Calderone

Any aftermarket cold air induction for 84-90's like tri-claw?
I've never seen anything on any catalog or store...except iirc a SLP one

Demonic85

I dont think there's anything wrong with the stock TPI air intake, which is why you dont see many aftermarket ones being made for those years.

NEVRL8T

You definetly won't find one for an 84.

staugur

this is the best on the market and will fit your '87.Check out www.tpis.com You will find it in their garage sale section on e-bay.

Calderone

what's the advantage over the stock one ?

cwyates4

I think most will agree that there is no real advantage with that system. It looks good, thats about all.

staugur

Not so.It reverses the flow and pulls cold,pressurised air from in front of the rad instead of sucking engine bay air from the top.If it's good enough for Lingenfelter,it's good enough for me.

cwyates4

That I can't argue with. For me, and many others, I would rather put that $300 somewhere else, the hp:dollar ratio of the intake isn't great. But if you got the money, why not!

VanSpeed

If you are using a stock or modified TPI, with or without the MAF, then the stock air cleaner is pretty good and probably sufficient. Maybe the TPIS unit or the Breathless Performance Rammer unit are a little better from the point of cold air vs. under hood air. These are the only two aftermarket air cleaner kits I know of for the early C4 TPI cars (85 through 88). The challenge for the early C4 is the very limited clearance between the top of the radiator shroud and the underside of the hood. 89 to 96 air cleaner assemblies will not fit because the radiator is positioned differently in those car, the top is leaned back toward the front of the engine.

For my engine (572 hp at 6300rpm) I did not feel that the stock air cleaner assembly was sufficient. I felt this was too restrictive for my engine and my engine is now a speed density system instead of a MAF. So I decide to make my own air cleaner assembly. My 1st attempt was a home made version of the 89 to 96 air cleaner, see picture below.

This was difficult to fabricate from aluminum and the gauge I used, .040"T, ended up being to thin so it was not rigid enough. So I made a different one for my 2nd attempt that is similar to the C5/C6 air bridge, see picture below.

This one is made from .060"T aluminum and seems to fit better and seems to flow sufficiently for my engine.

It seems to me the bottom line is it depends on what you need for your engine combination. If you have a higher horsepower engine that needs lots of air then I think you are on your own to fabricate something that works for you. If you are stock or close to stock the stock air cleaner is pretty good unless you think getting "cold" air is going to help, then the two units mentioned may be what you want.

Brian

staugur

Here's a couple more pix so you can see how it works.You have to cut the front shroud and mine has some rubber baffles or seals added.all the air is pulled from above the air dam in front of the rad and the intake cannot suck any hot air from the bay.

Aurora40

FYI, SLP, who makes the "tri-claw" (just called the Claw) also makes a CAI for the L98's. It is just a lid for the stock airbox, but you cut the shroud and it scoops down in front of the radiator. It probably actually works, unlike the Claw which mainly just looks good.

BADDUCK

IMO that claw thing with the K&N's is a joke.

Aardwolf

The stock system already pulls air from in front of the radiator. Here is a picture:



That is a slot ahead of the radiator, looking upward. The air filter is just above that. The tube in the picture is a crude ram air scoop I made.

I have seen some really nicely made front plate intakes here. If you can make a scoop or find one cheap then a ram air setup is easy. I spent $2.79 on mine, for a sheet of aluminum to put in the front plate area. Then a section of tube I had laying around to go through up to the filter.

I believe the stock system is cold air but not ram air. It can also get some air front the gap in the hood.

I made this awhile ago and intend to make something nice one of these days. I would like to enclose the filter so the ram air doesn't blow around causing aero lift. It only took an hour to make. A few pictures:

GREGGPENN

I gotta agree with you regarding cold-air intakes (in general) but wanna add counterpoint. First I wanna add the price for these parts is generally ridiculous and the gain (if any) is minimal. If there would be a gain, it would have to be a modified motor. The other downside is the mention of driving in the rain (for the TPIS model).

I remember seeing the flow #s for the air filter, tube, MAF, and TB. And, none of these are a restriction on stock-to-mild motors.

OTOH, I talked to a local machinist who owns a 1990 vette. He's 60 yrs old and "been around the block". He works on heads all day long and is into prostock racing. He's tried every kind of intake on his vette and modified the heads -- to the point of cutting and welding. He got the factory 113 castings to flow in the mid 270's according to him.

With that backround, he told me about each mod he made to his car.... headers, large tube runners/base, then HSR, then mini, then ported heads, then cutting/redesigning heads, grinding/polishing, flat pistons, etc....

Then he said he installed the TPIS coldair and gained close to 1 second. I have to say I find this so hard to believe that it took away from everything else he'd said. He understood and says that reaction is universal. (You should know my opinion is based on flow numbers and feedback from 98% of the forum who laugh at this part). This guy could only add that he believed it worked because that part had finally become a restriction. (By that time he was fully modified, running the miniram, and I think into the high 11's).

According to TPiS's website, it should only be worth .2 seconds. And, I suspect on cars modded to the hilt. This guy seems to think it's worth it (even though he's got zero invested interest). And, he's spoiled by driving new, bigger, better motors that get him in the 7's.

I didn't get it....literally!

Aggravated4life

Thats only at much higher speeds...in the real world,youre not going to notice it much,since the stock filter flows enough VE of air to feed the stock engine.Unless theres a true ram air effect,not going to see much gain.Internally,seriously modded engines,they seem to benefit best.

Most LPE products and designs are for some serious modded cars that can use any extra airflow it can get over stock systems.TPIS has a good design too..but dont assume because LPE or TPIs says so,theyre not out to make some money either.They sell alot of their products to people with stock engines looking for instant HP here and there.

But back to the topic,unless you have a serious engine that needs much higher airflow over stock,you wont need a different airbox filter system.

staugur

So,I have an '87 that was sent to Lingenfelter as a new car and they were told to do what they could to it.When John was alive and in charge I don't believe he used useless add ons just for profit margins.Get hold of his book and read it.Nowdays I have to agree that some of the crap they sell is about as good as a turbonator.That's because the boss isn't around.Everyone is allowed an opinion and everyone is free to make up their own minds about things.Mine just happens to be things like "the claw"and the number plate ram air systems are just snake oil.Just like K&N filters.That doesn't stop lots of people making them richer by the day either.

Aggravated4life

I do agree with ya there...I also have Johns book,had it for many years.

For the sake of the argumement,You have their installed 383 package,I was speaking about stock engines.Stock engines dont benefit much from alot of those fancy CAI set ups,air foils or other bolt ons,like modded engines do.

I have been to LPE in person in Indiana,and took the tour at the facility way before John passed on.I also remember when they sold ACCEL large tube runners for 500+ bucks and change in the vette magazines before their SR came out.I used to get their catalogs all the time.

I also remember when the C5 came out,during a plant visit,they were turning away older L98 customers,wouldnt touch their cars anymore.It was LT1,LT5 or LS1 only.You could still buy their L98 stuff but they wouldnt wrench on them anymore,and that was when John was alive.Just business there.Aside from that,people with L98 engines could still order whatever they wanted to,in hopes of more power.

Btw,it was incredible to see a bunch of LT5 engines getting their build up,along with the new C5's getting sent there straight from the factory after being ordered.I had a great time there.The years have flew by!

BADDUCK

1 second in the quarter mile? Rule of thumb means it gave him 100 CHP.
If he believes that he is an idiot! TPiS .2 equals 20 CHP. More reasonable but still optimistic. On a stock C4 removing the MAF screens will do more and costs $0.

GREGGPENN

Exactly why I said the statement took away from everything he'd told me up to that point. It's impossible.

aklim

We ran my can on the dyno at Hightech Motorsport. We found the best tune possible then just for the hell of it, we took off the filter and gained another 20 HP. Of course, this was the SLP Cold Air induction package and it was on a 91 Firebird.