Okay guys, I have a question about my ram air hood... If you look at my pics you can see that my truck has a ram air hood, but it is not completely functional. The front nose openings are blocked by fiberglass and then they have rubber pieces glued on or something... but under the hood it has the opening for air to travel through the hood and go into a filter...

Now if your not confused enough by that all that... ^^ .. question is, do you think i could just have that fiber glass/rubber stuff cut out and get a filter system for it...

and do you think I would have to get some sort of vents on the openings or just leave it open... only thought was that maybe a complete opening may allow water or whatever else to travel through easily...

last Q i promise... Any place to get this done or where to buy vents?

 

Oh forgot to add pic...

 

ive got a buddy with an old Dodge Dart and he bought a big ol' hoodscoop and had a bodyshop install it on his stock hood and cut a hole under the scoop.

sooo my answer would be yeah it should be okay to get those spots cut out

any body shop should be able to do it for pretty cheap

however im not sure on what effect rain or the elements would have...

 

It's not hard to do...we have a '68 Firebird drag car that we were installing a ram air scoop on an alternate hood. Since you already have the scoops then either remove the fiberglass yourself, or if you don't trust your handiwork then hire it out to a bodyshop.

Same thing goes with the airbox/filter. Build your own airbox and filter setup to match the hood, and make it either where it's a vertical lift route for the air (i.e. it has to go UP thru the filter before the intake, which water is too heavy to make hard, vertical movements) or a down and to the side draft with a few holes in the corners to drain off any water. Updraft is the most effective out of ram air designs though.

Otherwise you could just make a round-type filter sit in the area of the opening, which would stay pretty dry but wouldn't force the air as much as a ram air design. But that's what most hoods do anyways since they don't seal up very well.

Again, it's up to your engineering capabilities to decide whether to try and build your own or have someone else try to do it. Sounds like fun, and I've been considering doing the same but want to wait and see if I ever drop a S/C on it first, lol.....

 

Aight.. im not to sure on my skills... may have to hire out.. I've got the Roush Supercharger... can I buy a kit to replace the roush intake i have... to make it a true ram air? or is it something i may have to peice together?

 

I haven't personally seen how the Roush S/C intake is designed, but in all honesty I think in that case you may be better off with running just the round filter element underneath the opening of the hood scoop...the super will intake as much air as needed, whether it's from the ram air of the scoops or from the air in the engine bay. The scoops will keep a good supply of fresh, cooler air (cooler than the engine bay air as well as from ground level) and should work pretty well.

The only issue that I can think of...is it the intercooled or non-intercooled Roushcharger? I don't think it really makes a difference but you never know. And did you intall the S/C or did a shop do the work? If a shop did, and they did a good job for you last time, then it may just be something that they can also do for you as well. I personally like tinkering and designing my own equipment (I originally was majoring in engineering), so again it's up to your preference.

 

If I could throw my .02 cents in here. I helped my buddy do this on his truck and after a few months after we cut the openings out, he started to get cracks in his fiberglass from us weakening the hood. We ended up building a metal insert that fit in the holes snug and secured it in. Of course the metal had holes in it to allow the air to get in there, and he got the hood repaired and repainted, 2 years later, no problems.

As far as the ram air box goes, i dont know, he wasnt really concerned about it, he was mainly using it to get more air into the engine for cooling and obviously he would have a little mor air flow going to the air filter as well.

 

Good point, if the scoops are made for aesthetics and appearance only than you do run the risk of damaging the hood, but if it's metal with fiberglass or plastic inserts then I don't see a big issue with removing all of the non-metal component.

In my opinion, if he doesn't feel comfortable doing work on his own rig, or worries that he may risk damaging it or having it wear out quickly, then take it to a shop and let their professionals (who may or may not have done this before - hey, we all had to learn how to do something at one point in our lives) do the work. In addition, they may also offer some kind of warranty or cover their workmanship down the road.

But good point DaMoose, I was thinking of a more sturdier hood design, one with metal scoops as opposed to fiberglass scoops that were doped and molded onto the metal hood. That would have a chance of cracking on the seams.

 

Hey thanks guys.... yeah I was mainly trying to get more air into the engine bay, a new filter system would maybe come later. I have the non-intercooled supercharger.

The Supercharger was already on there when I bought the truck.. (only had it 2 1/2 mo).. Dont know about any of my local shops, might have to take it to a bigger city to get it done. Do you guys know anywhere to maybe buy metal inserts or is that something I just might have to make...