Guys, anybody tried to make use of the factory fake hood vents? Had a guy ask me if the factory hood Vents were real. Unfortunately they aren't. So, today I pulled them off dremeled out the honeycombs so they functioned as actual hood Vents. Under the hood, i cut out the hood insulation and lined the cutouts with black weatherstripping. Looks real and actually functions!! Anybody else tried this??
Working Hood Vents
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did you account for where rain water would go with working vents?
in that position it would be ram air, but they usually build cavities to drain water somewhere.
in that position it would be ram air, but they usually build cavities to drain water somewhere.
Here's a picture under the hood of the cutouts before i put weather stripping around the edges in the insulation. I may trim additional cutouts for more airflow. The hood has some awkward supports to really make it flow well. So far it's worked though
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It will give zero performance boost. It will let **** get into your engine bay, though likely not much. It may also mess with the aero of the car and get you worse gas mileage at speed. A lot of things like that Re made that way for a reason. Sometimes they build air pockets or pressure that allows other or to pass the car more smoothly.
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How much worse in gas mileage? I can't think of it doing anything significant since it seems to have little effect.
somewhere between 0 and 100% worse.
They do extensive aero testing on all cars and I remember them saying that the rebel was actually more aerodynamic (with the new front end) than the regular ram which is part of why it gets the same gas mileage as the regular rams with more weight (std air suspention vs non, skid plates and steel bumpers) and much more aggressive tires. Most cars now have an air **** or "smoothing plate" on the front bottom to help create a slip stream going over and under the car, who knows if this may push air through the engine bay and disrupt that. Cars are essentially a reverse airplane wing and it creates "suction" or downforce as the car moves, if you add another hold to pull air though it MIGHT reduce this effect, like having a hole in your vacuums hose.
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If you have your own wind tunnel you might be able to get a rough idea by trying it out your self. Other than that there is no real way to know. I doubt it will do much of anything at all other than dirty your engine bay, that area of the hood and windshield is very very low pressure by design. It makes it so most things get blown over your car instead of straight into your windshield and makes a bubble of air for the pressurized air to flow around. The bed of a truck is also designed to do this, you can see it in the pic, its also why your tailgate has a spoiler (wide top) to smooth out the air as it leaves the cars "bubble" and not cause a cavity of suction behind it as the car moves through the air.
#science
They do extensive aero testing on all cars and I remember them saying that the rebel was actually more aerodynamic (with the new front end) than the regular ram which is part of why it gets the same gas mileage as the regular rams with more weight (std air suspention vs non, skid plates and steel bumpers) and much more aggressive tires. Most cars now have an air **** or "smoothing plate" on the front bottom to help create a slip stream going over and under the car, who knows if this may push air through the engine bay and disrupt that. Cars are essentially a reverse airplane wing and it creates "suction" or downforce as the car moves, if you add another hold to pull air though it MIGHT reduce this effect, like having a hole in your vacuums hose.
If you have your own wind tunnel you might be able to get a rough idea by trying it out your self. Other than that there is no real way to know. I doubt it will do much of anything at all other than dirty your engine bay, that area of the hood and windshield is very very low pressure by design. It makes it so most things get blown over your car instead of straight into your windshield and makes a bubble of air for the pressurized air to flow around. The bed of a truck is also designed to do this, you can see it in the pic, its also why your tailgate has a spoiler (wide top) to smooth out the air as it leaves the cars "bubble" and not cause a cavity of suction behind it as the car moves through the air.
#science
Well for 1 the dam thing is only 6" wide by 1" tall so its not gonna be the end of the earth, 2 this is a truck not a drag car so doubt I'll be noticing any significant difference in aerodynamic drag, 3 I did it mainly for looks but also just as something to fiddle with to see if it made any difference in cooling, 4 if that massive front grill doesn't have water and other debris come through it (because you can look through the radiator at the engine behind the fan) then what are 2 little hood Vents going to do? Besides, the hood has cutouts underneath for water/air to channel out. The hood Vents are just popped in anyways so its not like its a watertight seal around them. Just did it a few days ago and only took it on the highway for a few miles to see if it would cool. So no haven't noticed anything change really. No wind noise from it.
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At least it's working and it shouldn't get wet enough to do any damage.
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With all due respect to the op. This is how a true hood air intake is designed to work from Dodge.
Note the plastic end of the intake plenum protruding from the lower left corner of the hood. This is to expel any water collected within the plenum straight down the back side, just in front of the firewall away from the engine. That plenum is a closed system from the hood vents all the way to the plastic exit you see here. Any water in the upper region of the engine bay spells trouble over time, electronics, corrosion ect. & not to mention an invitation for VOID of Warranty. Should anything go wrong during the warranty period, the dealership will have a legitimate reason to refuse service.
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Note the plastic end of the intake plenum protruding from the lower left corner of the hood. This is to expel any water collected within the plenum straight down the back side, just in front of the firewall away from the engine. That plenum is a closed system from the hood vents all the way to the plastic exit you see here. Any water in the upper region of the engine bay spells trouble over time, electronics, corrosion ect. & not to mention an invitation for VOID of Warranty. Should anything go wrong during the warranty period, the dealership will have a legitimate reason to refuse service.
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Good point! Makes not 1 bit of difference on my Challenger @ over 1000 hp. It's old school aesthetic purpose only, the shaker, 6 pk, Ta & air grabber were the only functional intakes that made a performance difference even back then.
If you look a designs of functional scoops the reason they are build with the snorkel type system is to get the air intake out of the laminar boundary layer of the air flow. Otherwise the air velocity in this region is so slow it's does not give any added performance. The old air grabber systems etc are for looks only and never gave hp increase. Engine cooling would be minimal at best. For engine cooling you would bring the air in the front end put vents towards the back. This way you get air flow over the engine.
Just my thoughts
Just my thoughts
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I beg to differ, as I owned a 71 Roadrunner with this very option & it supplied an unlimited supply of fresh air to the induction system as seen below. Cooler air in = better performance "Old school CAI" which is still used today, except the air is now directed to an airbox & throttlebody vs. a closed air filter & carburetor. Engine cooling? negative, wasn't designed to cool the engine, just fresh air to the induction system. The Hellcat has a hood designed to cool the engine with vents in the front.
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