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I've got a lid and and rad support sitting in my garage, ready to go in, only it won't clear my factory hood. I have heard it's easier in a Firebird than it is in a Camaro, but I have'nt seen any threads regarding Firebirds specifically. If there is one, could someone link me to it? I'd prefer to do this with minimal cutting/trimming the radiator support.
Thank you!
Buy a ws6 hood. That would be the easiest that won't require any cutting to the actual car. If not, wait until you can buy one. Lol Don't chop your car for minimal gains and a half assed approach.
buy a ws6 hood. That would be the easiest that won't require any cutting to the actual car. If not, wait until you can buy one. Lol don't chop your car for minimal gains and a half assed approach.
I decided on an aftermarket hood. Research seems to indicate it's a hit or miss if the lid will clear the bracing for the hood latch. Anyone know of any hoods that will definitely fit, no questions asked?
You will definitely need an LT1 WS6 hood, it doesn't need to be functional, and if it is, you may need to modify it to flow into this air box instead of on top of it for no benefit. Or, you might be able to use a Sunoco cowl hood, it just needs some height in the front to clear the air box, a big enough "bulge"!
Second, you will have to grind down the underside of the radiator shroud. The LS1 Camaro air box on my car would not flush up against the mount on my car, it was bowing up when I first test-fit it. So, reluctantly, I had to sand down the inner bolt holes, the air filter center support, and some other areas of the underside that were not flush. Once I was able to get it flush enough, it came together quite well! I really should drill two additional holes to bolt it down for a more flush fit, but I am happy with the two out of four bolts as is. Also, you will need to cut out the air scoop, almost as if you were installing the SLP cold air induct, which my air box was modified to use this system when I bought it!
I got all the information I needed from a youtube video with almost the same name as your thread. For more help, I have provided pictures of my installation when I finished doing it.
I have seen(and honestly sort of prefer) WS6 replica hoods that have the nostrils separated, a-la 98-02 style. I think they may be called GTO hoods. Would these work?
This style:
Also, I would want to make it as aerodynamic as possible, so I'm assuming I would either need to modify it to flow into the intake, or have my body/paint guy glass it over. Anyone with any ideas?
Last edited by PyroguyFTW; 05-31-2017 at 03:24 PM.
I have seen(and honestly sort of prefer) WS6 replica hoods that have the nostrils separated, a-la 98-02 style. I think they may be called GTO hoods. Would these work?
This style:
Also, I would want to make it as aerodynamic as possible, so I'm assuming I would either need to modify it to flow into the intake, or have my body/paint guy glass it over. Anyone with any ideas?
Good question! I have one of those hoods, but at that time I bought it, I wanted to use it with my factory air box, but that was not going to happen! The factory air box was too tall in height. The air box offered by the business was a horribly molded fiberglass piece of crap where the hood applied pressure to seal a K&N air filter on to the air box. It was a horrible set-up and a waste of money! Suffice it to say, without a real rain baffle on this hood, the air box was pooling water in it a few months later. The hood looked sweet as hell, but the LT1 style ram-air system of channeling air up and over the top of the air box is just horrible with this hood.
NOW, however, I have the LS1 Camaro factory air box where the air runs straight through and underneath the air filter element! This actually works better for this hood which was designed to shoot air directly to the air box! I looked at mine today, hanging up in the garage rafters, and the hood needs to be cut from inside with a rotary tool to make more clearance for the LS1 air box. Then, from what it looks, I need to make a small rectangular cut to the front most part of the inside of the hood, where it will sit in front of the air box, to allow the air from the front nostrils to be channeled directly to the air box, just like it appears with the LS1 Firebird WS6 hood, or maybe I can get away with cutting that entire thing out for ease. I will need to protect the rest of the air box and engine bay from the air blowing into this hood, so I will have to figure something out to direct that air to the air box intake, only!
With that air scoop gone from the radiator shroud/air box bottom, rain water can by-pass the air box and drip out in front of the secondary upper radiator plastic trim that helps channel the air from the bottom air dam to the radiator. So, my fears about pooling rain water may be a non-issue with this set-up as it is, with no SLP cold air induct installed.
I do have to warn you on fitment! This hood won't fit as clean as the factory hood, you will notice a slightly bigger gap on the sides of your fenders, and you will need to mess around with the hood adjusters, those black plastic screws that raise and lower from inside the engine bay, you will need to adjust the hood latch sliding it side by side for the best "clean" fit you can get snugging the hood up to the front bumper cover and removing another very bad gap, AND messing around with the final mounting to the hood hinges, these will help slide the hood back and fourth and side-to-side for the best possible appearance with fitment, as well as tweaking the metal headlight covers from the back, loosening the screws to raise or lower the end corners to flush up with the hood and then tighten them down!
I will soon be putting this hood back on my car in a few weeks after I get my front bumper cover patched up and repainted after a stupid boo boo on my part. Hey, stuff happens but now I am inspired to make my car look really cool and give her back her ram air flow. Maybe next time I will pay better attention to my driving with a fresh looking car.
Last edited by Phoenix'97; 05-31-2017 at 09:47 PM.
So, I will just need to trim the hood to make it fit? I don't really want to buy an aftermarket hood just to play doctor dismemberment with it. Does your LT1 WS6 hood clear with no issue? I'm not crazy about the look, but if it fits well and doesn't need cut I'll go with it.
Secondarily, as I occasionally aim for standing mile events and often find myself on abandoned multiple mile stretches that *ahem* require good aerodynamics, I don't want to sacrifice a ton by having a scoop that just sucks air into the engine bay instead of into the intake. If I'm reading your post correctly, the factory style hood just dumps into the engine bay and not into the LS1 intake, correct?
So, I will just need to trim the hood to make it fit? I don't really want to buy an aftermarket hood just to play doctor dismemberment with it. Does your LT1 WS6 hood clear with no issue? I'm not crazy about the look, but if it fits well and doesn't need cut I'll go with it.
Secondarily, as I occasionally aim for standing mile events and often find myself on abandoned multiple mile stretches that *ahem* require good aerodynamics, I don't want to sacrifice a ton by having a scoop that just sucks air into the engine bay instead of into the intake. If I'm reading your post correctly, the factory style hood just dumps into the engine bay and not into the LS1 intake, correct?
My factory LT1 Ram Air hood does clear the factory LS1 Camaro air box! To be fair, you have to "play doctor" and modify the LS1 radiator shroud/lower air box to fit our LT1 body. I don't understand why GM had to make subtle yet annoying differences to the uni-body frame between the LT1 and LS1, but they did! So, if you want a functioning Ram Air hood to work with this air box, you must use your creative talent! Otherwise the LT1 Ram Air hood is only good for helping to keep your engine bay a little cooler by shooting air up and over the top of the air box, where it won't be put to effective use by the air intake! This is why I taped off the vent covers on my hood nostrils.
In defense of the LS1-style Ram Air hood for the LT1 Firebird, BEFORE YOU START ANY CUTTING, test-fit the aftermarket hood as you receive it and determine where any additional clearance may be needed. Then you have no choice but to remove any underside obstructions of fiberglass that prevent you from closing the hood. Now, I have not test-fit this hood yet to my car! The cutting I am assuming I will have to do may not need to be done! I may only need to cut out a small opening in front of the air box so that the air that enters the hood will be directed right to the small air box opening. The only issue I will have then is sealing up the duct that directs the other air flow to over the top of the air box, for the LT1 air box set-up. I am thinking a very strong and waterproof tape, maybe gorilla tape will do it. In the future, I can have the custom shop make a better fix to the hood when I get my car sandblasted, refurbished and painted a different color in a good 10-years or less.
As an added bonus of the LS1-style Ram Air hood, I can simply deactivate this hood by blocking the nostril passages for winter driving! So, I can utilize this hood year-round without playing games of swapping hoods every 8 months.
So, again, this decision is really up to you! If you want a functioning Ram Air hood with your LS1 style air box, the LT1 Ram Air hood won't work, unless you make a small rectangular cut to directly channel the air flow into the air box! I have the factory LT1 hood so I can't bring myself to do it. I have an LS1 style hood and it's no major loss if I mutilate the damn thing, but to butcher the factory hood, not a smart move for me.
Phoenix, thank you for your input. I've started another thread dedicated to that topic to see if I can find anyone else with experience with either hood. Why don't you go over and maybe we can get a good thread going for people looking to do this in the future
Sounds like a lot of money and time for limited gains.
Well, are we all not helping the aftermarket industry in developing parts for our cars? I wish this aftermarket hood was designed for the LT1 Firebird that is using the LS1 air box. It would have made life a lot more easier, however, I need to do some modifications to make this LS1 WS6 styled Ram Air hood work with my air box, and it may be very simple or it may require more cutting on the inside than I would prefer. Either way, this is going to be low budget and later on I can have the custom shop work their magic to improve upon my fabricated work.
I do have a concern about heavy rainwater directly flowing into my cut hole to the air box, so I need to layer on some window screening on the grill covers, the cut hole, and over the opening of my radiator shroud/lower air box. Since water does cling to window screening, I figure it will help slow it down enough to get it to either collect in my hood's recessed drainage area before the cut area, or it will run out the gap between the closed hood and my shroud mounting spot, or flow past the radiator shroud and down the plastic trim that is ducting the airflow from the air damn below.
Yeah, it will be some work, but nothing too complicated. Rigging up something to get an accurate cut in the hood to match my air box opening will be a pain, but I have an idea as to how to mark those dimensions from inside the engine bay with the hood closed.
Last edited by Phoenix'97; 06-04-2017 at 10:53 PM.
I just now noticed that you're running a completely factory lid. I've got an aftermarket one without the silencers, so I guess my next question is do you have any clearance issues with just the lid? Or is the baffling/ silencers what is holding it up from just closing?
I just now noticed that you're running a completely factory lid. I've got an aftermarket one without the silencers, so I guess my next question is do you have any clearance issues with just the lid? Or is the baffling/ silencers what is holding it up from just closing?
It is a little tight with the baffle installed but the hood closes, you have to be firm and press down on it. I bought this set-up because it was cheaper than trying to buy an SLP lid with the A.I.R. hose plug in.
Without the baffle, the hood will close without issues with the factory lid, however by design I need that baffle and my A.I.R. hose needs it too. As far as the SLP style lids, they are slightly taller than the factory lids since they are designed to be smooth and to flow more so you might encounter hitting when shutting the hood but from what I have read from other posts on this site, they can shut the hood, you just have to apply more pressure than you want.
Well, are we all not helping the aftermarket industry in developing parts for our cars? I wish this aftermarket hood was designed for the LT1 Firebird that is using the LS1 air box. It would have made life a lot more easier, however, I need to do some modifications to make this LS1 WS6 styled Ram Air hood work with my air box, and it may be very simple or it may require more cutting on the inside than I would prefer. Either way, this is going to be low budget and later on I can have the custom shop work their magic to improve upon my fabricated work.
I do have a concern about heavy rainwater directly flowing into my cut hole to the air box, so I need to layer on some window screening on the grill covers, the cut hole, and over the opening of my radiator shroud/lower air box. Since water does cling to window screening, I figure it will help slow it down enough to get it to either collect in my hood's recessed drainage area before the cut area, or it will run out the gap between the closed hood and my shroud mounting spot, or flow past the radiator shroud and down the plastic trim that is ducting the airflow from the air damn below.
Yeah, it will be some work, but nothing too complicated. Rigging up something to get an accurate cut in the hood to match my air box opening will be a pain, but I have an idea as to how to mark those dimensions from inside the engine bay with the hood closed.
Yea I had a 95 LS swapped car and switched to the LS intake setup. Had a aftermarket SS Camaro hood and it was a tight fit.
05-28-2017, 11:05 AM
LS1 lid on an LT1 Trans Am: What do I need? 
