Is it worth the money to make one of these? Are there any gains to be had? Already have intercooler and meth and header wrapped dp but if this could considerably drop temps then I think the sweet look of it and functionallity would be more than worth it.
If you can make it look good and function well for cheap, then it might be worth it.
Anyone have numbers or seat of pants data? I'm sure I could do it for cheap. Piece of sheet metal cut to fit, fiberglass it in a bit or just putty it. Can't cost more than $100, just more time and the need to primer the hood. Currently has a regular hood blip.
How big of a cowl are we talking? Some retailers have plastic scoops that can be made functional with very slight fabrication of the hood. I am running a cowl induction scoop from Summit Racing on one of my cars.Originally Posted by overlordsshadow
couple inches high and whole middle of hood, kind of like the direct connection yellowbird
Are you wanting to use it just to reduce underhood temps or to actually use it to suck in air for the intake? Either way is doable, the latter being a bit more work. Ideally you want the cowl to have to force it's air into the engine's intake, rather than just anywhere under the hood. I'd do come cutting after adding on the cowl to get the maximum effect out of it. If you don't go too overboard with height it can look good, depending on the vehicle.
I always wondered about cutting a little hole in the back of the hump on the hood of my daytona. When the first PT's came out some guy bought one new and put a turbo on it. Then they put some louvers in the hood. He said the shop noticed a 30* difference in the underhood temps.
try removing the seal at the firewall on top, this will let some hot air be pulled out of the engine bay instead of trappin it(may get some water in there when it rains though). You could also try some holes that go through the firewall to the cowl area to draw air out by the air passing over the car at speeds.
Either way I would make sure that your air filter is not near it so its not trying to pull air from the filter, but most have the air filter up frons somewhat anyway.
im wanting to try the hole cutting thing cus houston summers (like now) reach over 100f!! my car is starting to run hot. this is my 1st summer with the 2.5 block. i had the rad rebuilt (t2), new fan, thermostat, coolant and additive. temps still creep. getting scared *sweats*. will try some hole cutting. thanks for the ideas keep em up
travis
Unless you plumb all the incoming air into the intake don't do it. Don't remove the rubber seal at the back either. Don't cut out the back of the buldge as well (been there done that). When you do this either by not plumbing the air into the intake or just leaving it open you hurt the efficiency of the radiator/intercooler/ac because you reduce the lower pressure thats behind the rad and under the hood. This means there's not as much of a pressure differential across your cooling system. Just like your turbocharger this hurts efficiency. It'll also cause lift on the vehicle which at high speed lifts the front tires off the ground causing more air to go under the car and more and more and more. Now if you can have vents that open under 25MPH and close above it you're golden. If not seal everything off and put a nice S10 airdam on the car in place of that puny stock air fence and the car will run much cooler above 25MPH.
I find that somewhat hard to believe in regard to this application.
It wouldn't literally lift the tires off the ground but it certainly could cause some lift on the front end.
“If the people of the nation understood our banking and monetary system, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” -Henry Ford
This is why the 2nd Gen Trans-Ams had those "scoops" on the sides of the fenders, they are actually air extractors used to relive the air pressure under the hood that makes the front end act like a hover craft at high speed! They also help to get rid of heat, at least while you are moving, by venting the hot under hood air. I don't know that it would look so good, but it would help if you can duct the air from the engine compartment to the extractors.
I have never heard of this s-10 air dam? Who has done this?
hahhaha well duh the tires actuallly don't leave the ground, but the weight on them is reduced. This reduction can be a lot. Example. I used to drive a 1970 911S Porsche. It had just the rounded under bumper not the little lip spoiler the 72 RS has. At 135 the steering would go very very light. Was scary.
I have them on all my cars. And my mother's car too. Reeves put one on his GLH a month or so ago. He has pics of it here. I can email pics if you want. early 80's to early 90's Chevy S10-S15 trucks. Come in 3 styles, with toe hooks (you don't want), without tow hooks (you want) and with fog lights.
Quick lesson in Aerodynamics.
The less in the air stream the better.
Bottom of car should be as flat as possible.
Frontal area should be minimized where possible.
Top side should be as fluid and devoid of 'sticky-outty-things' (technical term) as possible.
That being said... such a design would cause the car to create lift... basically acting like a wing on a plane. Top side would create a low pressure area where as the bottom side would have a realative static pressure thus creating the lift of a wing.
Key is to make sure as little air as possible is allowed to flow under the car, either by forcing the air to go over the top or around the sides (side is not ideal as this causes buffeting at higher speeds). This would create Down Force, or an inverse wing effect. By using the S10 air dam you stop a lot more air from flowing under the car and thus creating a lower pressure under the car. The lowest pressure would be found directly behind the air dam and extending backwards by a foot or two. This would help extract the air more efficiently from the engine compartment and dramatically improve engine cooling.
Now... the real trick is to use a large air dam, plate off the underside of the engine compartment, and slat the hood at key low pressure areas. You would have increased down force at higher speeds, improved high speed stability, and create massive low pressure in the engine compartment which would help to pull more air through and decrease underhood temps.
A cowl induction hood would not necessarily help keep underhood temps down. Cowl induction uses the air pressure that is built up on the base of the windshield to force air into the engine compartment, which is usually closed off and fed into the intake directly and not allowed to just flow in. I would think that a cowl would create the opposite of the desired effect that you are looking for.
That's kinda the short short version... there's a lot more at work than just the stuff above, but that is the basics of it... at least how I understand it anyway.
just my 2 cents.
I agree in principal. However I would like to point-out the stock pre-87 turbo vents on these cars. They obviously work under convention at low or no speed. At high speed I am not sure how they work. They are in a high pressure area, though not that high as they are pretty far from the windshield. They always have louvers that angle back. So the question is: does the high pressure on the hood cause air to be pushed down into the vent or does the venturi effect of the air flow over the louvers cause air to be drawn out of the engine bay?
My gut instinct tells me it's the latter.
I did it on my old Daytona CS VNT. Before I mounted the S10 airdam, it used to run hot(215*) at 70MPH in 70* weather. After I mounted it, it would run more like 185* at 70MPH in 100* heat. I also put one on my '90 Voyager LX. Here's some pics:
The S10 airdam doesn't look as good on the base/CS Daytonas but it did the job VERY well.
Here's the van, looks much better:
And here's GLHNSLHT2's Shelby Z:
W/O any real data on where the high/low pressure areas are, I would agree that it's probably the latter as well.
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