Idea for a "performance" headlight set up (visual aid added)

**Agentlongwood** · 02-26-2011

I've seen people take out the driver's side headlight housing at the track, so that air goes straight through the opening to the intake and it got me thinking. There's a decent amount of wasted space in a lot of the projector headlight housings (the ebay and Dashz ones). Would it be worthwhile to design a headlight housing that had the high and low beam projectors way closer together (or maybe use the same projector?) and then with the extra space create a tunnel through the housing so that you get the same benefit as if you took the headlight out. Throw a screen in it or something so birds dont get sucked up but you get my point. Is there any reason something like this would be implausible?

**matt5112** · 02-26-2011

how would you seal the headlight off?

**Odi** · 02-26-2011

too much work to be worth it. besides, only racing that matters is the one on the track, so you might as well just take the headlight off.

**Agentlongwood** · 02-26-2011

Originally Posted by That Canadian Guy

how would you seal the headlight off?

My thought was to simply convert an ebay or dashz housing to use 1 bulb for both high and low beam. That one bulb would be in the projector housing closest to the grill. Where the other housing is just bore a 3 inch hole through the entire thing. To seal the edges of the hole you just bored simply slide a section of 3 inch tubing through the hole. Make it just long enough to mount flush so it looks decent.

**Koniig** · 02-26-2011

High and low beam projectors would require a cutoff shield if I'm not mistaken. Maybe if you were to retrofit morimoto minis in there you could avoid the hassle of installing one yourself.

As for the “hole” so to speak, tbh I really just don't think it would do enough to be worth it.

In other words, what Miri said. Who the **** is odi?

**Agentlongwood** · 02-26-2011

So here is the concept drawn out. excuse my using paint but Im on my buddies laptop. I think a 3 inch wide hole would do a well to feed some fresh air into the engine compartment since the intake is right behind this light. The concept of a ram air headlight seems strange to me too but hey Im an idea man lol.

The upper row is before the lower row is after

**BoostJunki3** · 02-26-2011

some regal guys have done this......i personally think the benefits of it will not outweigh how stupid it looks.

**KeithGTP03** · 02-26-2011

For a DD? Im a little OCD so symmetry is important to me. Are you really gonna see any benefit from it?

**csssaint12** · 02-27-2011

The set of headlights would look weird.

**redlinepontiac** · 02-27-2011

like this ?

**JoRoW99** · 02-27-2011

Put a tube from the fog light to the throttle body. but then dont drive through deep water.

**GAFF** · 02-27-2011

Build a tunnel to your brakes.

**Explicit_Spade** · 02-27-2011

I don't see it being worth it. What exactly are you looking to gain? Less than a degree of IAT? Most of the air being sucked in will flow back out through the hole in your fender. Look at the risks. Cannot be driven above 5mph in the rain. Waste of at least 1 drivers side headlight. Loss of Brights on the drivers side.

Your screen idea would give the air a weird pattern and things would still get through that hole. Look at how much crap gets on your headlights? Do you really want that on and or in your air filter?

The reason it works on the car redlinepontiac posted is because carbrated/ early efi motors were not good at sucking in air at all, and force feeding them was the best option for that time. Most people "flipped the lids" which exposed a gap where the filter could suck in more air without risk to the carb.

**98gtp** · 02-27-2011

I have a 4 inch pvc pipe ducted from the drivers side fog-light with blazer brand projector fog-light in place restricting the flow. (mounted for easy removal if desired)

I drilled a 4.25" hole in the lower panel under the old air box to get the 4" piping into the engine compartment just ahead of the wheel well. I put a tee above that I open the top in winter and in heavy rain. I plan on adding some sort of plug that I can install in heavy rain to make it a hot air intake / further reduce the risk of ingesting water. Although all the elbows are somewhat restrictive, at least they are all 4" and it seems that most road debris, and salt is contained below the fender and can be washed out at the car wash.

The filter I am using is a K&N Apollo style filter. Its an oem filter housing from a 1997-2003 ford f150/econoline van, and a mustang side snorkel with a 3" restriction. I modified the filter housing to eliminate the ford mass air sensor section to fit in place with a modified intake elbow from the econoline van, cut to a 90 degrees to fit over the stock throttle body tapering from 4.5" at the filter (pipe @ filter = 4" id) to 3.25" at the throttle body.

To clean the filter all I have to do is unbolt the snorkel going to the throttle body, unlatch the rear of the filter box, remove the rear of the filter box and pull out the filter.

I wanted an easy to access filter and was willing to compromise flow for cold air and protecting the filter as I did not want to deal with the filter in the fender well (i have seen a few in the junkyard that had holes in them).

I have installed a small heat shield to the side between the filter housing and the exhaust crossover that seems to have made a difference in temperature readings. While moving the bias is 3-6 degrees. Also using a modified IAT sensor helps as the one I use is a cross between 2 gm sensors pushing the element into the intake tubing 1/2" reducing the affect from the sensor body.

This filter actually stays cleaner than the stock 98 filter did.

**Agentlongwood** · 02-27-2011

It might look odd, as a matter of taste, I'll give ya that but someone with more of a sense of style than myself could make it look cool I'm sure. As a matter of function however it is unarguable that it makes a much more direct route for a ram air setup than the "ram-air" hoods that route air from the middle of the hood down to the top of the air box. Going through the light is a way WAY more direct path which would also provide an way better ram-air effect.

**01gpgt01** · 02-27-2011

MY fog light it removed and I have a duct that runs from it and goes to the filter. IAT's have droped 20-30 degrees. But keep in mind my bottom air deflector is missing since theres a Intercooler there, and that caused a spike in my IAT's. You cant really tell unless you look for it.