 inch all around the opening. This allowed the filter to sit deeper into the airbox. This created a way better seal than before with the original setup. My filter fit like crap when I first bought the airbox. It actually had places where huge gaps could draw unfiltered air. Once the material was removed to allow the airbox to sit deeper the filter had a great seal. Just go slow and test fit often when removing material. Once its gone its hard to put back. My filter fits well enough I don't even need the upper plate. It pops in with slight pressure and creates an even strong seal on the box. The lid on my box was warped when I first got it as well. I added 2 screws in the center in the lid, one on top and one on the bottom. I now have 4 screws and this creates an equal pressure on the filter. Before with only screws on the sides, the lid would not even touch the filter in the center. I found that even when you taper the lid it will still sit very good all around the air filter. My lid had exual pressure around the entire peremiter of the filter edge.

Hopefully by now everything should be looking pretty good. I am not sure if you want to follow the next step but this is how I built the dam on the back of my lid. I used a surface primer that I use in the shop on glass installs. I treated the top of the lid with primer. I then took some white grease and sprayed on the inside of my hood where I wanted my dam to make contact. I then applied urethane to the primed area on the back of the lid. I used a "V" tip cut on the nozzle so that the urethane came out like this: /\
I made sure it was 1/2 to 3/4 high. I then closed the hood. The hood compressed the urethane where it was tight, but the grease kept the urethane from sticking to my hood. I left it to dry for a few hours, then lifted the hood up and trimmed and shaped the urethane. It makes a perfect fit and the urethane it flexible enough to allow the airbox to ever shift slightly without chattering on the inside of the hood.

I next cut off the excess piece on the back of my airbox. I cut it about 1/2 inch away from the airbox. I then sanded the opening to get the MAF to fit decently. The lip on the MAF will have to go into the airbox roughly 1/2 inch. Don't leave too much on or else you will not have room for the MAF. If you cut the 3' ducting off the back of the airbox too close to the airbox the top of the MAF will hit on the airbox when its pressed together. Once I was happy with the MAF and airbox, I placed the MAF tightly back into the airbox. I took a 1/8 drillbit and drilled two holes through the airbox and MAF. One hole on the top and one hole on the bottom. I then pulled the MAF almost out of the airbox ducting and ran some permatex around the entire surface and then reinserted the MAF. I rivoted the two spots with 1/8 by 3/16 aluminum rivots thus joining the MAF and the airbox. The permatex sealed any small gaps I had and created a solid seal. Use aluminum rivots as they are softer and require less force than steel rivots. This way you will not crack anything. I then installed my Camaro TPI bellows from an 85-89 MAF vehicle.

As for cutting my ASCD hood on the inside, I made two holes. I left a pice of firberglass inbetween the two holes for some support. When cutting the hood ,make sure you cut as high as you can and follow the contour of the inner layer. This should preduce two holes that are roughly 4 inches high and taper down to 1/2 to 2 inches on the end. I made my openings just as long as the filter. If you don't cut the openings as high as you can you will be blocking flow to the airbox. The airbox is fairly high and with the openings not tall enough the air will hit the front of the airbox more than actually being directed to the air filter. On the bottom of the openings I left something like a 1/2 inch lip to catch any water being drawn in from the snorkels. When I opened my hood up I found a pice of fiberglass inbetween the two layers of the hood. It was there to add support. I asked Rex Orr about it and he said it was fine to remove it. My pice was only bonded on the very ends of the piece so I removed the entire piece except the very ends where it was joining the inner and oputer layer of the hood. With this piece removed it made a direct opening to my airbox but still gave a bit of support to the two layers on the hood.

If anyone esle tries this and finds something works better then please post it for the rest of us

 

Nice. Very clean.

 

Hey Razor, I was wanting to do this same thing, but I do not have the MAF. Do you think that the Airbox, will line up with the RA1 hood, without all these mods....since I do not have the MAF on mine?

 

which hood are u using?do u have pics with the hood up and down to see where the filter sits compared to where the filter
is mounted

 

I have not bought the hood yet, cause I am still trying to fogure on which hood I should get. But the hood I was looking at is the RA1 hood from American Sports, and the air box from RamAirHood.
I do not have anything to go by, that is why I asked Razor what he thought, since he has the same products. I do not want to buy that set up unless I know it will work. Otherwise I will just go ahead and get the RA2 hood with the box, since I know it will work together. It costs more to geth the RA1 hood and the air box, so do not want to spend more on something I may have to spend even more money on, to get it to work...if u know what I mean.