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HOOD
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SUNCOAST CREATIONS 'RAM AIR I' HOOD:
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OK here are some shots from different angles to give you a feel for the looks.

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FUNTIONALITY
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OK as far as I know this is the only truly functional Ram Air Hood available for the 82-92 Firebirds. This is a Ram Air I style hood. The ram air ducts are routed directly to a filter that mounts to the top of your radiator support

and lines up to a molded hole in the bottom of the hood.

You can see they did a good job finishing the underside of the hood and it is as presentable for the show car as the topside.

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RAIN
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What about when it rains you ask? Well SunCoast added a baffle to block the water. It is like a wall that the water hits and then runs down to drain holes in the bottom of he hood. The air, since it is lighter is able to flow around this wall and proceed to the filter.

Any rain that does get thru will get filtered by the K&N filter. Part of the benefit of having one. The nature of the filler being oiled fabric, will help repel any stray water...

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INSTALLING RAM AIR BOX
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Installing the actual box on the car was not too bad. Rigging the lines on the 2.8L was a bit of a pain. The temp sensor had to be installed in the air box

along with my Nitrous nozzle.

Both had to have holes drilled in the housing. We sealed the air box a bit better. I used some foam house door insulation. This seemed to seal things much better. Now it was time for the test fit. It bolted up fine and lined up with the hood great.

Now we had to get the ducting routed to the intake. The mass air had to go b/w the box and in front of the throttle body. Of course this meant modifying everything. The mass air sensor housing was so long that it would not fit with the stock accordion intake piece. So we had to find something else that was shorter and the right shape and size.

Turns out that some of the pieces I used on my home made Ram/CA Induction intake would work. We used the couplers I had bought that had different size inlets on each end. It went b/w the intake and mass air. Then I went to Lowe's and purchased another coupler, identical to the other. As you can see from this pic...

I had to add a rubber piece on to the Throttle body under the coupler to get a nice tight seal. It would just barely reach from the box to the Mass Air and from the Mass air to the Throttle body.

That seemed to do the trick. I plan to get some red silicone couplers from Turbonetics to replace both of these couplers in the near future!

Now I had to find a way to lengthen all of the wiring for the Air Temp sensor and for the Mass Air sensor. I traced all the factory wires. To my surprise the factory had a lot of spare wire all looped up on itself. Between detangling that, moving some relays, and the fusible link junction box to the frame rail, I had enough length. Amazingly, I did not have to splice anything. We started it up and the car ran fine, with no codes.

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RAM AIR
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Now by definition a ram air hood is supposed to ram air into your intake,
forcing more then the standard amount of air through the engine. It increases power and engine efficiency. But due to the fact that we live in America & can�t drive on the Autobahn and unrestricted speeds, the average car does not take advantage of this Ramming effect. You would have to be going 100+ to really have any ram Air gains. The hood does however unrestrict the air coming in. It is a straight shot w/o all the bends seen in a typical factory system. It also has the added benefit of drawing air from the outside of the car that is typically cooler then the air a factory system draws from: the engine bay or fender well area.

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DISCOUNT
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Suncoast is offering a discount to all those who have seen my hood and decided they want one. They are sending me a Number that you as a buyer can reference to. With this number you are entitled to a discount on their products! Till I get this number from them, email me and I will let them know you came through me and they will get you the discount.

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Story of how I got mine!
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In 2001, I ordered my hood from Suncoast Creations. I decided to look at the hood and test fit it before I bought it, so we drove to Bradenton, FL. to pick it up. Because of work I had to leave late. I had to leave my stock hood behind, so I had cardboard over my engine compartment.

COW Induction Hood! :D

I heard it was raining in FL. and did not want to have an issue. I drove all night. Got there at 7AM, slept, visited with a friend. Next day we went to Suncoast . That�s when it rained. The make shift hood barely made it there before it disintegrated.

Then back to GA with my new hood. Granted this hood is not properly seated yet, but I got some different angles...

On the way we stopped at the beach for some cool pics. There was not sign saying you could not go on the beach, so I creeped out there and got some shots.

I drove through a puddle in the parking lot to be sure no salty sand got on the underside.

Now with clean wheels we went to leave and the cops came. I explained I was taking pics only and there were no "stay off" signs, so they let me go no problem.

Now came the big storm. We stopped and ate at this cool little Italian restaurant. Then we were back on the road. I drove all night. We got to GA at 7AM again, just in time for me to go to work.

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PREPPING
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Its coming time for the 2002 TA Regionals in Pensacola, FL. Much work is still to be done. I am planning on having the new hood on for this show. This means Joe and I have a ton of block sanding to do. John, the painter, got us some filler primer. And we went to work.

We got it ready and waited for him to get back in town.

Tuesday the week of the show, John took the hood. We got it back the night we were to leave for the show. Boy oh boy. It delayed us enough that we had to drive in the night. Way to test my new headlight conversion!

Well we had a fun trip to Pensacola that year! Yeah right?! It was a fiasco!

Here's the hood painted...

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HOME PAGE

Follow this link to additional information on the car not found on this site!
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DIRECTORY FOR RAIF'S EXTERIOR SITE
01 Site Intro
02 Red Window Tint
03 Red Window Vinyl
04 Stance
05 Bumper Insert Conversion
06 Ground Effects
07 Lower GFX Spoiler
08 SunCoast Hood <<<
09 Shaving
10 Shaving Electronics
11 Antenna Relocation & Gas Tank Filler Neck Reroute
12 Headlight Conversion
13 Clear Front Turn Signals
14 Exterior Underbody Neon
15 Strobes
16 Spoiler
17 4h Gen Mirror Conversion
18 Tailights
19 Primer
20 Paint
21 Emblems
22 Smoothed TA Fender Vents
23 Clear Rear Side Markers
24 Paint: Jam Touch Up

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