I am thinking about enclosing under the hood and only having the Air cleaner sticking through. Kind of a cold air set up by getting air through the side vents. What I am concerned about is heat build up. I am running a 351C mild build, stock exhaust manifolds. Everything else will be close to stock. Any thoughts, suggestions? Thanks

 

I'm curious about this. Do you mean that if you opened the hood you'd see nothing but an air cleaner coming up through something like a sheetmetal cover? And the incoming air feeding the air cleaner is coming from the side vents? If that's the case I would think that the vents being on the side there would not be enough of a ram air force, the side vents extract air more than push air in.

 

Your idea sounds like a lot of work. I'd bet you would never feel the difference in power, but you would feel the difference every time you needed to change oil, perform a tune up, etc. I recommend keeping it with just your hood. Easy access to everything under the hood is one of the nice things about these old trucks.

 

What I am thinking about is making an enclosure in the hood area, so when you close the hood the air cleaner goes into it and maybe having either some or all of the vents area to feed it cooler air. Not so much a Ram Air set up. When you open the hood it is as stock, and not covered. My apologies for the confusion.

 

Okay, now I get it. I agree with 38 coupe, sounds like a lot of work for little gain. I think you would get less air than if you left it in a stock type configuration. The side vents won't pull much air unless they had a scoop added to them to push that air in. Side vents are more of air extractors.