"I remember wanting to get one of those hoods for my dad's Lemans. Rare as heck. I like those Olympic edition LeMan's that came out in '76 with the red and white two tone. I think they had the NASA hoods as well? Your next challenge will be to make those scoops functional! Todd
-- Edited by 69Laurentian at 07:18, 2008-03-20"
Well right now I did not install the back plates on the scoops so she is wide open, so I suppose it is functioning but not in the Ram Air sense. My Air cleaner is open element so it breaths real good.
Pontiac had designed a Ram Air lid with operating solenoids for the SD 455's but the EPA did not certify this combination for sale, some story about being too loud to pass standards. Apparently 11 kits we sold over the parts counters so a few cars are out their with the Ram Air. My Oshawa owners manual shows the fuse location for the solenoids in the fuse box diagram but Ram Air was never offered for sale by the dealer.
I have pics to post of the system just need to find them and put them up.
The '76 LSC with the Olympic package did not have the scooped hood. However, the '75 LSC with the GT package did and it was also painted red and white.
I have seen 3 cars with the Ram Air on it. 1 was on a black car one on a wagon which has been in several magizines owned by a retired pontiac engineer. & the last one was on a green car that I chased down one day while I was out for lunch. The guy must have thought I was following him to beat him up or something because when i finially got him to stop he would only talk to me throught the closed window at first. We did talk then for about 1/2 an hour. I also saw one car where the Ram Air had been taken off , it was at a local high school & the shop teacher told us it was on there when it came in but the KID & I say KID who owned it took it off & threw it in the dumpster to be able to save weight on the car. It was gone as they dumpster had been emptied 3 day earlier. The car wasa rust bucket & was going to the school shop to be fixed & to have some engine work done on it. I worked in a Pontiac dealership for a couple of years & ordered all the parts that were available for the Ram Air, but I sold them to a guy here in the states (Chicago IL.) about 2 years ago. Right now I'm in the process of makeing the under hood panal for the Ram Air for the 73 right now. After I get that made I'll try to make the peices that go on the air cleaner. If I can't get it to work as a functional piece I'll still try to make it just match to the hood piece so at least it will close down on it so it will seal against it when the hood it closed. Also just a bit of FYI. There are 2 styles of the NASA hood, & yes IT IS A NASA HOOD. the first style is for the 73 only, it has the louvers at the back of the hood to let in fresh air directly into the cowel, & the 2nd type is the hood with no rear louves & just has the NASA scoops in the hood & no louvers at the back of the hood. Depending on who you talk to & which plant the car came from the hhood with no louvers in the back of the hood are for the 74-75 cars. But I hve seen 74's with the hood with the louvers at the back of the hood & it was there from the factory. They did change very late in the 74 production to the hood with no louvers but it was late & at the west coast plants. I do believe the reason they changed the hood to no louvers was to save money , because it was 1 less step in the stamping of the hood. I prefere the louvers in the hood but I know there are some that like the ones without the louvers too.
