its VERY VERY hot here in so cal, and i've been meaning to get a hood for quite some time. i was originally looking at a mugen/mugen style hood, but would a j's/cwest v type hood offer more cooling efficiency? any input?

 

not AZ hot...

as for the question I'm not exactly sure...but having a minor in meteorology I can tell you it will be cooling off soon.

 

I belive every Vented hood will give you some kind of cooling effect

 

The ones with the vents over the exhaust manifold will work the best.

 

Viper..thanx, there's always good stuff coming from your fingertips . But as far as the mugen/top secret style hood vs the j's/v type...would the mugen be better at reducing underhood temps, because it looks like the v-type is better for cooling efficiency for the radiator...anyone care to chime in on that?

 

Viper is right on again.

The Feels CF hood has a higher vent over the exhaust manifold and engine. The Weber Sports does too.

But the best one I believe is the new Spoon FRP hood. It has a vent that sits right over the EM.

The Mugen and Js Racing offer about the same in terms of a "cooling hood."

 

My take is that the cooling efficiency of the radiator isn't a real issue with this car as the cooling system works very well. Having a vent near the rad would be good when the heat builds up in the rad and no air flow is going through it. This would be in stop and go traffic, when the fan hasn't tripped yet. Now, if the fan hasn't tripped, then the heat in the rad isn't consider excessive anyway. With fan activation or forward car movement, you would get the heat being pushed toward the rear of the engine compartment where it must fight its way down and out the bottom of the car.
Furthermore, of all the things in the engine bay that would shed the most heat, it would be the exhaust manifold. Where the temp of the air coming through the rad may only get up to maybe 150 degrees as indicated by underhood temp recordings, the exhaust manifold can put out temps that are in the hundreds of degrees. It is also this heat that contributes most to underhood temps. I would elect to go with vents to get rid of heat at the hottest point. The rest will take care of itself. Vents near the radiator may actually allow air to escape and not have a chance to force things out near the middle/rear of the engine bay, where it can take more heat with it. Of course, this is pure speculation and without thermometers placed in strategic locations with different kinds of vented hoods, no concrete statements can be made.

EG. With my T.S. hood, heat comes out of all the vents, but it particularly "pours" out of the rearmost one (just above the exhaust man). Even the fake vent just over the battery will allow quite a bit of heat to escape.

 

To what end is this hood for....performance or looks? I would think that with aluminum's great heat transfer capability, all you would have to do is remove the insulation and you'd see a decent temp reduction.

How much can you reduce temps with and aftermarket hood? How does the reduction translate into noticable performance gains?

 

Removing the insulation from the hood helps reduce temps ?

 

Removing the insulation will peel the paint off your hood in time.
I don't think that, in an otherwise stock car, you will see any "performance" gains from a vented hood or from lowering the underhood temps. I just don't like to bake my underhood components any more than necessary but then, I don't have the OEM header or heatshields anymore, so I want to get rid of that heat.