Ram air

[MaineShark]

I'm looking into getting a stinger hood. It looks to me like I should be able to fabricate an aluminum box that would mount to the carb and house the air cleaner, similar to the stock "snorkel" intake, but with a single opening in the front, and a forward extension that would mate to the hood scoop.

I think I like that better than an air box in the hood, which would add a lot of weight to the hood, and have to be custom-made of fiberglass.

An air door could seal the scoop during rain, and a second door could open, under the hood, to allow the engine to breathe.

Thoughts?

Has anyone seen this sort of thing done, before?

Joe

 

[sscam69]

Sounds interesting but you have a lot of work ahead of you bud! lol

 

[69MyWay]

It can be done, but I prefer the cowl induction at the windshield rather than the ram air look of the stinger...because of the rain. The cowl hood is not going to drowned the motor in a storm, or while washing the car.

What you have suggested would allow water direct access to the air filter. In order to gate/door/valve it off, you would loose much of the ram effect.

The trans am and SS camaros with the SLP ram systems use a complicated air box that won't let water into the intake. It is only about 25% as efficient as it actually looks because the air has to twist and bend to get down to the air intake. There is not enough room under the C3 hood, even with a stinger hump to pull off all those twists and bends.

However...anything is possible given enough time and creative thought. You might just pull it off!

 

[GerryLP]

Chris,

That's a good point, and just like Joe, I enjoy the stinger hood look. What about closing the stinger scoop in the front, and then open the rear to allow a cowl effect? Would that work?

I would use this set up to accomodate an Air Gap intake or Torker more easily under the hood.

My car has a 3" high intake cleaner, and I would like to arrange/ design something to keep the hot air from finding its way into the carb so easily.

 

[WhalePirot]

The area at the base of the windshield is a high pressure area, so cowl induction hoods get air pushed into them.

I question the gains from this large project. Until high speeds are reached, 'ram' gains will be miniscule. The iar temp is another question so I'd look for simple solutions, as I m, in fact, to lower the underhood, hence the air intake, temperatures.

Has anyone used an electric radiator fan, mounted to pull air out of the side louvers? Is the effect worth the trouble?

I may be better off by (again) heat wrapping the headers. While a PITA to do, I have felt the thermal efficiency gain and knowthat underhood temps dropped as a result.

mike

 

[JohnZ]

"Ram Air" is primarily a marketing phenomenon; there's no measurable "ram air" effect below 150 mph, and the forward scoop opening is in "dead" boundary layer air anyway. The only benefit is cooler intake air, which generally results in a 1% power increase for every 10 degrees reduction in intake air temperature. Marketing guys love to hype "ram air", but that's all it is - "hype"; look at the scoop on a Pro Stock car - it isn't way up there to clear the carbs, it's up there to get out of the boundary layer air just above the hood surface.

 

[MaineShark]

Yeah, I understand that the "ram effect" isn't real... that's just what forward-facing scoops tend to be called.

Actually, opening both the front and back would probably be the best, for getting the largest volume of air in. Plus, I have a general dislike for non-functional scoops...

I think an electrically-actuated door in the front scoop could do the trick to keep rain out. It would cut off some air during rain, but I don't exactly need full power in the rain, anyway.

The thing is, the more I look at it, the more it seems like a fiberglass box built onto the bottom of the hood is the best way to go, as far as clearance for the intake/air cleaner. But that seems like a lot of work, especially when it comes to finding a way to mount the air door and actuator...

Any ideas? I like the idea of opening up the scoop, on general principle, but this is seeming quite complicated, for someone without significant fiberglass expertise.

I guess the simpler way would be a manually-removable plug for the front scoop.

Whalepirot: I posted something about fans in the vents, a while back. I'm not sure about C4's, but the C3's have a bit of stuff (charcoal canister, entire A/C system) in the way of getting direct access to the side vents. It would have to be relocated, first. I think that a pair of small fans would definitely help extract a lot of the header heat.

Any moderator: I don't know how this ended up in the C3 Tech forum. If you can send it over to the C3 Mods forum, I'd appreciate it.

Joe