[Zmagnette] Cold air /ram air box construction

[Wayne & Isabel Hardy]

I also was in the college mode in 1958 and bought my first new car a 1958 MGA in April of that year so thought I must have seen the article after that rather than 2 years before it, because I did build a nice little box for the MGA. There was a left over part of it still around for a while, so I’ll look hard for what’s left so can give you the dimensions. 
I can tell you this..It was a bought Radio Shack aluminum chassis box, with an aluminum backing plate made for closing up the air box. The backing plate screwed on to the box from the open or fender side away from the motor to close things up for pressure retention. The chassis itself was cut with the holes to allow it’s installation on to the carburettor air intake side instead of air cleaners, then the cover backing plate was installed with sheet metal screws and a small bit of sealant.
The carb fuel overflow pipes were routed into the airbox and sealed with tubing bulkhead fittings to equalize the air pressure on top of the float chamber to avoid the float being pushed up by the positive air pressure into the  floatchamber bottom and shutting back fuel flow. Pretty sure I got this idea from someone else, so guessing I saw it in a mag too. My box looked a lot like the one found on the old LeMans A.Healey 100-4 motor from the factory.
I think the biggest gain came from routing cooler air to the carbs rather then some slight positive air pressure increase at 70 mph or above.

Wombat

From: Arch Boston 
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 9:39 PM
To: List for the Z Magnette Group - North America 
Subject: Re: [Zmagnette] Cold air /ram air box construction

Think you started wrong years....  In '58 I was in college and not was still playing with cars but cars were on back burner.  There was an article, didn't dream it.  Might have been in sports cars illustrated.  But, definitely published.  1956 1957

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 17, 2013, at 9:06 PM, "Wayne & Isabel Hardy" <gwhardy at suddenlink.net> wrote:


  Well I went through 1958 thru 1960 issues of Road & Track today with no sign of an article on building a cold air box for your car. Got sick looking at car prices, especially used sports racer types, and had a lot of fun looking at old racing photos from places like Eagle Mtn. Lake in Ft.Worth, and Galveston Tex. and Mansfield La. tracks all of which I worked on and even drove a lap or two on. Worked as corner flagger, pit steward, and traffic control... All way back before the earth was cool apparently, about 55 or so years ago.
  Anyhow NO info on building your air box. Wait to see what Kelvin’s elves at Moss have to offer. They sure did a bang up job on the supercharger kit.
  Wombat

  Wayne & Isabel Hardy
  936-829-5427
  gwhardy at suddenlink.net
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