Ram Air Interface Air Box installed

[black crowe]

I finally installed the cold air induction box that goes with the raptor style hood I put on 2 years ago. Both are from Suncoast Creations. I cannot verify any HP gains yet, but I did clean the throttle body and MAF sensor while I had it all apart and did notice and improvement in throttle response for sure.

[blackSS01]

This is pretty cool, I don't see many cars set up like this

[Lunatikgixxer]

me either... i think it looks pretty sweet

[vikingramair]

Very cool!!!

[purplebat66]

very nice and the color of the hood matches pretty good with the body.

[KMdef9]

This is pretty cool, I don't see many cars set up like this

X2!

[4get gto]

Cool........I think its great that the "Hood company" offer's a cold air kit to go with thier hood.

[chknhwk01]

that looks very nice set up, that should give you a few more s

[Ramairetransam]

very nice , id just be a little concerned with the one area of the box that air wont pass through the filter at the top , other than that it sweet .

[Schmalgar]

I've always liked that setup. Looks good, bud...

[TRANS-DAD]

Very nice!!

[SMWS6TA]

So does this setup give you 2 filters? One for the "Ram Air" and the 2nd for the air that comes up from the air dam underneath?

[Schmalgar]

So does this setup give you 2 filters? One for the "Ram Air" and the 2nd for the air that comes up from the air dam underneath?

No, it's a different airbox. It seals to the hood and only pulls in air from above, through the hood. No more air from underneath...

[DIRTY JERZY]

Very nice

[Spaz]

i wonder how that works in the rain???

[BLK2KSS]

This is pretty cool, I don't see many cars set up like this

X2!

x3!

[SMWS6TA]

No, it's a different airbox. It seals to the hood and only pulls in air from above, through the hood. No more air from underneath...

If you get more coming from underneath from the air dam isn't this like funneling it through a straw? how does that give more air flow?

[Schmalgar]

If you get more coming from underneath from the air dam isn't this like funneling it through a straw? how does that give more air flow?

I think the point of it is to be a straight shot through the hood, and to help give a true ram effect. I don't know if it gives more flow necessarily, but it's the sealed ram aspect of it that's the selling point.

[black crowe]

i wonder how that works in the rain???

I have not had to drive it while it is raining since I installed it, and wondered the same thing before buying this setup. Many others must have asked the hood manufacturer the same question because it is addressed in their FAQ section and this is what is says :

Q: Will WATER get into the engine if it rains?

A: All Suncoast hoods are designed and built with water management in mind. There are internal baffles that block the water and channel it off to areas where it can drain out of the air path and not proceed into the air intake. This works because rain drops are much heavier than air so the air blows around or over the baffles while the water hits the baffles and sticks (just like hitting your windshield). Once the water has run into a surface it is generally going to hang on and be blown along the inner walls to drain locations. If you take a close look at any Suncoast hood underside photos you'll see small holes. Some of the these holes are mounting locations and the rest of water drains.
One of the reasons, Suncoast was selected by GM to build their Silverado and Sierra hoods they recently licensed with us, is our water management. They ran our hoods through their water and snow management tests. Their test simulates driving behind a semi in a major downpour and having all the water that would normal hit the front of your vehicle plus all the water that would sheet off the top of an 18 wheeler trailer. They describe the test to me as 5 of those high pressure car wash arms all pointed at the front of the vehicle and blasting it. The vehicle must run for 45 minutes without a problem. I personally have driven my Dodge Ram at 70+ mph in our Florida thunderstorms while most of the cars were pulling off the highway because they couldn't see.

The only true test is to drive it while it is raining and verify it for myself.

[black crowe]

I think the point of it is to be a straight shot through the hood, and to help give a true ram effect. I don't know if it gives more flow necessarily, but it's the sealed ram aspect of it that's the selling point.

You are right, one of their selling points is that their hood/air box setup is truly a functional ram air system and this is what they say about their hoods in their FAQ section :

Q: What do you mean by the term FUNCTIONAL when describing your product as a FUNCTIONAL RAM AIR HOOD?

A: There are basically three types of hoods in the marketplace. There are hoods that do not have any openings or cutouts and are for appearance only. There are hoods that are advertised and sold as ram air hoods, have openings to let air in which blows into the engine compartment but cant be made functional without some major modifications and still cannot be driven in the rain without dumping water all over the engine. Finally there are FUNCTIONAL RAM AIR HOODS which channels the cooler denser air being rammed in through the openings in the scoops into an air intake system and thus into the combustion chamber to create ADDITIONAL HORSEPOWER and BETTER GAS MILEAGE.
A true functional ram air hood improves the performance of your ride in the same way a supercharger or turbocharger boosts the air inlet pressure mechanically. Functional Ram Air uses the forward motion of your vehicle to provide the same boost. Additionally, youll experience lower air inlet temperatures, unobstructed air flow into your engine air intake at all speeds, and even lower engine compartment temperatures if heat extractors are incorporated into the hood. This high flow rate of cold air into the intake, of course, is what is providing the increased horsepower and reduced fuel consumption. Studies done by the OEM's in the 70's showed improvements of 10 to 15 Hp using ram air. We have customers that claim our hood added over 25 Hp. Converting this added power to better gas mileage is up to you and your driving practices. Of course, a simple restyling hood or glue on scoop has ZERO possibility of providing any of these benefits.

I am no expert on the subject by any means, so after reading their description of functional ram air, I decided to look up the definition of a ram air intake, and this is from wikipedia :

A ram-air intake is any intake design which uses the dynamic air pressure created by vehicle motion to increase the static air pressure inside of the intake manifold on an engine, thus allowing a greater massflow through the engine and hence increasing engine power.

The ram air intake works by reducing the intake air velocity by increasing the cross sectional area of the intake ducting. When gas velocity goes down the dynamic pressure is reduced while the static pressure is increased. The increased static pressure in the plenum chamber has a positive effect on engine power, both because of the pressure itself and the increased air density this higher pressure gives.

Ram-air systems are used on high performance vehicles, most often on motorcycles and race cars. Ram-air has been a feature on some cars since the late sixties, but fell out of favor in the seventies, and has only recently made a comeback. Modern parachutes use a ram-air system to pressurize a series of cells to provide the aerofoil shape.

At low speeds (subsonic speeds) increases in static pressure are however limited to a few percent. Given that the air velocity is reduced to zero without losses the pressure increase can be calculated according. The lack of losses also means without heating the air. Thus a ram-air intake also is a cold air intake. In some cars the intake is placed behind the radiator, where not only the air is hot, but the pressure is below ambient pressure. The ram-air intake effect may be small, but so are other mild tuning techniques to increase cylinder filling like using larger, fresh air filters, high flow mass flow sensors, velocity stacks, tuned air box and large tubes from the filter to the engine