pmpnavt

I have a 1988 trans am. Just rebuilt the motor, painted the bay, reinstalled the motor and trans, now i am at the final point of my project.
I would like to put a Holley tunnel ram, w/ 2 450 carbs on the top of this 350, but im afraid that it will be too far out of the stock hood and cause me more heartache with the local police (illinois) than tuning problems.
I have asked a few police officers about this and they said go to illinois.gov to find the law, but that site is a little too confusing for me. any help??
i believe that the butterfly scoop will sit about 5-7 inches out of the hood...unless someone else has a better measurement.
thanks

911rsq

Here's some translating for you
This is from the 2004 Illinois Vehicle Code (It is the most current. 2005's will not come out until 2006....)

definition:
"5/1-217.1. Vehicle Cowl
1-217.1. Vehicle Cowl. The portion of the vehicle that separates the front compartment from the rear compartment, commonly referred to as the firewall, to which a vehicle identification number is normally attached."

"5/12-503. Windshields must be unobstructed and equipped with wipers
12-503. Windshields must be unobstructed and equipped with wipers."

This article is followed by 6 sub-catagories to which it has to fall into. Having the scoop coming out of the hood does not "literally" violate this article based on those 6 definitions, but at face value it does. The scoop becomes an obstruction to your vision to the front of the vehicle. I will do a little more searching for ya to see if I can find a section that deals with the hood itself. This section actually pertains to interior obstructions to the windows.

From what i have read so far, the hood isn't required on a veh. I am sure it is, but I can't find it in here yet......

pmpnavt

thank you very much....i dont know how you got all of that but its great!

911rsq

doing some more diggin...
hoods are required in Illinois and they cannot be modifed or have anything protruding from them....so even the cowl hoods "could" be considered illegal if they are not a factory part. Also, you may get into troube if your fuel lines excede the plane of the top of the hood. That is the purpose of the hood, to keep things off of the windshield. It is required for fluids (except washer fluid) to be contained under the hood..... so if your carbs are up on your intake and the carbs stick out of the hood....watch out !

pmpnavt

again thank you for the help!

from the sound of it, my hood cant even be touched...it almost sounds like i cant even paint it lol

flrtin1

pmpnavt you will be just fine in Illinois with or without the hood and anything sticking out it.....the windshield obstruction law is anything on the inside between the rearview mirror and glass to also include stickers on the outside but does not include anything out of the hood

flrtin1

Here is the link to the vehicle code equipment section
Ill veh code

911rsq

That's very interesting.....so you are telling me that if I ran a 4 foot high hood scoop that there would be nothing illegal about it????? Hmmmm....mis-information at it's finest. I agree that he probably wont be bothered by any PD if he's cool about it and just runs it as low as possible, but he didn't ask for opinions, he asked for an interpritation of what the law said.....

flrtin1

Talk about mis-information lol I told him the facts not something I pulled out my ***

flrtin1

pmpnavt, This is my car in 1986.....I think that would of made 911rsq about 6 years old if I am not mistaken



This is a current picture of it and a friends 20 years and 60k miles later....I think if we couldnt drive it this way we might know by now



here are some of a friend of mine who owns a shop in Monmouth ..and yes it was street driven




Some more of mine and my friends





I think after the many years and thousands of miles these cars are driven in Illinois I may know what I am talking about......ohhh wait I did get a obstruction ticket about a year ago from one of our states finest......but it was for the Street Machine Nats stickers on my windshield not a word was said about the blower or no hood..... I guess he didn't know what he was doing because you know how they hate giving tickets and will just let it slide




I will leave you with this...... I guess a pic is worth a thousand words

flrtin1

pmpnavt, as a side note several of my friends and myself have driven our cars in Iowa, Wisconson, Michigan and Indiana without any problems also

pmpnavt

You have done exactly what i am trying to do right now...i would like to use the tunnel ram as a pre blower mold to see how i like this "look". but from what i see with your car im going to be very happy with it.

thank you again for your help and the pictures

flrtin1

lol, in late 85 I had a tunnel ram on it first but didn't get any pics
the first pic is with a B&M 144 blower w/dual carbs in 86

The white w/orange stripe car has a B/B with a tunnel ram.... I think I have a pic of the engine somewhere

Here is a bunch of pics from through the years and I added some with the flat 84 stock fiberglass hood I don't have finished yet.....I know the TA will be a little differnt but these might give you a idea of where you will be at with several setups

pmpnavt

those pictures are great, ive decided to go ahead with the tunnel ram...and since you guys put some pictures up ill throw up one of where the project is right now. if you look on the far left of the pic you can see a hole where the heater/ac was. what do you suggest for blocking off those holes? Is there something i can put there that will make it look stock and keep use of the blower motor?
thanks again!

KissThis

Ok really stupid question and really off subject, but is that a cruise ship in the background of the Camaro sittin with the cop cars?

flrtin1

Hmmmmm now that you mention it, that sorta is what that looks like lol.......but it is the roof of a convention center behind the Holiday Inn in Collinsville Ill....... we were there on the Power Tour last year and there were about 30 state cops at the hotel for some sort of training.... funny to see about 100 hot rods and 30 cops in the same parking lot.... hehehe no burnouts that night

911rsq

Inteligence at its finest....I may have been 6 when your car was made, but at least I grew out of that stage.....

Pew

Just use a heater box and blower motor out of a non ac car

wiseman9986

iTrader: (2)

im in il and i have a 4 in cowl i have had no trouble with the cops just dont be a dick to them as in yes sir i was being a dumbass i am sorry it will never happen again is always a good thing to say

pmpnavt

lol thanks ill keep that in mind

Xophertony

i wish oregon was as cool as wisconson, my brother got pulled over for not having a mudflap once somone actualy STOLE one of his mudflaps..... klamath falls hicks will do anything..

..no ticket though, just a warning.

wiseman9986

iTrader: (2)

its the law to have mudflaps in oregon thats wierd unless it was on a semi but most cars dont come with them

pmpnavt

is there a reason why the pictures stopped showing on the thread?