Is your box going onto the floor (the extended peices being like legs) and firing down? Does the vehicle close one of the other sides?
If you are firing the port into the same airapace as the subs, with 3 sides enclosed, you may be filling in the airspace your subs left (as the cones drive into the box) with the exhaust from the port.
you thought about firing the subs down but pointing the port out of one ofthe ends of the box?
when a sub moves outward, the air in the port moves outward, and viceversa. This is the whole point of porting, and happens most efficiently at the tuning frequency of the box