Anyone do a switch to ram air? If so do you have to be concerned with water getting into the engine or is there a bypass valve? Does the engine sound more throaty like cold air intakes? Lastly, it probably doesn't provide much of a power boost right?

 

Are you referring to the shaker hood? . I went and made my own ram air for 10bucks at homedepo and it work like a dream. Used 3 inch ducting and one 90' degree turn.

 

No but that is an idea to consider. I was referring to hood swaps with the ram air. How is the shaker working out for you?

 

I'd be interested in seeing if there were any performance gains with a ram air system over a CAI.

 

Same here

 

I had read on the 68 GT500 with the ram air at 65mph the ram effect was like it was receiving 2 pounds of boost. I can't say how valid that is but the logic checks out.

Don't worry about getting water in your engine with the ram air, everything must still pass through the filter and I while pressure washing my engine while it was running with the filter off have even sprayed directly down the carb and it didn't even stumble. My dad, an old machinist told me at some points in an engines life doing that may be beneficial.

 

Thanks for the feedback, makes sense about the boost

 

I've heard of using water injection on gas turbines to get a boost but never in a combustion engine.

 

I'm not saying water will help your performance I'm just saying it won't cause damage to be driving on a rainy day or something.

 

I can believe that but a modern Ram Air isn't going directly into the intake like it did in 68. From everything I've seen the air is routed down to the stock location of the intake box. I'd imagine the air would lose pressure being routed in different directions. With the exception of the Shaker hood I don't think modern ram air hoods would have a significant performance gain. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd like to get a hood in the spring to replace the paint flaking off my aluminum stock hood.

I really like the look of the cowl induction hood but would rather have a ram air if it truly improves performance.

 

Ok...
So I've been doing some reading...

From what I found ram air doesn't really do anything until high speeds (illegal speeds). With the classic cars you would get the same affect as a CAI. It would bring cold air in from the outside but there was no pressure change they would start to produce boost only at extreme speeds 125 +. I've been reading alot about lamanar air flows and to get any benefit the scoops would have to be taller than 2".

Cowl Induction: Provides an escape route for the high pressure air built up at the bottom of the windshield. On the oldies they would direct the air into the air cleaner. With our cars and the filters being in the front left corner of the engine compartment the air would never make it there. The only plus I've seen is that the Cowl induction will draw heat out of the engine compartment at normal highway speeds. Decreasing under hood temperatures by as much as 20 degrees.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

 

Water injection kits used to be somewhat popular back in the day to control detonation in high compression and forced induction engines. With the advancements in intercooler systems you don't see them promoted as much as you did back then. However methanol injection setups are still pretty popular with high boost applications, still the same principle though.

Edit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_i..._%28engines%29

 

kjacobson351, Reason your dad said that about being beneificial is that an old trick to break up carbon buildup on piston tops and valves was to spray water down into the carb while car was running. If you get too much water it would stall. Guys with older Harleys still do that or use the seafoam product. Not really sure if it would do much though with all the computer constantly adjusting fuel mixture over the life of the engine