Anyone see any gains at the track by using an air pan to pull air from the cowl instead of the engine bay?

I am working on a few projects and could do this while I am at it, if you guys think it is worth the time...

 

it'll help

 

a guy i know did a comparison on his malibu...took the air pan out and made a pass, then put it in and he picked up like a tenth if i recall. he did it two more times to reinforce his findings. another thing he did was put foam padding from the ends of the cowl over to the opening in the hood to help direct airflowto center of the hood and the air pan. i'm convinced that it does help some.

 

Years ago I was helping a guy with his Chevy...his picked up .05 with a small cowl hood. Cowl air is better than no air BUT not as good as air from the front. Ram air is always almost a tenth or MORE!

 

You got watch air turbulence as well, i never ran mine with an air cleaner when i had mine set up but open carb it's swirl the air around since incoming air from the cowl area was "viloent" so to speak. I did'nt notice any ET gains by sealing it off, but it did tighten it up some since it was'nt sucking in hot air from the oven these cars create under the hood.

 

i was JUST about to make a pan for mine. i have always run an open carb, and thought about if it would help. had one on the old 4" ram air hood for my t/a...that helped. but im not suprised it doesnt help much on a cowl.