Got bored waiting for the Vararam induction system..

I think if you do this, you should make sure that you have a foam seal between the top of the airbox and the hood.

The reason is that otherwise you are going to be drawing the hottest underhood air that comes up from the engine and sits right under the hood (hot air rises). You don't want to pull that air in, but rather the air from lower down near the front of the hood, which is why the stock airbox cover pulls from its lower front. Cold air is denser and thus makes more power.

I noticed when studying the K&N air intake systems, that regardless of which model truck they were designed for, they ALWAYS try to shield the air intake from that hot right-under-the-hood air (check it out on their website - they include a metal shield with a foam lip that seals to the underside of the hood when th hood is closed)

The Vararam designer has pointed out to me that the stock airbox has a significant design flaw: although the rectangular filter provided is fairly large, the design only actually pulls air from about a 5 inch diameter portion of the filter, due to the duct shape behind it. IF he is right, then the best strategy MIGHT be to:

- Provide ONE large opening (as large as the stock airbox cover will accommodate), centered relative to the ducting behind the airbox

- Use a foam seal on the top surface of the airbox to at least minimize the HOT air draw from above

- Do not try to "enclose" around the new hole, as its unlikely that the engine can draw enough air to satisfy it from just a 5 to 6 inch diameter opening.

Jim G

Rebel: Two reasons I think;

1. I am not great at 3 dimensional geometry, but I suspect that there is sufficient room between the front of the airbox and the underside layer of the sloping hood to accomodate a duct of any decent cross sectiona depth

2. The whole idea behid what GM did with that airbox opening was to separate rainwater from the air before the air gets sucked into the engine. This works because the air makes a sudden turn UPWARD as it enters the airbox opening, and the heavier water droplets cannot "make the turn" and get plastered onto the vertical surface behind the opening. Any duct that draws in outside air should be shaped so that it too draws the air UP while separating out the water.

If you look at the after market Corvette air intakes, whether "bottomfeeders" or "topfeeders", they make provisons for this same issue.

What I think MAY work is to run an intake duct from the engine across to the passenger side behind the rad, and down to that flat empty plate that I suspect WAS the battery tray before GM realized the engine heat under the SSR hood would bake the battery (yes!). Cut a 4" or so diameter hole in that plate. Fasten the duct to a flange around the hole and bolted to that tray. On the OTHER (bottom) side of the tray, mount another flange onto which you can fasten (via ss hose clamp) a large cone air filter. Now, you are drawing air from in front of and underneath the engine compartment, isolated from preheating by the tray, but in FRONT of the wheel and tire, so it's clean. Since it is drawing UP, no water ingestion unless you try to ford a (deep) river.

If someone builds one, I'll test it.

Jim G