2 things- On the hood scoops, the former owner pop riveted them on which prevents me from removing the breather plates. How can I open up the scoops without breaking the hard plastic casing? Also on the air cleaner there is a hose intake for air induction (not the ones to the hood scoops) the one that I thought went to the engine block. Well there seems to be no place to hook up the other end of the hose. Did somebody modify my engine before me or is there a connection point I'm unaware of?
I would just take a big enough drill bit to take the center of the pop rivets out and they should just fall out. The hose you describe, if it's the one that attaches to the underside of one of the snorkels of the ram air cleaner sounds like the hose that comes from the heat riser manifold or "heat stove" as some people call it which mounts to your head right above the exhaust manifold. Many times the stoves are taken off for whatever reason. It was used to help the car run better in the morning by getting some warmer air into the carb faster. At least that's what I think it was for, I know it has something to do with cold starts.
Ken's right, unlost, that opening was connected via a flexible metal hose to the driver's side "heat stove", which took exhaust manifold heat and piped it to the intake. There should be a little thermostat thingy (sorry for the technical terms!) that shuts off that hot air when the thermostat senses a certain temperature, so that hot air doesn't keep getting pumped into the intake air that is supposedly "cold" from the hood vents. The thermostat thingy is powered by a small vacuum line to the intake. Many cars no longer have the "heat stove", due to its habit of rusting all to hell, and falling off, or being removed during a rebuild because it's ugly. If you're interested in originality, you can find them on old junkyard cars, or in some repro magazines.
