Cowl of a Vette

[Stallion]

The cowl on the hood of a Vette, besides just looking absolutely beautiful () does it have a purpose? Maybe to allow some more air to get into the engine for better cooling? If not, then what?

Thanks!

TR

 

[Tom73]

It is the air intake for the passanger compartment.

tom...

 

[Stallion]

But where does the intaken air go to?

Thanks!

TR

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Take a look here for an explanation.

http://home.attbi.com/~jchadwick/ventilation.htm

 

[JohnZ]

The cowl on the hood of a Vette, besides just looking absolutely beautiful () does it have a purpose? Maybe to allow some more air to get into the engine for better cooling? If not, then what?

Thanks!

TR

The cowl on the hood itself (starting in '73) has a solenoid-operated flapper valve in the rear which opens at wide-open throttle to admit cooler outside air to the carburetor intake from the high-pressure area at the base of the windshield; under ideal conditions, there's a 1% power increase for every 10 degree drop in intake air temperature. During normal operation, intake air is taken from under the hood, and when the engine is cold, intake air is drawn through a "heat stove" on the passenger side exhaust manifold through a vacuum-operated valve in the air cleaner snorkel to improve cold fuel vaporization during warmup.

The raised cowl on '65 and '66 big-blocks allowed outside air to be drawn in through openings in the side of the cowl; the '67 big-block hood was just for looks - had no openings at all for outside air (except for the twenty L-88's, which had openings cut in the rear of the hood inner panel with no valve).

No hood or radiator support/grille opening of any kind has any "ram-air" effect whatsoever at car speeds; the only benefit of systems that are touted as "ram-air" or "cowl induction" is cooler outside air for the intake. Marketing people love to hype "ram-air" systems - engineers ignore the hype, as it has no basis in fact.

 

[Stallion]

Okay, I see what you mean. Thanks, John!

TR