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Hood cooling idea.. need opinions. thanks

ricot83

NAXJA Member #1297
Location
newington, CT
There is a little channel at the back end of the engine bay and I believe there is a rubber seal there. I was wondering if you took this seal off and either cut or bent down the channel would this result in any heat escaping from the back of the hood or no?

if u look at the top of this pic you can faintly see what I am talking about
http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=PA280065.jpg

thanks for opinions and ideas
 
Thats what I did. It's called the hood cowl gasket. I removed it then beat down the channel. Then I put 1/2" spacers under the hood hinges to open up the gap further. I stood on my rock sliders and bowed down the rear corners of the hood to reduce the side view of the hood that way it's harder to tell the hood is jacked in the rear. I layed a 2x6 on the cowl and closed the hood very lightly to bow the rear center of the hood up. Now you can see the engine from the rear hood opening and a lot of air can pass.
You interior vents to the top of the cowl and on hot days without A/C on your vents will blow warm. My cooling is stock and I never hit past 200 in Moab last week. With the electric fan bypassed to on all day. It ran around 190 most of the time.
Another idea instead of hood spacer would be to smooth and radius the fiberglass cowl cover to let extra air thru. I didn't want to screw with paint on mine.
 
Im talking about not lifting the hood at all though. you think there would be any benefit to this??? or if I put a very very minor lift on the hood to raise the back like a couple washers?
 
ricot83 said:
Im talking about not lifting the hood at all though. you think there would be any benefit to this??? or if I put a very very minor lift on the hood to raise the back like a couple washers?
I think it would work well. In fact after I bowed the hood up I thought about removing some of my spacer and grinding the fiberglass cowl. Even if you just remove the cowl gasket and bend the gasket flange a little it will let air thru. This won't help fix a cooling problem but it will reduce underhood temp. You can tell right away it stays cooler under the hood. If you need a project you could even grind down the rear edge of the hood a little to increse the air gap.
 
I dont have any cooling problem I just wanted the air to escape a little better you know?
 
I did that and it does help. I then added two small vents to the forward part of the hood, and that helps even more.
 
cool thanks thats what i wanted to hear
 
If you are slow speed wheeling/trail riding, why don't you just pop the hood release in the cab and let that little gap help pull in cooler air??
 
At highway speeds, that region actually is a source of high pressure, not low pressure. That is why cowl induction works. The air for your vents comes from the plenum under the windshield wipers.
 
so at high speeds technically the air would go down into the hood
 
old_man said:
At highway speeds, that region actually is a source of high pressure, not low pressure. That is why cowl induction works. The air for your vents comes from the plenum under the windshield wipers.
Correct, which is why I added the forward vents. At trail speeds and slower speeds around town, the "vented" area at the back helped, but then at speed it didn't. Once I added the vents toward the front, it not only negated the intake effect of the opening near the cowl, it improved the airflow of the engine compartment. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it actually lowers engine temps., but at freeway speeds my engine runs consistently around 190-200* when the ambient temp. is 90* or less.
 
The whole point of me doing this is for trail and stop and go driving not for anything else. I just wanted a way for air to escape some how.
 
I just did this to mine, and now I want to add some hood vents as well.
 
It was getting way too hot under the hood, especially after towing the boat. Hopefully this will help keep underhood temps more manageable.
 
What do think of my vent? You should see the heat wave that come out of it when driving slow.
2523955_38_full.jpg
 
Where did you get that vent from?
 
The vent from an 85 daytona turbo Z. I got it off an other forum that I'm on.
 
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