Dheista

Hi all,

Finally working up some new stuff on the engine bay after doing suspension and interior. This is mostly bling, but I am adding a new Holley carb and Air-Gap intake. Unfortunately the L88 hood I have doesn't fit with the old Holley carb and the new air cleaner.

So, I have a few ideas:

1) New hood
2) Cut hole in hood and add scoop
3) drop base air cleaner & choke-less carb
4) Get new ZZ3, add blower, serpentine and custom hood

4 is obviously the desired result. Alas, not enough pennies in the piggy bank yet.

1 isn't very desirable - this is a new hood that I picked up with the car. It's an L88 style which wasn't on the car but I like the look (and less weight) of. But I'm not sure who the mfg of this hood is and whether other L88 style hoods would offer more clearance.

3 I'm not terribly fond of because a choke-less carb doesn't seem like a good idea. The motor does like to warm up and choke makes it easy. And I'm not sure if a drop base air cleaner mount alone would do anything. Right now the hood almost touches the top of the bare bolt without a nut on it.

so #2 seems the likely winner. I'd have to cut a hole in a hood. It's a hood I got "free" with the car, so I'm not that invested in the hood.

Big question: What kind of scoop?

1) I could put a shaker
2) Hilborn scoop
3) Blower scoop

I like the idea of shakers - reminds me of the Trans Am, which I think will be my next play car. Nice thread about it on CF:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...ette-ca-2.html

Then there's a Hilborn scoop - since I only have a single 4bbl 750CFM carb, I don't really need a blower scoop (and not sure there are blower scoops for single carb setup?). From my limited reading (tonight only) on Hilborn scoops, it seems like you might actually get some slight performance increase from the added pressure of a Hilborn. Maybe like the ram-air in my ZX-11?
But I LOVE the look of a real blower scoop. Butterfly valves are just plain mean. Jegs has a nice single-carb scoop:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Mr-Gasket/720/...oductId=744198

Sorta wondering if a Hilborn will give any performance increase? If not, I'll just go with a butterfly valve one and hopefully use that later on when I do add a blower.

And no - I obviously don't mind this being a resto-mod. It's just not original anymore. It's mine. :-)

C3 Stroker

Any pics of this hood?....an L-88 hood should be plenty tall enough to clear an Air Gap intake and 3" tall element. Mine clears the even taller World Motown intake and 3" element, though it does have a drop base. Even a stock drop base should work...

gerry72

Why do you feel you need to lose the choke for option three? A drop-base air cleaner will give you a good two inches of additional vertical clearance around the rim of the air cleaner without having to do any alterations to the carburetor. Also, unless you're using one of those bling nuts to secure the top of the air cleaner, if the carb stud clears the hood, the nut is below that level and that too should clear. There should be ample clearance using the RPM AG intake and an L-88 hood.

malicatasr

I have an Rpm air gap hood on a 82 CE. I just modified inside a little bit and used a drop base air cleaner. I also kept my choke. If it doesn't work for you then can I buy it off you

SIXFOOTER

I used an L88 air cleaner base and glassed in the air box and scoop, took a lot of time but it sure came out nice. Running stock E4ME carb and air gap intake. Had to use a spacer on top of the carb to get the base to meet up with the bottom of the air box.

scottyp99

Yeah, man, an L88 hood should give you oodles of clearance. Are you running any kind of big, thick spacers, or anything like that? There are people on this forum running rpm air gap intakes under stock hoods. Also, I don't think I like the idea of putting a hood scoop on top of another hood scoop. It would be like wearing a hat on top of another hat. Or a rear wing on top of another rear wing. I suppose there could be some way to make it look good, but you'd have to b careful, there would be a strong possibility of it coming out looking ridiculous.

On that note, a word of advice about ridiculousness: Sometimes, ridiculous is the whole point. In these cases, don't half-a$$ it! Most things that just barely cross the line into ridiculousness are just kinda dumb-looking, but if you really get a running start, and leap over the line into extreme ridiculousness, it can be kinda cool.

Scott

MelWff

As others have pointed out, I have L88 hood, air gap RPM, drop down air cleaner, 4" filter and 1/2" spacer between carb and manifold.

Eddie 70

Wonder if he means L-82 hood?

Like others have said, you should be able to clear even with the L-82 hood. I used a drop base cleaner on mine when I ran an Edlebrock RPM Air Gap intake and had hood clearance still.

todds74

Should fit I have a super victor with an 850 quick fuel and it clears the l88 hood.

7t9l82

i have the air gap with a 1/2 " spacer with a dropped base air cleaner under an L-82 hood .

garygnu

OP,need pics of your hood .I run a air-gap with a 1" spacer .but I use a sealed air pan that gets air from the front .

drwet

I also have an L88 hood with an Air Gap intake. I have about 3/4" of spacer under the carb to protect it from heat, and a 3" air cleaner (Moroso) and still have a couple of inches of hood clearance left over. Something wrong here.

Dheista

Thanks all - clearly I'm having issues with a setup that seems to have been done successfully before.

So first issue - I don't know where the hood came from, nor whether it's dimensions match a true L88 hood. It's definitely got the big reverse scoop thing going on like everything I've seen. But the underside of the hood didn't have any sort of insulation or padding - just bare fiberglass. And the rear of the hood - the part closest to the windshield where a vertical brace would be on the factory earlier hoods (I think '69 had a brace in the hood, maybe all L88 hoods?) - mine not only didn't have a brace, but it was actually glassed in. I had to cut a hole where the brace would be to actually allow some air flow in from the rear.

I was looking at this post:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...-l88-hood.html

And the 1-25-2012 photo of the blue hood with the brace - that area was actually enclosed on my hood. So I think I've got some weird reproduction that I might have to either modify or sell.

I'll take pics and some measurements when I get back to the car at my buddy's house. Thanks to all for the questions and comments - sounds like I should really be able to do this with what I've got!

TimAT

If you could get one like this you could stack two, yes TWO 3 inch elements on top of a factory drop base and still have 3 inches. Unfortunatly, Vanacor is gone.

v2racing

When I was checking for fit my L88 hood with an air chamber worked with an L88 drop base, screen and lid with a Holley on top of a Dart single plane with a 1/2 inch spacer. The Dart intake is much taller than an RPM Air Gap.

Get a drop base air cleaner and it should have a mile of room.

scottyp99

If the air cleaner is not sealed against the hood, ya never know, the scoop could just be sucking hot air out of the engine compartment, because of the high pressure area under the hood. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if you want the air cleaner to see cold aair, you need to seal it against the hood. Air doesn't move in the way you might think it would sometimes.

Scott

BacaBill

I have one of these,,, http://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/...aspx?Item=5020
I was all set to put this thru the hood, but it's a little bigger than I want. Might sell for a good price if I go another route,, still deciding tho.
It'll be a couple more weeks before I get the hood in place.

v2racing

My 75 had this sticking through the hood when I got it. This was on top of a Demon which was on top of the Dart intake I mentioned before with a 1/2" nitrous plate. I used this setup to fit the hood and air chamber before I took the car apart. The L88 drop base worked perfect with the stock type foam seal. The seal was well compressed, but it fit. Part of the Demon carb was sticking out of the stock hood, not just the funky scoop air cleaner. The L88 hood adds a lot of room!


I have a heavily modified Victor Jr. on the 406 I built, so it gives me room for an 1 1/2" worth of spacer under the carb. I'm going to run an HVH spacer like this one on top of a phenolic 1/2" open spacer all hand blended together.

Les

Long ago, when I decided to get an L88 hood, I bought one through a Vette parts shop that I'd done a ton of business with. The owner gave me a good price on a new hood, telling me that it wasn't an original Chevy L88 hood. That didn't surprise me since originals were already hard to find and pretty pricey. I just wanted the cold air induction and room for a good intake, so new aftermarket was fine with me. What he had forgotten to mention was that it was not even a correct repro hood. It was like yours, with the sealed back edge by the windshield. Between that and the fact that the hood didn't even fit on my car, I rejected it and got a refund after a "spirited" debate with him.

I mention that because I found out that it wouldn't exactly be cheap to have a body shop open the back section of the hood to let cold air in and finish it out properly. If your hood is made by the same company, the overall quality is questionable.

Do you have the air box on the hood? If so, all you need is the set up shown by Jughead in Post #5 of the thread you linked. With the drop base, the hood should drop over the carb and the filter element should be inside the airbox. If you're trying to close the hood over a full air filter assembly with a lid on it, that's not going to work. What part of the assembly isn't fitting?

bluedawg

I have the l88 high rise. I fit the the rpm air gap with a 4'' filter on a drop base. You should be able to fit the air gap with a drop base and 2'' filter. Sorry about the multiple photos. Trying to figure out the new app.