Keepin it cool- air

[zpwn06]

I fairly recently purchased my 2000 3.8 fbody and was researching CAI systems, filters, airlids and basically decided its fairly unlikely any of those are worth the money especially since I'm errrrr... unemployed at the moment.

After driving for a while I'll pop the hood and see what kinda stuff is going on down there and its as you would expect: a lot of hot air coming off the coolant lines, radiator, ect. but generally staying away from the induction system except for the manifold which gets a bit warm.

The only thing that concerns me is that the air box is mounted directly over the radiator and for some reason the radiator is radiating. Imagine that. Well while I generally like stock induction setup, this seems like an easy little issue to fix. I was considering just unbolting all of the upper intake and putting some washers down there to create a littler room between the box and the radiator so he air will act as an insulator. Alternatively, I'm considering putting a fiberglass insulation pad down there.

However I was wondering about:
Hood clearance- how far will I be able to raise it
Structural integrity- who knows. I plan to reuse the same bolts, if they're not long enough I'll have to get some longer ones.
Airflow- I hope I'm not obstructing it in some unforeseen way.
Anything I haven't thought of




Anyway this is just a little project to keep me occupied. Comments appreciated.

[Smoke Panther]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

The only thing that concerns me is that the air box is mounted directly over the radiator and for some reason the radiator is radiating. Imagine that.

Your radiator needs lots of air flowing over it in order for your engine's cooling system to work properly

Well while I generally like stock induction setup, this seems like an easy little issue to fix. I was considering just unbolting all of the upper intake and putting some washers down there to create a littler room between the box and the radiator so he air will act as an insulator.

the thermo properties of air don't work in the way that it would be able to provide a seperation between the "hot" air off the radiator and the air being drawn into the intake. Anyways, even if it did, the air the intake would be drawing is just the stuffy air that's trapped under your hood, rather than the reletively fresher air that would come from the car's designed intake route.

Hood clearance- how far will I be able to raise it

Not far

Structural integrity- who knows. I plan to reuse the same bolts, if they're not long enough I'll have to get some longer ones.

you won't be able to get the air tray high enough to worry about longer bolts. Also, that area isn't a particular "stress" area anyways

Airflow- I hope I'm not obstructing it in some unforeseen way.

nah

Anything I haven't thought of

if you're tight on cash, then search "deleting the silencer" or something along those lines

[lookout4theyeti]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Like smoke said, search for the free ram air mod. Theres also a write up to make an intake similar to the ssra kit. I made mine for about 10 bucks. PM me for the link.

[zpwn06]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Thanks for your comments, I', looking into those options now, and while I'm at it...

Why does my throttlebody get so dang hot? Is that just conduction from the engine or is there coolant flowing through there? Would a spacer cut it down? what about ceramic paint?

[Smoke Panther]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Why does my throttlebody get so dang hot?

there are coolant passages in it

Is that just conduction from the engine

In a roundabout way, yes

or is there coolant flowing through there?

yes

Would a spacer cut it down?

no

what about ceramic paint?

no

[zpwn06]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

ah. well then. Is the coolant pass in there important? I read about bypasses often but it never seemed terribly smart to me.

[97rs4life]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

ah. well then. Is the coolant pass in there important? I read about bypasses often but it never seemed terribly smart to me.

what state are you from? Do you drive in the winter when it is freezing out? If you don't then you can plug the tb up and there are no ill effects from it. Just a groove in the back of the tb is all it is

[Smoke Panther]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

the air doesn't stay in the TB long enough to make a considerable difference. You may encounter problems if you live in a cold environment

[zpwn06]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Haha I live in texas. Have the opposite problem in the summer.

Maybe a valve I can open and close depending on the weather

the air doesn't stay in the TB long enough to make a considerable difference

Or maybe not since it won't make a difference.

[jmbrooks]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Another thing you can do is "shave" your stock air cleaner lid. If you remove it and look on the under side of the cover you will find a bunch of restrictive baffles. Remove them, some use a dremmel tool. I just used a sharp wood chisel and hammer, then added a K&N air filter. There's a write up on it in here some where.

I've been looking at the air box opening and trying to decide how to open it up more. The hood lock assembly on the hood itself sits right in front of the air box opening, blocking it. Still considering options for that. I'd love to find an SS hood, but that's $$$.

Russ

[zpwn06]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Actually from what I understand, the hood latch assembly is actually creating a high pressure zone behind it due to the bernoulli effect or something, meaning denser air for your engine.

Also, are the baffles really restricting? Why would they be in there if they were. GM doesn't just say "Damn our car is too fast, lets throw some plastic on there to choke off its air" if they've put it on there there must be some reason, now if that reason isn't performance related...might as well take it off. So until I can think of some reason they should go, they're staying there- I tend to believe auto engineers know more than I do about how their car works.

Aftermarket airlids are smooth but I always figured the reason for that was to make a better fit with the aftermarket airfilters (and to look cool).

If you're still interested you might go for the functional nostrils mod, which, if nothing else, looks hella cool. Might even lower the temp a bit and provide that ram effect next time your on the autobahn.

[Crazed98Camaro]

Re: Keepin it cool- air

Also, are the baffles really restricting? Why would they be in there if they were. GM doesn't just say "Damn our car is too fast, lets throw some plastic on there to choke off its air" if they've put it on there there must be some reason, now if that reason isn't performance related...might as well take it off.

Pretty sure they are there for noise reduction, just like the silencer.
Automakers don't like it when their engine sounds abnormally loud.