Heat under the Hood

[jetset0045]

Being that is is my first C3, i've noticed that it gets extremely hot under the hood of my 74. Alot hotter than any of the Chevelles or Camaro's i've played with in the past.....so hot that you can barely take off the air cleaner after you have run the car for a while!....is this normal for Corvettes? I'm suspect that the air door on the back of the hood is not opening, but i still don't see that being enough to cool the engine bay that much.....any opinions...?

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

The heat you're noticing is normal. '73 through '75 have a cowl induction system to duct fresh air into the air cleaner assembly as you have noted. Unfortunately it's all 'show' and no 'go' and does nothing to supply fresh air as configured by the OEM.

 

[jetset0045]

Will doing things like removing the covers on over the control arms, maybe even taking the insulation off the top of the hood help to disapate the heat at all? I mean, all that heat is not good for making horsepower!..

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Some guys take the flapper out of the hood inlet duct and block the two snorkels in the air cleaner housing to act as sort of a cold air intake. Won't really add much horsepower as the '74s were not high HP cars to start with.

 

[White75]

Will doing things like removing the covers on over the control arms, maybe even taking the insulation off the top of the hood help to disapate the heat at all? I mean, all that heat is not good for making horsepower!..

I would not recommend taking the insulation off. The heat can damage the paint (we've got heat related damage on the 75 due to no insulation)

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

The stock GM underhood insulation is for noise reduction only, not for heat. There's plenty of earlier stock C3s that came with with no insulation and have suffered no paint damage. Most damage is caused by poor surface prep prior to painting.