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.
Self Vented Hood with GT500 Hood Vent
Linear Mode
