Reason #1: $$$ If GM thought they could have sold enough additional units to cover the cost of the tooling and manpower needed on the assembly line by adding a ram air option, I suspect they would have. Many decisions made by auto makers (including performance divisions) are not made based on performance, but rather profit margin.

 

Unless you are driving through a flood why would the air entering via the windscreen base be any diffenent to entering via the bumper ? It's not as if it gets filtered somehow before it gets to the windscreen.

 

So you think cold air intakes don't work and if they did, GM woud have given us one straight from the factory. Well, ask any of the C5 guys who have them if they work. Of course they work and there are dyno examples using fans to simulate the outside air. As for using the hose to duct in cooler outside air, it basically comes down to fluid dynamics. I suppose that if a person wanted to cut holes right under their front bumper and place small scoops on each side, you could then direct this new outside air to a filter. A person could also use the Vortex method. Does it work? Of course it does! Ask those who put them on their C5s and had a measured increase on the dyno. Vararam was supposedly making a kit for the C4. I am unsure if they ever made it.

As for designing a kit for the C4, it would be possible to cut 2 holes in the bumper and have cone filters, that are connected by ducting, placed in this area. Why use cone filters? Well for more surface area. And then have this connect to your MAF ducting. Basically, you end up with a do it yourself vararam.

A person might also use heat extraction to get rid of some of the unwanted heat in the engine bay. How you might ask? Well, either by strategically placed hood vents or or by using a heat extraction hood that would allow the heat to escape the rear of the hood. Do heat extraction hoods work? Of course they do! Ever notice how the cars that race all pretty much have hoods designed for heat extraction.

I can't believe someone said that if it could be designed better that GM would have provided it for us. Hmmm, can you say better exhausts, headers, heat extracting hood, brake vents, etc. It all comes down to costs as someone said. Give them this and if they want more they, we the consumer, can pay for it.

 

Cold air intakes do work, if the design actually increases airflow, keeps air cool, and retains air velocity. Comapring C5 systems to C4 systems is an apple to oranges comarison. The design of the C5 creates alot more space to work with, both in terms of putting a bigger filter i.e. "blackwing" and clearance under the hood for more direct ducting of the air. These systems simply don't fit on a C4 application, if they did these companies would be advertise this as they would love our money too.

Furthermore, the LSx intake manifold and heads are much, much more responsive to this mod than even the LTx C4's. The real advantage the LSx engines bring to the table is their air flow. The L98 and LTx engines require porting of the manifold and heads to take real advantage of the increased airflow.

 

There is nothing wrong with the stock air intake, its the TPI intake manifold that is the restriction and if you've got a LT1 then you've got nothing to worry about. You want better air flow to the intake? Get a high rise hood and a carb.

 

 

 

 

now that's tight!

 

I did a write up some time ago but it seems to have been lost on the forum. I will try to explain the process in steps.

The reason I did this modification was to get more cool air into my air to air intercooler for my supercharger. The air to air intercooler sits in front of my radiator and pre heats the air going to the radiator. The supercharger kit came with a diverter to split the air coming from the factory air dam so that half is diverted to the air to air intercooler and the other half to the radiator. I needed cool air into the air to air intercooler.

I looked at the forced air intake and for what they wanted for the kit, at the time it was $450.00, I thought I could do something similar for next to no cost.

Tools needed:

1. Dremmel (or similar tool) I recommend Sears brand (some of the kits come with attachments).
2. Flex shaft attachment (looks like a dental tool attachment)
3. Drill bit that fit’s the flex shaft attachment
4. Cutting wheels (thin that fit the above attachment about the size of a silver dollar, they are sold in packs)
5. Lead pencil or white correction pen
6. Shop light or flash light
7. Painters tape

The tools pay for themselves after just this one job considering the $450.00 cost previously mentioned.

I took the filler plate with the Corvette name and taped it off with masking tape. I wanted to keep the name and make a cross hair. This helps the plate from flexing. I used a dremmel (Sears brand) with the flex shaft and cutting wheel. Take your time cut a little less at first you can trim more after the initial cuts. You will be essentially cutting out four squares. As a side note I drew up several patterns and this simple one allowed the most air to pass through. You can also dress it up with ss or aluminum screening behind the plate when you are finished. I was looking for maximum air flow.

Next trace your license plate attached to your factory attachment points. Remove plate. IMPORTANT - I left the tabs for the license plate bolts in place if ever I should have to mount the plate. I then used the cutting wheel to cut out the plastic behind the plate leaving the mounting points in place. Try to take our in one piece in case you should want to put back in place in the future.

Now you will be facing a grid or egg crate plastic bumper enforcement. Using the dental attachment with the cutting drill bit and cutting wheel remove the section of material behind the license plate. The grid material is gray in color. I painted everything remaining black.

The next step use the light to look inside the opening. You should see a black steel bar(DO NOT CUT). You will be cutting the area underneath it. I placed a small thin board in front of the air to air intercooler as a safety, it was not needed. I then proceeded to use the flex shaft with the drill bit and made an outline of roughly a upside down triangle. Take your time and take a few brakes. I then just connected the holes with the bit until that piece was removed. If you wanted you could use some flex hose to the air filter cover from the opening giving you the forced air you were looking for.

Taking your time it should not take more than a few hours. You will also have the pride of telling someone you did the job your self. It is not a difficult process, I thought it was a fun Saturday project. It did help to cool things down for my supercharger.

I hope this helps. If you look at my pictures you will see a close up of the front plate filler and the parts removed from the bumper. Good luck!

 

That looks effective at the entry area but it appears to me that the restrictive part is where the wide area of the air intake necks down to become round to attach to the MAF. This seems to be the area that is to small. I will not be doing serious mods to the engine so the "ram air" effect that this cutting would provide is over kill, and it still dosent fix the necked down restrictive spot? Do you see what I'm trying to get at?? I think your idea looks okay and probably works well for you mods I just wonderd if anyone had made anything like I thought of before, it is a 23 year old car and people try all sorts of stuff on here!

 

Thank you.

 

No one here (especially me) ever said cool air / ram air isn't good. All I said was, scoops below the bumper or in the bumper isn't good for sucking moisture when it rains.

What's the use explaining again. What ever floats your boat baby, do what you think is best

 

A couple of years ago, someone here on the forum actually did a dyno test with the a/o kit. He used a leaf blower to simulate the "ram air" effect.

Going off of memory, he did pick up ~five horsepower to the rear wheels when they did a pull with the leaf blower.

I had the a/o kit on my former 87. I had zero problems with rain or anything else related to that particular setup. When you stood in front of the car you could hear it sucking air.

I give it a

 

Come on guys, lets hold off on the ghetto ricer mods. If you want your car to go faster. Do something to the motor or the exhaust. And that stuff normally costs some money. There isn't much you can do to your car that doesn't cost some amount of money.

 

tarheelracer
Occupation
"I'm a Christian, so if I don't ever act like it on here, call me on it."
Your phone is ringing.

Shimy 86 Cold air intake ??
“I was looking last night and wondering if anyone has fabricated a better way.”

Most of us were just trying to help answer Shimy 86’s question.

 

 

Sorry if I came off the wrong way. I'm just trying to help some fellow enthusiasts avoid the trap, which we have all fallen into, of doing some things to our cars that we regret simply because we have the itch to mod but not the willingness to spend the cash on quality parts

You all know what I'm talking about. If someone wants to go around cutting up all of their fiberglass and bumper to get 50 more cfm into a TPI that never could use up all of the air that it had in the first place then go for it. But I'm telling you, you're probably going to regret it. Basic layouts on the car were designed that way for a reason, and honestly a new design for a cold air intake has been a frequent topic for years. And the discussion usually ends with the same conclusion. Its a decent design that's hard to improve upon without butchering a perfectly good car. I say, spend all of that effort on something that will actually make your car go faster or run better, new brakes, headers, roller rockers, tires, pistons, super rams........There are 500hp vettes that are getting enough air through the basic stock setup to feed their monster motors.

So in that case, I'm not going to give a guy a false sense of encouragement to go do ghetto ricer mods on what is already a beautiful car. IE, mods that are cheap or free, don't do anything to improve the car and often make the car worse, but simply give the owner the satisfaction that he is modifying his car. Not trying to offend anybody, just trying to help. We do all want different opinions right?

 

Every city in America is nice enough to leave these nice pieces of steel hanging up on poles, they look like this:



Get one or two of those and make a few heat shields for the intake. :P

But seriously, I have seen that done (not with speed limit signs) on MK2 Jettas before since, well, they simply DON'T make cold air intakes for them.

It'll look a little weird, and I don't know if It even really works, but it made sense at then time.

 

You guys should look on the thread "My Bonneville Project".. The guy is building a car to race for a speed record on the salt flats. He is using a ram air system that he custom built...it is a triangular shaped hole in the hood just about where the ribbed collar would be right in front of the throttle body. It looks pretty bad a$$, and is ramming a ton of cold air right into the throttle body at about the highest air pressure location on the hood. Not for me, but you want ram air, that's it!