Self Vented Hood with GT500 Hood Vent

[FerociousP]

With the summer coming up and my ever growing desire to go to track days. I've taken on the project of venting my hood for better cooling while on track. This hood will only be used for driving to/tracking/ driving home from the track, so I am not worried about water intrusion. This may not be the best for daily driven cars.

I decided on the GT500 vent (AR3Z-16C630-AA) as it was relatively inexpensive ($80 shipped) from Tascaparts.com for the size and quality, and the fact that it was used as OE assumes a certain level of aerodynamic testing. With that said, I'm not sure it will be the best vent for tracking, but I think it will provide me some extra capacity for hotter track days. I feel for complete venting i'd need something much more extreme.



Started with a beautiful blue hood from a local forum member.





Super aggressive paint stripper. I watched the stripper move across the hood as paint bubbled up.


Not me in the picture. And you can tell by the hat he's not really gangster. Hood after 2nd round of stripping.


Noticed the hood had a few low spots on it, with what looked like filler... Hood didn't look repainted. Maybe factory work?





After "brushing" the aluminum with a 3M pad. Still debating on how to continue the finish as the brush lines are hard to keep straight. I just want something uniform without scratch marks everywhere.




Test fitting on current hood. tape lines show frame rails, beginning or radiator and start of hood "triangle".


Notice the clips, stud, curve... All taken into account during template making.


Finished template. Don't ever make a template on cardboard. When you cut it it tears and folds because it is two layers. Lesson learned. Luckily I made height and width measurements to adjust once template was transfered to hood.


I was alone so I didn't get any shot of me cutting, but I used a medium sized dremel with 1 1/2" EZ cutting wheels. Went through about 7 of them.


The front of the vent has a groove for the hood to slide into, so the front of the lip is "captured" and will not lift up, and the edges and sides have a bit of sealing foam. The "notches" had to be accounted for as well, but were little issue.





The clips all snapped into place with a little grinding, and even the stud will be funtional with a nut from the bottom. These two parts make the vent very secure and there is really no way for the vent to come off. 3M tape is also supplied in certain areas, but really isn't necessary.


Hopefully air just wants to fly out of there!


Driver-ish view. Gap from "triangle" is smaller than I thought it'd be, and i'm not bothered by it.


On the factory GT500 hood, the vent location is inset allowing flush intall. This isn't possible here, so this is about as flush as it gets. The plastic is tapered slightly with the "sharp" part being on the top of the edge, so the gap looks big, but it is actually sitting flush on the hood. I accepted it would look like this based on other attempts on other hoods on the internet.


View from below.


It was getting dark, hence the potato picture quality. Hood currently isn't mounted, but I plan to do so soon and check out location over the radiator. Its farther back than the tape I placed, but not too far back, so I'm hoping nothing but benefit from moving it.

My current plan is to work on the metal finish a bit, and then use special clear coat (POR-15 GlistenPC) for bare aluminum. I don't want a polished hood, but like the bare aluminum look, especially with my silver car. We'll see how that works out. Although bare aluminum doesn't "rust" or even oxidize too badly, it gets dirty and even one touch with a finger will leave a nice smudge. It needs to be protected.

[TitaniumTT]

Nice man, I like it. I've got a vented hood on my 8 and daily drove that car as did the two previous owners. Everythings sealed, no worries about it.

If you want to see how effective it is.... put the stick hood on and go beat the hell out of the car. Take a few temp reading with an IR gun.

Swap hoods and go beat the hell out of the car. Take a few temp reading with an IR gun.

If you want to look for airflow.... tape or tie a few tell tales (6-8" of lightweight string) inside the vent and see what they do. Sucked back into the vent, stagnant or stretched over the hood towards the windshield flapping around violently at the tail.....

[FerociousP]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

If you want to look for airflow.... tape or tie a few tell tales (6-8" of lightweight string) inside the vent and see what they do. Sucked back into the vent, stagnant or stretched over the hood towards the windshield flapping around violently at the tail.....

I just may do that. I've watched those yarn vids before and it really shows how counter intuitive aero stuff can be. The grille should make it easy to tie yarn too, and the GF crochets so our apt it covered in yarn anyway. Gopro on the windshield and some quick runs down the 'ol interstate wind tunnel.

More pics and updates to come as I finish and coat the hood, as well as mounted pics.

[FerociousP]

Also, not to hijack my own thread, but I also made a few changes that may skew my results a bit. My oil coolers were in TERRIBLE shape. These were NOT helping my oil temps out on the track. Hoping this will help coolant temps a bit too!





Definition of tedious! Easy enough, just lots to do!


Partially done with cooler. Bird hitchhiker inside the duct for who knows how long


MUCH better. Looks Ragged, but easy line of sight through the cooler if looking through each vent. Didn't want to shell out $130-$150 a piece to send them out for repair. Luckily I was able to do myself!


"Custom" oil cooler guards using already coated "gutter grate" material and 1/4" fuel hose as an endpiece/spacer to keep the grate about 1/2" off of the cooler.

Total cost $3 for all grate material (lowes) + 3ft of fuel hose ($4). No need for $50 RB grates! (I may keep an eye out for a grate with slightly bigger holes, but we'll see how this works out

[chibikougan]

Tinsel works well too has no strength to get wrapped up or snag anything. Available at party stores



Or plastic bag and cut strips for free.

[fc nut]

I've also been thinking of doing the gt500 vent. I'm glad to see that someone is on the same page. It looks really good too. I was gonna do this to my fc, before it got totaled. I'll be checking up on this progress.

[speedjunkie]

Nice job on the vent! And on the oil cooler grates as well. I just put those exact grates in my gutters last week lol. I guess I need to put the leftover pieces on the car.