Ram Air

With a little spare time, parts and ingenuity, I've come up with another version of Ram Air.  Here are the parts that I used:

1. Spare Headlamp assembly. 2. Spare Air Box 3. 2.5" Shop Vac Hose 4. 2.5" Shop Vac Coupling 5. Screening 6. C-Clamp 7. Rubber Cement

This system draws air from where the stock front parking light is located.  It is not missed with the yellow side marker and fish tank lense modification.  

I started with a donor headlamp assembly clamped in a bench vice, useing a Dremel with a plastic cutter to rough cut the opening.  I removed the remaining  lense, all the way to the the outside edge of the opening with course round sandpaper on the Dremel.  I then smoothed it out with a higher grit paper. After that I turned it over and drilled out the stock housing using a 2 3/8" hole saw.  Once the hole is cut, use the Dremel to make one side of the hole slightly larger.  This will allow you to insert the flexible tubing inside the lip of the opening.  If you do it right, it will be snug and won't come all the way through from the back.

Next the lower air box goes in the vice.  My donor box came off of an 89.  Since the 89 didn't have ABS one of the mounting brackets was in the way of the ABS computer mounting bracket.  The bracket on the airbox got cut off with an hack saw and then the edges were sanded smooth with the bench grinder.  The opening for the ACT sensor also needed to be moved because of interference from the ABS computer.  The old hole also had to be covered. I used a 2.5" hole saw to drill a hole in the front right-hand side of the box.  I wrapped screening around the end of the coupling, securing it with a hose clamp, then slid it through the hole in the airbox. Again, I had to make the hole a bit larger to get the screening through there.  I then put several coats of black ABS cement around the opening to seal the air in and to keep the coupling in place.

That's pretty much it!  I cut a 7" piece of 2.5" Shop Vac hosing with an end fitting.  The end fitting slides into the coupling and the other end gets fitted inside the back of the headlight opening.  Pretty straight forward.  I first installed the airbox and cover, then inserted the headlamp assembly with the hose in from the front.  The two line up very easily.   The hose looks like it's too long, but it scrunches up when you push the headlamp assembly into place.  Before installing it I also roughed up the headlamp opening, then taped it off and hit it several times with black paint. The difference is slightly noticable over 60 mph or so.  Time will tell, as I get some more highway runs in..

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