DIY Hood Louvers

[MrEvanchi]

Please ignore my ugly multi-colored car.

I've wanted to attempt to make some hood louvers for this thing for awhile now, so here it finally is. 

I should have done more testing beforehand to get a baseline on IAT's to substantiate their affect, but oh well. 

By nature of their design, the louvers are individually hand bendable, and also adjustable. I'm sure I'll be playing with the attack angles, as the first 1-2 need to be especially steep as to generate an optimal low pressure zone behind them to increase the flow rate of the rest. 

In any case, there's a tremendous amount of heat flowing them them just sitting idling with the radiator fans going. 

They're made of  18G(0.050" stainless, and fastened with M6 flanged button socket screws. The raw stainless will fair well in the elements, so I haven't decided if I would prefer it painted or not. 

Let me know what you think! 

(I can turn around and sell these to anyone interested, but I'll wait for feedback.) 

Edited May 3 by MrEvanchi

[KZJonny]

Looks well made and thoughtfully laid out dude!

Looks like you are on a FMIC? My gut tell me this would have an effect on the air flow through the scoop for those of us on a more stock-like system? But I am especially sure what the aerodynamics under hood would do with more venting, etc..

 

(Admittedly, I'm not cutting up my hood for anything, but I am genuinely curious if these will significantly effect under hood temps.)

[MrEvanchi]

It is FMIC now. It is on my list to block it off, just haven't decided how I'm going to yet without destroying the scoop.
It's a carbon fiber Cyber R scoop. It's a fairly small opening on the inside, easy to cap.  I only keep the scoop for the aesthetics, otherwise I've contemplated using a 2.5i hood instead.
When I block the scoop, I was also thinking about adding more louvers directly behind the scoop, but I haven't worked out exactly how much room there is yet, as the plastic wiper cowling and firewall are a good 3-5" inside from the edge of the hood. I also don't know for a fact if it's possible to go "too far" up the hood, as I'm sure the closer to the back, the higher and higher the pressure you will be fighting to move air through. But perhaps directly behind the scoop is plenty low pressure anyways. (Especially with how large the Cyber R is compared to stock.)

I want to say on average cruising on the highway, there is probably approximately a 10-15* delta on IAT's from ambient. I'll be watching as I commute from now on to compare. I'm most curious about extreme hot days, which are not far away here in the Dallas/FW area. 
I have a Cobb SF, I realize I forgot to include. It has no heat shielding of any kind. Very much at the mercy of the under bay temps. 

Edited May 3 by MrEvanchi

[seanyb505]

Any string theory test before? I suppose you can do it now either way. 

[MrEvanchi]

2 minutes ago, seanyb505 said:

Any string theory test before? I suppose you can do it now either way. 

Nope, but I will have to give it a shot. I don't have any good way to film it besides from inside the windshield, but it's fairly visible from there. 

[MrEvanchi]

I know it's fairly useless without taking baselines beforehand, but I've been paying loads of attention to my IAT's while commuting to and from work the last couple of weeks.
Most of the weather lately has been floating between the high 70's and low 90's. Some days had beaming sun, and some were cooler and overcast.
I'm averaging 10-12°F over ambient, and closer to 15°F on the hotter sunnier days.
These are while having been cruising for several minutes at 65-80MPH to account for heat soaking, and allowing plenty of time for things to normalize.
Sitting idle while the fans come on, there is a tremendous amount of heat escaping the louvers. The best part is that the AC is noticeably more effective when sitting still thank to the extra help. 
They are also too hot to hold your hand on after a drive on a warm day. 
If you've ever paid any attention to your IAT deltas like this, feel free to share them for some anecdotal comparison.
(To repeat, I have a Cobb SF with NO airbox.)

[Infosecdad]

11 minutes ago, MrEvanchi said:

(To repeat, I have a Cobb SF with NO airbox.)

Ah, that would help explain the 10-15 degree delta.

I have a Grimmspeed intake into the fender, but also modified it to take the stock intake between the hood and radiator and blocked off all the little areas between the engine and the fender. With the stock TMIC I was within 1-2 degrees of ambient temp when moving and with a Grimmspeed TMIC, I'm within 4-5 degrees.  It'll still heat soak if I sit for a while, but when moving it's great.  It was a little much probably, but I wanted to see how close to ambient I could get.

I would imagine your 10-15 while moving with an open Cobb intake is probably better than you had, but it's still going to suck in hot air from the engine unless it's mostly/fully closed off.

[MrEvanchi]

That's a very impressive delta. I guess the boxes are far more effective than I give them credit for. Next on my list I guess! 

I'll fab one up when I throw on this manifold I made.