What is Ram Air

[ikeyballz]

yeah..im sure if you start doing some mods, that 8hp gap will start to increase with the CAI effect, not the ram air.. so cai will always be better than ram, but ram will be better than no cai once the mods are done to it..

[DVS LT1]

I always considered the biggest benefit of the olde school ram air systems on the LT1 Firebirds & Firehawks as being the shortest and most direct path to the TB. Instead of being channeled and directed through a maze of connected twisted tubing, you basically had a large square and open air filter box sitting atop the radiator, being fed through an opening in the hood directly in front and sending the air charge through a straight 4-5” adapter tub directly into the TB (with the MAF sensor somewhere in between). There’s literally probably less than a foot and a half of distance between the actual TB and the point where the air is entering through the hood inlet. AND the path is very straight.

My old air induction system was a Moroso CAI. I always wanted to cut out a hole right below the air filter and attach some sort of mini-scoop to direct more air up into the chamber (giving the CAI and ram air intake in a sense - never got around to it). I’ve got an Ultra-Z hood now sitting around for when the car finally gets put back together & on the road, and I picked up an old Firehawk ram air intake assembly to make it functional, cause I figured I might as well (????). I’ve thought about whether or not I’m going to be losing or gaining power by going this route… maybe losing a bit on the low end. But I’m doing everything I can to get the most out of the ram air setup – cutting off all the cross sectional plastic pieces across the air intake assembly lid (to expose as much of the K&N air filter that will be dropped in); taking a dremel to the hood inlet where there’s at least a half-inch of composite material around the actual inlet “hole” of the hood that can be taken off (thus allowing more air to enter through the widened inlet); completely removing a sort of chamber that came applied to the hood behind the inlet – its basically a catch basin that stops the air and forces it to go down below into another section and then behind & back up into the actual air filter. My guess is that this chamber was added to the hood to prevent large particles or excess dirt/rain from flying directly into the air filter… but since my car is going to be a garage queen and seldom used toy (only under perfect conditions) I’m going to gut that entire chamber thereby allowing the incoming air a direct path to the air filter.

Will just have to avoid or stop in front of big clouds of dust (but we true car lovers do that anyways – we don’t want dust ever getting on our paint!)

[Firebirdlad03]

Originally Posted by cuda_dude

or you could always get blown... never a bad choice in my opinion...

thats always my choice too...

[poormillionaire2]

Originally Posted by DVS LT1

I always considered the biggest benefit of the olde school ram air systems on the LT1 Firebirds & Firehawks as being the shortest and most direct path to the TB. Instead of being channeled and directed through a maze of connected twisted tubing, you basically had a large square and open air filter box sitting atop the radiator, being fed through an opening in the hood directly in front and sending the air charge through a straight 4-5” adapter tub directly into the TB (with the MAF sensor somewhere in between). There’s literally probably less than a foot and a half of distance between the actual TB and the point where the air is entering through the hood inlet. AND the path is very straight.

My old air induction system was a Moroso CAI. I always wanted to cut out a hole right below the air filter and attach some sort of mini-scoop to direct more air up into the chamber (giving the CAI and ram air intake in a sense - never got around to it). I’ve got an Ultra-Z hood now sitting around for when the car finally gets put back together & on the road, and I picked up an old Firehawk ram air intake assembly to make it functional, cause I figured I might as well (????). I’ve thought about whether or not I’m going to be losing or gaining power by going this route… maybe losing a bit on the low end. But I’m doing everything I can to get the most out of the ram air setup – cutting off all the cross sectional plastic pieces across the air intake assembly lid (to expose as much of the K&N air filter that will be dropped in); taking a dremel to the hood inlet where there’s at least a half-inch of composite material around the actual inlet “hole” of the hood that can be taken off (thus allowing more air to enter through the widened inlet); completely removing a sort of chamber that came applied to the hood behind the inlet – its basically a catch basin that stops the air and forces it to go down below into another section and then behind & back up into the actual air filter. My guess is that this chamber was added to the hood to prevent large particles or excess dirt/rain from flying directly into the air filter… but since my car is going to be a garage queen and seldom used toy (only under perfect conditions) I’m going to gut that entire chamber thereby allowing the incoming air a direct path to the air filter.

Will just have to avoid or stop in front of big clouds of dust (but we true car lovers do that anyways – we don’t want dust ever getting on our paint!)

Well, its not a question anymore if ram air actually works, but the adverse aerodynamic affects it may cause. The ram air does work, but the scoop is the problem. It causes turbulance in front of the car, causing disrupted airflow over and around the vehicle, creating an aerodynamic loss of power. Basically, the car will be fighting more drag, than with a smooth hood. No question that your intake setup will increase airflow, but with that, is a loss also. Road-wise, your car will be the exact same as it is now. Just with a cool look and now you can say you have 'real ram-air'.

[hotrod_chevyz]

On a 70 firebird the only ram air equipment i would want is a set of heads from a ram air car.