Hi all,

I've been toying with the idea of making my own fresh air intake system. Car is a '71 Satellite with six pack setup (factory six pack air cleaner assembly). I don't want to cut a hole in the hood, but prefer running some flexible hose from the grille area to the air cleaner. Has anyone done this and, if so, can you please post some pics of your setups? As always, thanks for any suggestions.

Roger

I take it you have no interest in putting on an air grabber hood setup?

I've seen some nice ones done, but all have involved cutting a hole through the rad support or inner fender to route the pipe through. Is that an option for you?

I always had an idea to take a stock air cleaner, weld some 3" bungs on each side facing sideways and use some pipe to draw air in through the block off plates on the inner fenders. Could put an elbow in to draw air in from behind the headlight area. Heck, if I was inclined I could even do a hellcat style headlight air intake.

I was hoping there may be a way to do this without cutting any factory metal. As for the air cleaner assembly itself, I'm thinking I may be able to build a fiberglass housing which would fit over the stock pieces, and have connections for the intake hoses on each side. Just thinking out loud here.

Actually, in looking at this more closely, there is a 4" by 3" opening on each side, near the front, below the alternator on the passenger side:



And below the battery on the driver's side:



If I used both of these, would the openings be large enough not to restrict the air flow?

I don't see how you can grab outside air without cutting through something. 71-72 Satellite has two very nice looking options for factory outside air intake, perhaps you'd be better off taking another look at one of those.

Sorry, after my previous reply, I added a few pics. Wondering if the existing holes would be large enough?

Do you have any names or links on factory options? I do have a spare hood that I could modify. I was just trying to keep this reasonably priced.

There is always a way to do it with enough time and $$$.

You could fabricate a scoop that fits under the car with the inlet under the bumper and route a hose up from the bottom or mount something ahead of the radiator.

On my Charger, I bought a Fiberglass hood with a '69 440 Six Pack Scoop and fabricated a base plate mounted under the carb and mounted fire-resistant dense foam seal between the plate and underside of the hood.

Of course, you want to keep your hood intact.

Some people have removed a headlight and run a hose from the opening to the engine.

I have used the upper con arm access holes for fresh air before, although not on a 6bbl. On a couple of different 4bbl cars, I used an older GM diesel truck air cleaner assembly, grafted on a drop base and grafted on a pair of the cold air ports from a Diplomat and used the hoses from the Diplomat to the access holes. Almost everything came from the pick-a-part yards.

It wasn't pretty, but was totally functional. But your 6bbl set-up will make it a lot more difficult to seal the carbs, I think.

If you can do a battery relocation to the boot (or spend big on a Lithium style battery, they be very small), the air cooling hole for the battery is a good place to start, not sure on a satellite, but the hole on my fury is aprox 3x4 inches or 12 square inches, rule of thumb: each square inch will flow 115 cfm. So 1380 cfm for my car, I doubt it would be much smaller on yours, you would then need a 3 1/2" pipe (1068cfm) or bigger to the air cleaner, a 3" would flow 780 cfm. A velocity stack or bellmouth on the front would help alot too

I would think two 3" pipes would be sufficient, have one breathing in from each side. Making/routing the piping and upper air cleaner housing in such a way that it doesn't look out of place would be the challenge. Not sure about breathing in straight wheel well air if you ever have to go through water. Perhaps an elbow or baffle to keep water out? Then again the water would have a hard time travelling 1 foot uphill to your carb.

I know it isn't show worthy, but it accomplished what I wanted. All from Home Depot. Dryer vent and rain gutter connectors. Went to factory cutout at quarter panel on driver's side, and my sawsall made the same size hole on other side at rad support. Both went under bumper, which showed a bit, but worked for me. I was going to use the high beams spot and just remove the high beams and put a black grille over them but changed my mind.

I know it probably looks like crap to most, but living in Florida with brutal Summers, I wanted some cooler air badly enough. Here's the outside with the same connectors used at the air cleaner mounted under the bumper. This car was my only car and used daily.

Larry, once upon a time I did a similar thing to my Daytona, granted I was 16 at the time. I found my forward facing pipe under the bumper only served to fill my air cleaner up with mosquitoes! Took it off after the first test run.

I was 25 when I did it, but with the mentality of a 16 year old, lol. I didn't have any problem with any more bugs than usual.

I'd like to make note that the Volvo next to my car is NOT mine!

NASCAR cars get their engine air from the bottom of the windshield where the air pressure is supposed to be high. The air intake is a grille just forward of the windshield, feeding into ducts to the air cleaner. The air cleaner housings look to be fiberglass.

I've seen a street racer getting engine air the same way using ducts from the factory fresh air grille in front of the windshield.

If I'd stick a barometer at the bottom of my windshield, I wonder how much higher the air pressure would be there? Might be mini supercharger quality at 100 mph...

I went that route, pretty easy on my application:

Does that make it an Extra-long ram?

Paging Dr. Oldsmobile!

Go back to around 1969 and look at the 442 ram air setup. There it is. On the silver car you can just about see the two scoops under the bumper.

My 1970 Buick GS455 has the two scoops in the hood. They looked cool but had so much flow restriction that they supposedly didn't provide any ram effect at all. But I guess cooler air is better so maybe there was a benefit. I couldn't tell, because at the time the 55mph speed limit was killing all the fun.

R.

Ram air and "fresh" air are two very separate items.....

Most older fords had a screw on snorkel in a variety of shapes, angles, etc, about 2 1/2 x 4". I've used that to make my own 'ram air' or dual inlets. Dryer vent hose will collapse under certain conditions. 73-87 GMC/Chevy p/u trucks had a nice longer hose, about 3 1/2-4" (6 cylinder from the pass side, V8 from the drivers side, I think). Always wondered about using woodworking dust collection hose, seems nice and strong, but flexible.

Here's mine. 67 Satellite with a RamAirBox housing. It uses a standard 3" drop base and top. Hose came from Lowes HVAC dept, as did the funnel scoops which are riveted to the rad. core. Yes, I had to cut the holes.... Its just an old car.

Check these guys out: http://www.ramairbox.com/