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This is the first time I've seen someone turn them into real vents NICE

So a kid from south Africa via China immigrates to America and shows a deep love and appreciation for American muscle cars. That's what I call effing awesome.

From discussing China to getting worked over car parts. Man I like this man.

"This Hood Mod gives 20% more POWER!" Scoty Kilmer has entered the chat

As much as I like old GM cars, this just demonstrates why they catch as much crap as they do for the bean counters running the show. This was such an easy fix for a noticeable power increase -- with parts that probably cost about $2 to manufacture. Great job! I hope you're able to get the manual switch installed 🙂

That was the FIRST mod that I performed on my 1989 Firebird Formula-350 back in the fall of 1988. TPI cars run hot and it helped out a lot in reducing under hood temperature. Thanks for the video !!! 👍

Hey Winston, did you know that Corvettes, C4, C5, and C6 in particular, benefit tremendously from putting vents in the hood (most effective in certain spots). Not for the intake, or cooling the drivetrain (this is a side effect though), but because they suffer from a terrible buildup of pressure in the engine bay at speed. Nearly all vehicles have this issue to an extent, but in Corvettes it is compounded by the manner in which they draw in air to the intake, and are engineered to draw air upwards under the front air dam into the radiator (be sure to check that area, it tends to build up debris). The area underneath the hood is tight, and has little to no space for the overpressure to egress. This causes lift at speed (I can tell you from experience that >170 is wild without certain aero mods; best way to describe this is airplane turbulence. As in darting back and forth 2 or 3 feet at a time virtually instantaneously, as if the tires aren’t even touching the ground. Very temperamental situation). If this pressure buildup is mitigated, the effects are surprisingly noticeable, even at interstate speeds. The mid-high speed handling improves as well. A few years ago I was able to hit 212 mph in my highly modded C5. Btw, have been watching you for years. Since the “China, how it is” days. Happy to see you out of that sinking ship, and here in America. Sorry that you ended up in California (just kidding, guess that’s a personal choice)

No no no... *Up to* 20% more Power. Those two key words are the magic sauce that keeps the aftermarket out of legal trouble.

On the turbo cars with this hood they put the boost gauge in the scope. It's a series of lights going left to right going green, yellow, red.

The main reason for fake hood scoops on American cars is NASCAR. In NASCAR, cars move fast enough that hood scoops are actually functional. At public roadway speeds -- even on freeways within hailing distance of the speed limit -- hood scoops don't improve performance at all. Yes, cold-air intakes are effective, but ram-air intakes are not effective at freeway speeds. The performance increase you felt was the result of increasing the effective cross-section of the intake plenum, not the result of pulling air _specifically_ from the hood scoop. A wider intake plenum under the hood would've accomplished the same thing. So American carmakers install cold-air intakes that reach forward to the bumper instead, and add fake hood scoops to satisfy American car buyers' desire to have cars that look fast, without adding one more place for water to leak in.

This is a certified hood classic

Definitely a worthwhile modification!

Winston, you are clearly a lover of all that is genuine and sincere. Good job on the induction fix and the joke about the rolled socks, made my day. Take care and good luck with your stylish beast of a car.

That was truly awesome! It may sound odd but your formula to happiness can be practically applied to our lives in general. I appreciate seeing your efforts from near homelessness in China, to owning a couple of proud birds, motorcycle, wonderful wife and family...hard work pays off. More Power!

The bald eagle sounds were hilarious.

A mod we used to do on that actuator for the flap is to run it to the ignition switch circuit so when you start the car the flap opens up the entire time the engine runs. I have always thought the scoop on those should have been functional the whole time the engine was running and available on all Firebirds.

That is so frickin' cool. Love to see all you're doing with this car. You honour it, and american cars. It's a beautiful thing to see.

Not sure if you know this but unplug the battery for about 10-20 minutes so it'll re learn air fuel ratio. You'll notice even more gains

Very, very well done. I haven't seen anyone do this yet and I'm impressed with the results but not terribly surprised. I had two mid 1970's Trans Am's back in the late 1980's and made the shaker hood scoops functional. They sounded great and from the amount of snow they ingested at around 40 mph, they clearly worked too.

YOU ARE SO THE MAN! This was the exact mod I was looking to do to my Formula so thanks for coming through! Looks like I’ll be hunting the junkyards for a similar set up. Also the 🦅 sound effect was perfect! 🤣

These videos really make me want to buy a car of that era

Hat’s off, Win! Take good care of that dashboard- all my friends who had Trans Ams back in the day would see cracks regularly forming - especially at the corners of the speakers toward the edges. Cheers, bru!

You guys are beyond belief. It is really something to see someone give these cars this kind of love.

Also, stickers add 5% hp or so I hear. Gratz on the channel....content is great. Cheers.

Nice job - and great that (for once) it proved to be surprisingly straightforward. With the added bonus of increased power and improved sound and aesthetics 👍

My first car was an 84 Trans Am 5.0 HO in 1995, with the cowl induction hood. Depending on year, the HO package was good for about 40ish HP over the base v8. All these cars were anemic with their HP, but made up for it in torque. I'd love to have that car again now that I'm not a broke teen. Great video.

That’s a stunning Firebird. I didn’t realize the cowl-induction ceased to be functional after ‘84. I also thought all Formulas had TPI. Great vid!

"Slash 'bonnet'" 😁

The offset hood bulge was originally engineered to accommodate the 301 Pontiac Turbo V8 motor before the GM brass mandated that all of the F bodies use the 305 Chevrolet motor from 1982.

I had a 89 formula with the same motor. I put a hypertech computer chip in it and it helped a lot. Love watching you work on your car,it brings back a lot of memories. I may just have to get another one some day!

I remember doing the same mod to my 1978 Z28 back in the early nineties, ...mine was way more of a hack job, though. I just opened the slit and installed an open element air cleaner. We adjusted the 4bbl so the secondaries opened really fast, it gave it deep, mean intake roar. Nice work and nice F-body!!

congrats on the conversion. very nice, indeed. a friend of mine purchased a 1981 z-28 sith air induction and she absolutely loved it!

I dont have the pleasure of owning a "ram air" vehicle but if i ever do this is the first thing im going to do. Fake scoops really bother me😞. Great vid man! Happy motoring👍💯❤👑

8:36 that firebird really singing now!!!😁 Thanks for sharing the mod with us.

Love the period esque wailing guitar solo . More POWER to you !

Transformed the way this car sounds. I personally was in awe, awesome mod!

It's like something out of The Fast+The Furious! 👌😁

Good job! Glad everything went together so well and worked. I like honeycomb screen for the intake. That is so Pontiac.

that is a really cool mod on Thirdgen with the formula hood. Sounds like the butt dyno recorded a nice gain for the $$ invested

Stay tuned next week when Winston installs a NOX kit!!! Really interesting how everything matched up but drastic changes by car manufacturers are expensive so they basically keep the same car but introduce subtle changes to entice new or old owners to buy newer versions. So in your case Winston this proved to be a win win situation for you.

06 GTO was the same way. Knocked out the inserts and installed an OTR intake. Now has functional ram air. :)

I bought one from the junkyard when I had my 82 Trans Am, took the door out and made my own air cleaner mod. The drain goes right on top of the distributor, so use a hose from the drain hole to the area between the brake reservoir. Remember that you’ll have to clean the carb more often. Also can use black window screen in there to keep out bigger objects

I had an 80' Mustang Turbo that had a "power bulge" hood and an 82' GT that had a hood scoop. Both were non functioning but I easily modified an made functional. This was well before fuel injection so the mods worked fine.

Love the Scotty Kilmer style thumbnail images :D

Job well done! Your fine example of Pontiac Formula brings back many memories. Thanks for the vid, C5 guy

Thanks for making this video. I found it very informative and food for thought as i am currently in the market for a firebird.

Did the exact same mod on my 87 305 Formula firebird years ago got the parts from from junkyard for $30 .00. Totally agree with you about air scoops being functional. The long plastic piece attaches below the screen to divert water away from the distributor, and the hole on the bottom side of the housing is a drain hole for water.

Greetings, ZA, loved the ADV series. Enjoy your Firebird. You are doing it right! Induction mod was sweet, mad style points for keeping it OEM! Stay awesome!

Those hoods were originally for clearance for a turbo,these cars were designed for turbo but GM axed the pontiac motors at the last minute so they had to use a small block chevy instead.

this is cool as hell! i wouldn't go as far as saying "20%" but i'd agree that its gotta be a noticeable improvement.. at least as much as any cold air intake would provide to a modern car. keep the cool vids coming sir.

I’m not a car person but all of this makes sense to me from a pilot’s perspective. Keep up the good work. 👍

Well done mate. I've thought of this mod for my 89 TBI Formula but the parts... as you found out aren't cheap. I already installed a larger 14" open air element so it wouldn't work anyway.

I had this on my 1983, which was the first year the base motor got air induction, 82 only had it on the crossfire motor. The solenoid was activated by pressing the throttle to the floor and it felt like a downshift in terms of additional power, my car was a five speed. And with the roar of the secondaries, it was a lovely sound. The other thing they had in 82 and 83 was the dual resonator exhaust which made wonderfulsounds and the pipe actually split after the catalytic converter, it was as close to a true dual back in those day’s. From 1997 to 2003, the WS6’s had functional RamAir hoods, which could easily have been made to create a true ram air supercharging effect. Are you bypassing the air filter? The original unit did not bypass the air filter as there was a secondary dome under the top fileter cover

That was one of many mods that I made on my 79 TA. The next improvement that you can do is ditch the Fram air filter and replace it with a K&N, you will notice the difference.

I have a '74 Corvette that has basically the same system. the flap solenoid is operated by a switch on the throttle pedal...pretty much only opens up under WOT. when closed, its quieter, and, prob more important to Chev when they designed it is that closed it pulls in the hot air over the exhaust manifold for quick warmup. but when open, i get to hear all that quadrajet goodness

"Until next time, you know the drill, do all that car stuff guys, like not crashing and riding off cliffs and all that..."

Simple but brilliant! Gotta love it when you have a epiphany !! LOL COOL.

I really like how this channel is shaping up, this episode was really well produced. Keep up the good work!

Nice job! This is how this car should be! I used to drive 1981 Z28s back in 1981 that had a functional cowl induction hood scoop. The flaps were located right at the entrance of the scoop and would kick open when the secondaries of the 4 barrel carb opened. It looked and sounded really cool!

As always, making awesome things in another awesome video. I still need to do this upgrade on my '82 Trans Am.

I love this channel. I've watched your other channels too and found them very interesting but as a car guy I'm really happy you made this one.

Good job bro! True hot rod trick. My dream car in 87 (the year I got my license) was a silver 87 Formula 350.

Nice job! Back in the late 90s I added just the screen to my 90 TPI formula. The Pontiac dealer I worked at located the last NOS one available in the country and had it sent in. It felt like a big deal at the time. Loved getting rid of that block off plate. I would try to find a way to make it throttle activated like it was on the 83-84 cars. That would make it even cooler.

This is awesome! I have an '89 with the same engine, and will definitely look into this!!!

Loving the garage playlist too!

Love that compression (downshift) stop there at the end, smooth. 9:12... the man can drive. I'm starting to like this car.

This reminds me of my highschool friends 92 Firebird Formula that had a bunch of SLP parts on it. It was a TPI but we swore it really was a 350 but it was originally a 305 TPI engine. It had that same hood scoop. It wasn't an intake scoop, but it was open so we figured it helped with engine cooling

I had an 84 Trans Am HO. My Hood Scoop was 100% functional and when you would punch the gas you could hear the Cold Air being sucked in.. It was Awesome!

Great to watch this as Trans Am GTA owner, really good idea, plus good tune in background.

Well done Winston that is nice. . I totally agree about utilising the scoop

That's pretty sweet. Need more footage of you getting on it.

MAN, I love what you are doing to those Pontiacs !!!! .... my high school clique was all about British sports cars, but the Trans am and the Firebird were close 3rd's. Neither was #1 however... the most excited I ever got over a new car, was in 1978--in my auto shop class-- when one of my classmates drove into the shop in his mom's brand new Ford Mustang 2... it was blue and white, just like Jill drove in Charlie's Angels.... still #1 on my bucket list, and still my biggest shame :-) ha ha ha

I've been lurking in the KZfaq shadows waiting for this upload today. Also, I'm still sending that private link to y'all the first time I start this car after almost a year and a half of interior and other stuff.

You need to plug this on your other channels more!

Awesome work, I love seeing a car reaching it's potential. To somewhat answer your question as to why they stopped using this system, GM is notorious for "bean counter engineering" where they find out it costs them $5 less per unit to have whatever option is on there (though it drastically improves performance), they will remove it and have a slightly higher profit margin, it can be infuriating at times. The second reason is probably some obscure emissions/EPA requirement (less air and fuel running through the engine=less emissions) and the only way they could get it to pass from factory was to delete the scoop altogether. You'll notice in the early 3rd generation f-bodies (82-86) that the 5.7 wasn't offered again until I think 1987 because emissions laws were outstripping the technology and they couldn't get a 5.7 to pass the emissions the EPA wanted. The EPA, more than anything else, killed the muscle car.

I had a 1984 T/A that had a flap that opened when you hit the gas. Pretty neat to watch.

On the car that originally had the functional scoop, there was a switch connected to the throttle linkage that opened only at full throttle. Fuel injection can compensate for a variation in the fuel to air ratio, well to a certain point without tuning. The 82-84 cars that were equipped with this setup were all carburetor equipped (to the best of my knowledge). Carburetors are tuned generally for wide open throttle maximum performance. Extra air at part throttle positions would affect the performance and drivability in normal situations. Your car shouldn't be affected by this. The only thing else is to close the flap so that nothing like water, bugs, leaves, etc get in there. Also, realistically, it adds about 5 to 10 percent more power. It may feel like more but it isn't. A quick trip to your local dyno will show you the before and after. Good choice in cars so far!!

I came across this channel randomly while looking at 3rd Gen stuff (my favorite car), boy was I surprised when I realized this is made by ADVChina guys that I was watching years ago. What a crazy coincidence. I really love this small but very clever mod to make this epic hood induction system functional again.

Cooler air is more dense. More dense air has more oxygen then the the same amount air that is less dense. More oxygen you put in an engine the more fuel you can add. Bigger bang!

I grew up with an early 84 model. Scoop worked but it was early in the year for the particular model. Toughest car I've ever owned in my 56 years now. My dream car son, you have fun.

One of my gripes I had with my old 88 GTA Trans Am was the hood vents were nonfunctional. They look like they should be ram air vents but they don't go anywhere. I'm glad they addressed this in the 4th gen ws6 and firehawk cars.

Definitely one of the cooler mods you've done on this channel

I had an 87 TPI and mine had the mesh chicken wire open and no hood liner. I always thought it was to vent heat from the engine bay. Cool to know it was functional for the TBI. I’d look into getting a K&N air filter for that bad boy

Brilliant! Functionality, at it best on a 3rd gen bird! Kudos to you buddy! Loving your videos. Hope your 78 turns out good too!

Hey so proud of you to go the extra to get the most out of your Pontiac. I agree with all you said. Good job 👍

Awesome cars, they really come alive with the TPI setups (for the 1980's standards, anyway)... love this mod you did here for the TBI. Formula with the TPI especially the 5.7 are pretty rare cars. I'd basically buy any 3rd Gen with a V8 if I could find one in great shape. Here in the rust belt that's an almost impossible task. Love the stock radio by the way... I see so many people buy a classic car and immediately throw some 7 inch modern stereo in it.

Kinda like a updated RamAir air flow system !! Like the late 60s early 70 Pontiac GTOs !! Love it !!

You should get a hurst shifter. Had one factory installed in my ‘87 IROC. GOOD STUFF. Love the firebird man, great video!

That was freaking awesome! I had a white 1992 Formula with same engine but was automatic. That thing was actually a nice car but was slow as a boat. I got devoured by every Mustang in town. It is good to know that there STILL are solid options out there for these specific F bodies. My first car was a red 1976 Camaro with a 305. The interior was REALLY nice. It was actually pretty quick. It had these THICK spacer plates between the carb and intake. It was MUCH faster than my 92 ever was somehow...

This WAS interesting! The '80/'81 Birds used a very similar (identical?) hood bulge. Except their air cleaner was offset toward the master cylinder, so things may not line up the same...plus you'd have to integrate the turbo lights from those early cars, thus losing some air induction real estate potential.

Winston is such a multi-talented man. Awesome!

Good Job, Winston,,,,,,,, > BUT: you're going to have to do something to PREVENT "WATER" from getting sucked right down there!

Good to see someone from another country entirely can have an appreciation for America's brutish cars. Not usually the case with outsiders.

That is coooo cool! I actually had the same idea in 1993 but couldn't/didn't do it. You did! That is awesome!

Now that’s how it’s done folks, proper and true to its legacy as it was intended. Absolutely brilliant!

Hell yeah, always excited when these release! EDIT: how much did this mod cost? maybe i missed the part in the video...

You would need a throttle position sensor hooked up the flapper for when it opens etc. this set up is for 82-92 F Bodys, they even had the Camaro good like that. It could work on a TPI, you would have to modify a pipe to the TPI, this all most like a Air box or Ram Air. I think the best air scoop was the 70 Chevelle SS with the flapper door, really cool set up.

Love the car, but honestly love the Kawi even more. I have 1975 Kawasaki Z1b waiting to be restored in my shop.

I've wanted one for my 87 soooo bad, unfortunately i don't even have the proper turbo bulge hood but regardless this rules, keep up the good work!