The OAI system . . . was the scoop situated behind the grille? Or did it poke out from under the bumper like on the A-bodies?

I'm guessing it's not the latter.

 

This pic was in the Toro part of the '68 service manual.It said "toronado engine-with W-34 option. The duct appears to go to,or through the LH inner fender,kind of like the mid '70s Cutlass. There might be another piece to it like a snorkel that sits behind the grille/headlamp area but I couldn't find anything else in the service manual.

 

Gotta love a "running" engine with no cooling equipment in place!


The above pic shows the entire 68 W34 OAI setup. It was very much like later cold air intake systems that came around as part of emissions controls.


In addition to the snorkel the 68 used a specific washer bottle to clear the ductwork. Also had a thermostatic switch in LH radiator tank that opened the headlight grilles for extra cooling if coolant temp hit around 245.


Take it you already know about the cam specs, valve springs and OM transmission, Diego?

 

So it seems there may not have been suck a strong ramming effect?

Yeah I have specs but I was chatting with a friend and we realized we didn't know how the scoop worked because we hadn't seen pics with the engine in place of a car.

 

Probably no more than a later smogger engine, but the idea was to get cooler air to the engine instead of hot underhood air. In that, it probably succeeded.


But you'd be surprised how much of a ram effect you get from behind the grille at road speeds, which is where the Toro came into its own.

 

But Rob doesn't think it was behind the grille - you do?

 

For what it's worth, this page shows it going into the fender. It looks to match what the manual showed.


http://automotivemileposts.com/toron...do1968w34.html

 

Oh, it's not even positioned up front!

 

It actually routes over the headlight vacuum tank and goes over behind the LH parking lamp assembly. The bumper has a seal on top side of parking lamp but the bottom side is open enough to get some ram effect at speed. But considering the ductwork is a bit convoluted, probably not as much as 66-69 A-body W-cars or 70-72 OAI hoods.




The Automotive Mileposts article is pretty comprehensive but wondering where their production figures came from. Most sources I know say 111 1968 (Helen Earley researched that), 1969 unknown but suspected around 10% of total production (2844 is in line with that), and slightly over 5000 1970 GT's.

 

Neither was the 68-69 OAI