Open Element question

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ima93chevyguy

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Edelbrock proflo open air intake with TBI spacer and cowl hood. Filter is open all around and on top.
Performance gains? No clue, don't have a way to measure temps or HP.
Coolness gains? Definitely, sounds cool because it's always sucking a ton of air :head3:
 

brningdawn

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Edelbrock proflo open air intake with TBI spacer and cowl hood. Filter is open all around and on top.
Performance gains? No clue, don't have a way to measure temps or HP.
Coolness gains? Definitely, sounds cool because it's always sucking a ton of air :head3:
Looks good to me. Did you notice any increase in responsiveness with that setup?
 

PlayingWithTBI

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Edelbrock proflo open air intake with TBI spacer and cowl hood. Filter is open all around and on top.
Performance gains? No clue, don't have a way to measure temps or HP.
Looks good to me. Did you notice any increase in responsiveness with that setup?
I have a similar setup and yes, my SOTP Dyno said I gained some, especially when it's up ~5000+ RPM. Someday, I'm gonna hook up an Intake Air Temp sensor to my EBL, and do some 0-60s with this filter and then with the stock CAI setup. IMO, the stock will choke it down more than the benefit of whatever cold air it supplies.
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ima93chevyguy

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Looks good to me. Did you notice any increase in responsiveness with that setup?
I would say the initial pedal press is a little more peppy with the rush of all the air. Highway driving I don't really notice anything. I'd honestly have to drive a bone stock one and see if it felt any different.
 

Schurkey

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What I haven't seen is much discussion on is the effects of a cowl hood combined with an open element and possibly a TB spacer vs volant vs stock. Would having a cowl hood negate some or all of the downside of pulling in hot air with the open element? I know how a cowl hood works in theory. I'm just not sure how much it would really matter in a daily driven truck vs pulling air from the fender with the stock or volant setup.

a true "cowl induction" system involves sealing the filter enclosure to the underside of the hood so the engine draws cool air from outside of the engine bay. Almost no one putting an aftermarket cowl hood on actually does this, they're usually just for clearance or looks.
THANK YOU!!!

There is zero point to having a cowl-induction hood that is not sealed to the air cleaner assembly, and with some kind of drain for rainwater/melting snow. All the OEMs sealed the ambient air intake to the air cleaner--Chevy with the Chevelles and Camaros using cowl induction, Pontiac with the TA shaker scoops, Mopar with their various cold-air intake systems, Olds with their "Ram Air" under-bumper ducting.

What nobody seems to think about, with all the air flooding into the engine compartment from a non-sealed "cold air" system like Cowl Induction, it makes the radiator air intake less effective. If you look, even stock hoods have some kind of weatherstripping at the windshield end, to prevent air from entering the engine compartment and making trouble for the radiator air.

You can pretty much give up on the idea of better performance via TBI spacers, ESPECIALLY the kind that raise the injector pods on TBI units that haven't been bored-out to Big-Block size. The EBL tuning will be far more effective assuming it's done correctly. I can't help with that. The tuning should be done in conjunction with flat-top pistons, tight squish/quench, a better cam, etc.

The single-most effective power gain other than nitrous, would be a longer-stroke crank so as to build a "383".

I have heard that the TBI heads make more power than Vortec heads below 3500 RPM. I'm not saying I believe that, but that's what I've heard. I'd drop the TBI swirl-port heads like a broken rubber. But that's me.
 

df2x4

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I have a similar setup and yes, my SOTP Dyno said I gained some, especially when it's up ~5000+ RPM. Someday, I'm gonna hook up an Intake Air Temp sensor to my EBL, and do some 0-60s with this filter and then with the stock CAI setup. IMO, the stock will choke it down more than the benefit of whatever cold air it supplies.

Personally I think you'd see the opposite result, especially if you ran the V6 intake tube for the TBI trucks that is less restrictive than the 350 part. (No idea why that was a thing) Reason being what Gale Banks touched on in that video posted earlier, cold air being more dense. I think a Volant intake would be an even bigger improvement.

But I still want to see the results of this test, you know, for science. :deal:
 

PlayingWithTBI

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Personally I think you'd see the opposite result, especially if you ran the V6 intake tube for the TBI trucks that is less restrictive than the 350 part. (No idea why that was a thing) Reason being what Gale Banks touched on in that video posted earlier, cold air being more dense. I think a Volant intake would be an even bigger improvement.
Getting more dense air into the engine is always better than hot air, I'm not arguing that point, I'm talking more about restricting the flow, especially at higher RPMs. Take a look at the port which feeds the air box in the front, and think about the angles and how far it has to go to get in the Throttle Body.

So, is denser air worth it over the restricted flow? That's what I wanna see :33:

Remember, the parking/turn signal housing is mounted right in front of the CAI port too. I think this will be an interesting test.
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Schurkey

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One of these days, I'm gonna have to pull the fender off, and see what lives inside.

I figured that the fender acted like a bigass plenum; and you're suggesting that the intake air is ducted behind/through the fender instead.
 

454cid

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One of these days, I'm gonna have to pull the fender off, and see what lives inside.

I figured that the fender acted like a bigass plenum; and you're suggesting that the intake air is ducted behind/through the fender instead.

I believe Someotherguy has said that GM used the inner ducting early on, and then dropped it.
 

df2x4

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Getting more dense air into the engine is always better than hot air, I'm not arguing that point, I'm talking more about restricting the flow, especially at higher RPMs. Take a look at the port which feeds the air box in the front, and think about the angles and how far it has to go to get in the Throttle Body.

So, is denser air worth it over the restricted flow? That's what I wanna see :33:

Remember, the parking/turn signal housing is mounted right in front of the CAI port too. I think this will be an interesting test.
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That is interesting. I never put much thought into how the air in the fender got there. I just pulled up some parts diagrams and it looks like that duct you drew the arrow to was used in both the TBI and Vortec trucks. From what I can tell it's just a short little piece that directs air into the fender cavity. But... It appears the TBI trucks got some extra ducting inside the fender that the Vortec trucks did not.

TBI 350 diagram:
https://nemigaparts.com/cat_spares/epc/chevrolet/53c-c/03/tc03-015/

Vortec 350 Diagram:
https://nemigaparts.com/cat_spares/epc/chevrolet/54c-c/03/tc03-035/

So Schurkey's "bigass plenum" assessment looks correct to me for the Vortec truck fenders, while the TBI trucks might have some extra potential restriction going on. I wonder if you'd see any improvement by removing the inner fender duct (part number 1 on the TBI diagram) and running without it, like the Vortecs do? Or is that piece necessary to secure the rest of the intake to the fender?

Another random thought... Is the cavity in the fender air tight? I'd imagine that cool air can get in there from places other than just the duct in the core support, at least with the Vortec setups.

The plot thickens... :lol:
 
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