Im planning on getting rksports ram air hood and it seems that everything ive read says you need to modify the stock air intake. Im just wondering what it is that you have to do, from my guess i can obviously just get an aftermarket intake. But what im really wanting to know is, is it possible to keep the stock intake setup with this hood?
Im more of the image orriented person when it comes to cars, not so much preformance.
I have an 05 ecotec cav. if that helps
you dont need to modify anything when putting that hood on, unless you want to incorporate the ram air part. ram air doesnt do much unless your traveling at high speeds, especially with 4 cylinder.
here i have pics
that piece on the bottom if the hood is shaped the exact same way as the stock air filter box, if u dremel it out and put some weather stripping around it, the hood will seal over the intake and all the air will be coming through the hood into the intake
Ya but the air wont be filtered cause the air will be traveling behind the filter unless you turn the box up-side-down. jus better off getting a K&N.........
just get a warm air intake. the air will still flow through and into your funnel filter. wont see any huge gains or anything, but it will be somewhat efficient.
no gains are you kiddin' i have mine cut and it made a pretty big difference. and turn box upside down not filtering????? it filters and box stays as it is. you need to put atleast 3/4 inch rubber or foam seal on hood around the opening to get more air directed into intake. i also removed the lowwer intake bong and closed the stock intake opening so the hood is my only source of air intake. why pay so much for a hood and not use it for its purpose when its designed to be functional?? so yeah you need to modify if you want it functional but its not hard at all.
bret hall wrote:no gains are you kiddin' i have mine cut and it made a pretty big difference. and turn box upside down not filtering????? it filters and box stays as it is. you need to put atleast 3/4 inch rubber or foam seal on hood around the opening to get more air directed into intake. i also removed the lowwer intake bong and closed the stock intake opening so the hood is my only source of air intake. why pay so much for a hood and not use it for its purpose when its designed to be functional?? so yeah you need to modify if you want it functional but its not hard at all.
lol im guessing that you actually hurt your performance by doing that..thats one of the stupidest things i think ive heard
the aerodynamics of the cavalier simply dont allow it to give you much of a gain...most of the air goes right up over that little scoop
for the sunfire too for that matter since thats what car you have
alot of the air is also deflected towards the sides of the car
keep f body parts on f bodies.
-Borsty
actually it did help in performance alittle, it was noticable. and i do have a k&n filter in the stock location. you know i bought some kinda stupid things for my car like z3 that look good and dont do nothing. the rk sport rear spoiler like i need all the downforce of a space shuttle launch on the rear. but i must say the hood works and i am completely happy with its looks and performance. and doesnt it make you wonder why the opening and all the under hood ducting and it magically lines up to the stock air box?? and frankly if mines the only functional hood on a sunfire then i'm happy.. hope i'm not the only one thats done this but i'm not disappointed at all in my decision at all....
Ok, closing the bottom of the stock intake isn't a good idea. There's just nothing to be gained from restricting further airflow.
That aside though, I have no doubt that the Sunfire hood draws in a fair amount of air. If the airflow just shot up and over the scoop, I doubt it would collect snow the way it does in the winter.
It's no shot of nitrous or anything, but it's definitely a nice source of cool air.
In my case, I've got a K&N cone filter on the end of the S-tube there where the hood drops the air so there's no closed system like what it was designed for.
In the stock setup though, if you cut the top of the air box where the hood mates up with it, the air is still filtered through the stock paper filter (or K&N drop-in filter). That forward part of the airbox dumps air to just below the stock filter. I'm really not even sure why that section even exists on the stock car. It has to be some sort of baffle to tune the engine noise or something.
i kind of did it in stages first the hood. then i cut the opening a week later. then after like another week i got some gasket material and sealed around the opening. then about a month later after that i was changing my tires and peeked behind the wheel well. and thought if i already had the hood open and directing air into the intake why not cut all this maze of duct work out. so i did and sealed off the bottom of the air box where it went in. so all in all it took me close to two months to do it but it worked out great for the car. wish i could dyno my hood so see what it does. it's not alot but every little bit helps. hope to see you guys at the indy bash. i'll give you a ride so you can see for your self.
i called rk today for pricing on mounts and ask about their stand point of the hood for our cars. frank my sales guy said to cut the opening seal it and they recommend a k&n filter and your set. as far as the lowwer ducting they never took that out. they noted gains in the car. so thats from the folks that built the darn thing. i think they know what they are doing. also noted if you buy the hood and dont cut it they care neither way, and they appreciate our business.
bret hall wrote:i called rk today for pricing on mounts and ask about their stand point of the hood for our cars. frank my sales guy said to cut the opening seal it and they recommend a k&n filter and your set. as far as the lowwer ducting they never took that out. they noted gains in the car. so thats from the folks that built the darn thing. i think they know what they are doing. also noted if you buy the hood and dont cut it they care neither way, and they appreciate our business.
That is my set up now and it works at speeds. Do you wanna know how much air is going in? Stick your hand out the window when moving and thats the amount going through the grille. Granted it will be slowed down when it passes through the filter. But it will be cooler and a greater amount of air then in stock form.
When I was N/A it sounded deep as hell in WOT, but when I installed the S/C it got really quiet again.
>>>For Sale? Clicky!<<<
-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----
thanks mr. goodwrench. did you cut out the lowwer stock as well? just wondering. and yeah mines loud as heck, sounds good but really loud at around 50mph or so.
Taking out the lower part of the stock intake probably won't make any difference. My issue is with actually blocking off that air inlet. No good can come of it and there is a potential for restricting airflow.
The rush of air through the hood is only happening at higher speeds. At lower speeds, the air is being sucked through just like normal.
With that in mind, if you're restricting the airflow then you're going to lose power. If the engine wants more air than it's getting through the hole you've cut for the hood, why would you want to stop it from getting it?
bret hall wrote:thanks mr. goodwrench. did you cut out the lowwer stock as well? just wondering. and yeah mines loud as heck, sounds good but really loud at around 50mph or so.
No, as of now I am using 2 modes of way to get air into the intake. The stock (bong-style) and the ram-air opening. The more air (cooler) you got going in the air-box the more power you're going to get. Two openings are better then one since the engine is always sucking air like a vacuum.
>>>For Sale? Clicky!<<<
-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----
did someone say bong?
Also I could have sworn i read that "ram air" effect doesnt work untill 300+ mph may be wrong thou.
beer is like a chick.. well not really its just beer, it be cool thou huh?
lol 300 is a little high but your right it doesnt come into affect untill higher speeds
Dyno testing is not going to prove a thing because there is no air moving over the car because it is standing still on a dyno, now if you had a dyno in a wind tunnel with air speed at 80mph then you would be able to gauge any gain.
I am suprised no ram air hoods have been designed with scoops further towards the front of the hood where most of the air is hitting it, but it would probabally need to be lower down like right above the bumper to be effective.
bret hall wrote:i kind of did it in stages first the hood. then i cut the opening a week later. then after like another week i got some gasket material and sealed around the opening. then about a month later after that i was changing my tires and peeked behind the wheel well. and thought if i already had the hood open and directing air into the intake why not cut all this maze of duct work out. so i did and sealed off the bottom of the air box where it went in. so all in all it took me close to two months to do it but it worked out great for the car. wish i could dyno my hood so see what it does. it's not alot but every little bit helps. hope to see you guys at the indy bash. i'll give you a ride so you can see for your self.
i cant believe people actually sit around and think about how to get more power out of their intake. lets be honest here.. the difference between a stock intake system, a CAI, a WAI, or ram air is so slim that its not worth all the thought you're putting into it.. buy a cool looking WAI and tell everybody you gained some huge ass horsepower like everybody else. if you really want to spend hours on hours contemplating how to get good performance gains, consider some internal head work or visit the boost forums.
