Best FUNCTIONAL Vented hood for FC3S?
 

We've all seem the RE-A hoods, the Dmax Hood and others I may not remember right now but WHICH ONE IS THE BEST at getting rid of the engine bay heat?? I mentioned this in Low Impedance's "How Air Works" thread and I thought I'd dedicate a thread to this topic and see where your experiences differ and coincide.

Discussions on other forums don't really yield any real answers other than the vents are a marketing gimmick. At what point does the hoods become just an aesthetic modification and not a functional one though?

If you're familiar with these please post your input.

RE-Amemiya and replicas:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...da/h8000cf.jpg


Border Hood:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...deas/hood7.jpg


Sexy Style Hood:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...stylehood4.jpg



Foresight hood, Excuse the tiny pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/ef8b2555.bmp
http://www.hpmix.com/home/foresight/images/img99.jpg


Foresight Style 2?:
http://www.hpmix.com/home/foresight/images/img117.jpg

Dmax Hood:
Claims 16*C temp drops
http://www.dmax-cs.com/english/bonnet/b1.jpg


Rmagic Hood:
http://carview-img02.bmcdn.jp/carlif.../800404/p8.jpg



Knightsports Hood:
http://www.knightsports.co.jp/blog/imgs/fsin.jpg

Out of all the ones I posted, the Knightsports seems the most useless. Maily because of the TII-like Opening.

so, which one would be best at getting rid of heat? Looks are unimportant here.

I am partial to the Border hood. Functional or not.

Hoods like this are easy to make. I have two NA hoods I plan to hack up and try to make my own.

Personally the RE-Amemiya/300GT hood looks great, and should be decent for removing air in more key area's, namely over the turbo and then again on the intake side of things. I can only imagine what an Efan would do with a hood like that, like de-icing a windshield once the engine's warm.

Im kinda partial to it so theres my opinion, and I think El nene 7 on the other forum has that hood as well.

Placement of the vents does not necessarily remove heat. While heat can escape over the turbos at idle it won't necessarily while moving.

Someone would need to do a test using string to see how air flows over each hood. You would also need to monitor temperatures at different areas under the hood.

As far as I know nobody has done any real tests on any of this. It would be awesome if someone had a hefty stack of spare hoods and some free time :).

Now the real question is where can you find some of those hoods? I'm afraid to order a gt300 hood from chaser autobody because well... their pictures leave me with a not-so-good impression of what I'm buying. Any tips?

DOn't know.

I know they are sold on Ebay sometimes but the other choice is to buy them from FDnewbieImports (1600 for FG Dmax hood!!) but it's pricey to get the original stuff from JPN.

Yeah, i'm not into that price tag at all.

I know chaser aerodynamics has one from c-west and a fiberglass one, but they use the same pictures for both, and they just look like inserts into an aluminum hood, no vents cut out or anything. If that's the case I'd rather just go NA Fiberglass/carbon hood and get it painted.

actually, I do believe they ARE inserts for rainy days, but I was just like you, I thought it was a useless aesthetic part. You can remove them and make them into functional vents on dry days. Here is an ebay link. I contemplated buying this but I have more important things to waste money on before I do the exterior.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mazda-RX7-86-91-...QQcmdZViewItem

I am seriously itching to hit "buy" but I need interior and random engine stuff first!!!

Notice in this pic:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a.../h8000cf_3.jpg
You can see the difference in the CF between the vents and the cover that was attached to the underside.

Higgi made a custom vent for his hood and I'm contemplating doing the same but I'd rather not "eye-ball" it and cut into random sections. I want to KNOW where the vent placement would MAXIMIZE heat expulsion.

That's quite tempting... I did just get money in... do I want to inveset in it? hmmm.... better wait for a few.

yeah, I'm really hoping that as more people join this forum they'll test their previously purchased hoods and post some numbers. As of now I don't see the point in having people spend their money to test something out, especially when the items can get pricey.

On the other hand that hood is CHEAP!!! :willy_nilly:

well, there's only finite locations where heat will be generated. One is the radiator. Two is the exhaust manifold. Three is the rest of the engine. I say just cut three really large holes over those locations and call it a night.

Or isolate it to create a vacuum effect to pull the heat away from the engine bay and up over the windshield. You should get that with pretty much any lambda flow.

However becareful of making them too big. You'll end up causing a similar condition to that of a convertible/truck bed, in which the wind just creats turbulance and the thermal energy isn't really passed over anything, but kept inside the engine bay.

I was planning on cutting up one of my old NA hoods (Border style) and see how it comes out.

Of course that is after an EMS, turbo upgrade, finish the TII driveline, ahhhhh nevermind.

i often wonder what a modular system would look like. Have an aluminum skeleton and then have different pieces that can be pushed in to have the desired affect. Flat pieces, scoops, vents, cowls, etc. All changed and swapped in at will of the owner.