We all know that the air taken in by the airbox is heated air due to the radiator mounted near the lower grille. So, I decided to make a simple experiment by popping the hood and placing a small rubber stopper as to prevent the hood from bouncing up and down from the freeplay of the 2nd lock mechanism.

Relying on the old "butt-o-meter," I felt that the car's throttle response improved a bit. This is probably due to the fact that air taken in is immediately outside air and not heated air from the radiator. RAM-AIR anyone? Furthermore, the slight lift of the hood acts as a funnel for cold air to cool the engine block.

Of course, the car starts to look dumb this way and it's coefficient of drag starts to equal that of a brick but if you want FREE performance gains, this has to be it.

 

Or, you could mat a insulating mat and not drive around with your hood open. Check the Underhood section for details.

 

Funny this post showed up. At the beginning of a recent vacation I had installed a bug screen at the top opening to my "snorkel" to keep the bugs out. It was a simple install where I folded the mesh over the edges of the snorkel opening and used friction to hold it in place. I lowered the hood onto the first latch to go do something else and got distracted. I went on the highway for about a couple of miles before I saw the hood was not fully closed. I went to check under hood before slamming it shut and noticed the mesh had blown off. I replaced the mesh and slammed the hood and for the next 2500 km, the mesh stayed put. It has been reported that the air pressure at the hood opening was actually lower than anywhere else. My little experiment sort of proved this. The snorkel creates a bit of a high pressure area in the pre-rad, pre airbox horn area. By leaving the hood "cracked" open, this high pressure had an alternate place to escape, so instead of going back into the engine bay & out the bottom, the excess pressure that was not used by the airbox went out the crack in the hood thereby reducing the "ram air" effect to a small degree. It seemed that with the hood cracked open, more air went through the snorkel. If more air went in through the cracked open hood, the mesh would not have blown off. Does this make sense?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
[B]

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by joe_s2k
[B]

I think I got lost.