Many of you aren't aware your engine is offset 1-1/2" to the right. As the engine bay in a C3 isn't large enough to center the engine and still have it miss the steering box all of the engines are offset. The rear of the engine is also angled several degrees toward the driver's side to better center the drive shaft in the tunnel. As I had my hood off recently to work on my ram air hood I snapped this picture so you can see the 1-1/2" offset for yourself.

My ram air hood came out great on my 3rd try so now it is finished and I can start another project. The two large fiberglass "dimples" were added to provide clearance to the top of my fan shroud and the top coolant tube assembly.

 

It actually looks like a lot more than 1&1/2 inches offset in that picture.

 

The hoods looking good!

 

I thought it was off center to give the driver a little more leg room.

Looking good.

 

nice fabrication! The engine is over to give a straight shot at the diff. pinion

 

The hood is looking good. Nice work.

 

Thank you for your kind words. After I made the first hood plate I found I had located the air cleaner opening wrong and had to make it again. But when I fastened my 2nd hood plate to the hood I found it was hitting the top of the fan shroud and top coolant hose assembly HARD so I painstakingly hammered out two 5/8" deep dimples into the 22-gauge steel which caused distortion all around the air cleaner opening and the tops of the dimples were still hitting the shroud and top hose. Crap! So I made a 3rd plate but this time made two 7/8" deep fiberglass "dimples" and bonded them to the top of the plate.

I also had to modify my air cleaner base by adding a shelf and "lip" for the hood plate to seal against then used a long piece of 1/8" hydraulic hose (split open on the underside) to cover the sharp edge. Then I glued 1/2" X 7/8" weatherstripping around the air cleaner opening on the hood plate so I have a rubber-to-rubber seal.

It took me a whole month of 10 hour days to modify my hood and air cleaner base and about $75 in materials but in the end it came out perfect. As the air cleaner is completely sealed it inducts cool air from in front of the radiator under pressure (1" Wc at 60 mph) which boosted my fuel mileage by an astonishing 3-1/2 mpg at freeway speeds. The first thing I noticed was the lack of the familiar ROAR under a heavy throttle but that's no big deal.

 

Now I'm wondering why I got such a huge fuel mileage increase. Was it the cooler air or the pressurized air or a combination of both? I was hoping for a 1 mpg increase so when I got 3-1/2 mpg I was shocked. As these aftermarket hoods are all made differently a project like this is a trial-and-error type of job.

After I installed the Air Gap and L-88 hood I found my air cleaner lid was hitting the underside of my hood HARD so I removed about 5/8" from the lip of the base and heavily dimpled it to clear the float adjustment screws. But it still hit so I machined 1/4" off the top of my manifold which finally gave me 1/8" clearance. So this whole thing has been a real adventure.

 

I have an aftermarket taller hood, but i ran into clearance probems using my tall single plane and a 1/2 inch wood 4 hole thermal spacer. So out went the 3 inch K&N filter and I bought the 2 inch tall K&N with the air filter cover to keep the free flowing cfm up. I'd never destroy a manifold by machining when you have so many other options.

I also use the dropped base K&N air filter bottom.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/knn-66-1401/overview/