Ram air hood ..thoughts/ideas ????

[Hottrucks]

Originally Posted by jgmc

Put a 72 front bumper on it and run some ducts from the turn signal holes.

another good idea but I think that would be best done for brake cooling on one of the truck series trucks....

[oldblue1968chevy]

Get a GMC grille and take out 2 of the headlights and run a duct, saw this done on a car on the powerblock.

[Hottrucks]

I saw that too!! another good idea but I want to stay with a cowl type hood....I'm going too keep with the stock looking hood and see if ?? I can come up with something new without major mods to the body lines I'm not a fan of cowl lloking hoods since like was said already MOST are just for looks ( and I don't like them on our trucks) ...this is where I'm coming from..ALL hot rods that are pre 1940 have heat issues and I've built a "few" and drove the hell out of them in all weather conditions..what I have found theres a few things that must be addressed from the minute get go...Keep it cool fans and shouds are manditory..also getting cool air to the carb in a small engine bay can be a beeoch but worth it if you want it to run right

Beside why be normal and follow the trends sometime we need to think outside the box...right now my hold up from building this is that I'm doing a caddy trans plant and motor location isn't known...I think this could be made up in an evening with a break...I have it built in my head and I think that I can do it with out even welding to the hood by using the supports to screw too..I waas even thinking if it was a fiberglass piece you could snap it under the hood supports the all would be needed was to use a hole saw so the air can pass though the front hood support in the location I pointed to in the pics

[Quackaddict]

All very cool ideas, they all take a little fab work for sure. I always like the car hoods with the scoops facing towards the sides with the box built around an open 14x3 look myself. But have had the regular forward facing ram air hoods. When you looked down the scoops you could see the air filter.

[Hottrucks]

the only problem with those is rain.... but I like the look on your......truck

[Dieselwrencher]

That's kind of like mine was on my ford. And yes rain was a huge problem, let a lone when you wanted to wash the truck.

[Kel's 72 GMC]

Originally Posted by Hottrucks

another good idea but I think that would be best done for brake cooling on one of the truck series trucks....

Yeah but thats prolly the best way to do it with out messing with the lines of the truck and its also a very good method. Oldsmobile did it on 442's in the late 60's early 70's. Check out the air cleaner and hoses. and also in the 2nd pic of the air inlets under the front bumper.

[Hottrucks]

I think its time for me to mock something up there calling for rain tomorrow it will be a good day to play...but no laughing at the duct tape

[DangerBoy]

Definately post pics as you go! I have plans to do the caddy swap in the next few months and have been rackin my brain on how to set up this type of air inlet.

[Hottrucks]

check my build for a pic of my Caddy .....I still have the 283 in it but I'll do some card board mock up the hole for the air cleaner can be cut where ever it needs to be

[Hottrucks]

ok NO LAUGHING!!

here it is the air now comes up into hood support that is cut out in front of the rad ( straight up) as shown before the back of the hood support is opened up to feed the air into the spinach box though the M&M box that is open in the back.....
I wanted it to be all one piece but that cant happen because of the way are hoods close which is down and back so I had to fab another box to receive the cool air....if you notice in the second pic the box on the hood slides inside the air cleaner box ( a piece of rubber could seal this box to the hood)...

Ok now you can tell me I'm nuts.....I'm going to stare at it some more???

[Hottrucks]

ok 1 more this is what it looks like when the hood is closed...thank god for no inners??

I think that if it had a taper so the front was a bit narrower than the air cleaner box it would clean up the looks also maybe rounding the bottom corners of the box instead of using a break to bend it??

Oh and it wasn't make from tape and card board?

[hdzammo]

i think if you can pull it off it will be a great idea but it sounds like it will be difficult. i used the spectre setup and put it through the front grill.

[hdzammo]

also where the air comes in it will need to be wider going into the air cleaner to not restrict the air.

[Hottrucks]

Again very Kool...but I think this is a pretty easy build???and I'm no fabricator...a fab guy could whip this out in ???? under 2 hours easy....I'm just playing with NEW ideas

I have been doing some figuring/measuring and I think I can make it out of one piece of steel 2'x4' but it would be close....I want to build it but I have no idea where the air cleaner is going to be?? I think it will be further forward which is no biggie I can just trim the M&M box....

measurements
Air tunnel
17 1/2" wide ( this is the narrow end of the hood supports)
21" from the hood to the back of the tunnel (M&M box)
4" tall Even with the hood support clears rad
Air cleaner box
17 1/2" the air cleaner box has to be the same width
19" long this will get you close to te fire wall
??? H this will depend on your air cleaner and how much rizer under it

I think that the width could be narrowed up some my Air cleaner is 14" and sits about 4" below the hood so air would be available in front and over top into the back

[Hottrucks]

keep in mind stock air cleaners only have about 1 1/2" or so all the way around them

[Andy4639]

Where is the air going to come from? You going to cut holes in the support on the motor side and bottom side? You will need the whole bottom cut out to funnel into the center to the carb.

[Hottrucks]

If you look at the pic in post 7 you'll see that you can cut out the hood support on the bottom and the backside..I dont think that you are going to remove enough to make it weak...

[Andy4639]

You would need almost the whole bottom cutout and then make the hole going toward the motor just big enough to stay inside the hood supports going back to the carb. With no more opening there is between the radiator and support you are going to need as much air flow as you can get all the way across the support area to give the motor enough breathable air.

[Hottrucks]

I agree Andy.....I'm sure I could open up a hole on each side of the hood latch pin where my finger is pointing each hole would be about 12" x 2 1/2" if you look at your hood you can see the area I'm talking about....on the boxed side it would be open 16"X4" leading to the AC..I'm no math wiz to figure out the CFM you could get though the holes but since a stock air cleaner or even your double snorkle is only breathing though a 3" hole and the carb is 4"ish I would think there would be enough

I do appreciate the imput...it would suck to build it if it doesn't work...



I just had a brain fart?? the A/C pump on the caddy is on top of the intake..this may bring up a differnt issue....I know in order to put this air cleaner on the caddy motor I had to add another 1" rizer under the air cleaner to get it to clear the pump?? I suppose its not an isssue since theres over 4" to the hood now?? but who knows until its in??? Dam!!

[Andy4639]

Well this is my home made cold air for the TPI. The box is a Caddy peice off a seville. I closed the factory opening up and drilled a 4" opening in the bottom of it. Used 4" pipe 90 from lowes with 2 coupling I cut the threaded part off.





4" hole is where the old voltage regulator was on the support.

[Hottrucks]

Nice job and it looks like it belongs.....

[Andy4639]

Thanks,
It took some time doing it but after it was done I think it was worth the trouble. Here is a shot of the grille off showing the opening for the cold air. Right beside the drivers head light.

[Hubscrub]

nothing wrong with being different i try every chance i can, if you can build it go for it

[tasian]

i'd still try to get as much air flow as you can but i don't see how you would have a problem compared to Andy's or many other peoples cold air setups and the cool factor is pretty high