Ever wonder if a ram air setup might help you gain some power but don't want to spend much to find out?...Or maybe you want something you can easily swap on at the track to find that last tenth and then throw in the trunk till next time out......A few years back I put a 69 Mach 1 scoop on my 68 mustang and wanted to make sure I was getting the full benefit of the opening in the hood...I wanted to seal it up to keep out the hot air and maybe even get a little "ram" effect at speed but I needed to mock something up to get an idea of what parts I would need to fabricate....My wife had an some old cookie sheets that had lost there non stick coating so she donated those.I'm sure you can find some if you do some digging in the cupboards...................
Next I did some measuring to figure out where I need the center hole to be to match up the carb to the opening in my hood..I layed an air cleaner to carb gasket on the cookie sheet,outlined it and cut open a hole with a jig saw.I threw on some black paint to make it pretty and maybe disguise it a little from my buddies...
Setting it on the engine it was kinda racy looking!
After closing the hood I had about a 2 1/2 inch gap between the cookie sheet and the hood....I needed something that would fill the gap and give me a seal to the hood.....Foam would be the obvious answer here for most but I wasn't sure where I could get some on short notice and I wanted something that was non flammable...It also had to be somewhat flexible for engine movement and I wanted something that wouldn't damage the hood in the event of a broken motor mount....I took a trip to my local Canadian Tire store(sorta like a pep boys)......After doing lots of looking around I ended up in the houseware section once again looking at cooking stuff...There were some cool looking chrome metal bowls that would have worked but I wanted something that would crush a little for safety.....Then I saw some turkey roasting pans!...It was the perfect size,was non flammable and crushable...Better yet it was cheap at under $5 bucks........
I cut a hole in it using the gasket like before and a pair of old scissors...The cookie tray supported it nicely as was too flimsy to sit on its own on top of the carb.
I had a 10 inch air cleaner setup that fit nicely up inside the scoop...It had a K&N E-1065 filter which is a stock filter for an S-10 I believe and I picked it up in a bargain bin at a parts store.
The finished product seemed to work well...I wish I would have gotten some back to back timeslips at the track to see exactly how much difference it made but I haven't made it back to the track since...On a G-tech and a back road it was worth a about 3 tenths and 5 mph for what thats worth.........I left it in place once for a local show and shine expecting lots of laughs and eye rolling.....Much to my amazement I don't think anything short of a polished 671 blower could have attracted so much attention....Lots of people looking it over very carefully in bewilderment and then nodding approval when I explained what it was for........I did get a few smart alecky questions about how long I would have to drive to actually cook a turkey.........
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1968 mustang..408 windsor.Vic jr heads and intake.Pro Systems 950HP holley, 1 3/4 hooker super comps,Custom CI solid roller camshaft,Probe shaft rockers, 4 speed with 4:11 detroit locker.
