My story starts much like another user on here (Bnag0). His journey can be found here. I originally got the idea of a minimal hood scoop from RioS2k about a year ago. Credit to both of them for the inspiration.

Some history...
Personally, I have been on my journey for about 2 years so. I have had my S since 06 and have since put nearly 80k miles on it. Yes, obviously, it's a daily driver and yes, before you ask, I have somewhat limited funds to spend on my "vehicle endeavors". For those reasons I have been constantly looking for ways to not only improve my car aesthetically but get some function out of the mods as well. I am completely obsessed with air temperature and efficiency and how both improve not only hp (in some cases) but longevity and efficiency of a vehicle. It began with my PC builds a while back and slowly, but surely, migrated to my car.

I have many images throughout the stages of this build that I will leave out for the purpose of this post.

My purpose...
A cost effective solution to heat soak while feeding my growing addiction based hobby of modding my car while balancing cost / efficiency / aesthetics.


Phase 1
Complete Vented Hood Mod


Phase 2
Purchase K&N Intake
Amazon had the best price at the time. In fact, a few months ago it was down to $185. Damn good price for the hardware.


Phase 3
Purchase K&N Filter Condom
Amazon once again had the best price and fastest shipping on the .05 oz item.


Phase 4
Fabricate Hood Scoop

Total Cost
Reciprocating Saw 50
Sheet of metal 50
K&N Intake 215
Filter Condom 20
Fiberglass 6
Resin and other tools 10
Paint 5
Time Invested = 10 man hours

Total Cost : $356 + time



Some Visual Stimulation

First Day Result


Second Day Result


Third Day Result (w/ awesome safety glasses equipped)


Fourth Day Result


Fifth Day Result




Here's why I did it






Final Thoughts

• I learned a lot throughout the process during each of the phases. I would be more than happy to share any and all of what I learned with anyone who wants to know.
• For the record, due to other member's comments, I am devoting all day tomorrow (minus the Steelers game) to cleaning my engine bay.
• I have hundreds of other photos that depict my process if anyone else is interested.
• The fitment is not perfect but it mounted almost prefectly.
• I will be working over the next couple days to reduce the gaps on each side and clean it up a little. I am far from finished.
• Performance. It's winter; so naturally more cold air is going to get to the box than any other time of the year regardless of my geographical throttle response.
• I don't have a pic of the condom on my filter. I will add one tomorrow once it's light out. It negates the risk of hydro-lock for those who would be concerned. I myself was concerned about it. It's one of the reasons I took on the task of crafting the hood scoop. It wasn't the moving water that scared me - more the standing water that would run in during a storm or heavy rain. If you reside in Florida, even with a fair weather car, you know how easy it is to get caught in a monsoon.
• If anyone has any pointers on working with fiberglass I am more than willing to listen. This was my first attempt (aside from my heat shield), which definitely lacked finesse.

 

Looks like a pretty good job for a first bit of fibreglassing. My process would have been a little different but would probably have taken a lot longer. There are basically two ways to do a mold - a positive (male) mold and a negative (female) mold. Unless you have access to CNC machining the negative mold is difficult to do as a first cut. Better for a relatively simple shape like this woudl be to create a male mold in something like balsa that can be easily worked, smoothed and finished. Once finished you can then use this mold to either build parts on (using a high quality mold release) or make a female mold in which to lay up your final part. If you do a really good job on the male mold the top surface will become the finished surface of the final part and it too will be really nice. Generally when you lay up on the male mold the exterior finish will no be as nice as you probably would like. Best way to get really nice parts either way is to use vacuum bagging which will remove any trapped air in the layup and remove excess resin, but the molds, whether male or female, must have very high finish quality (ie optically) - this will give the part a very nice finish with a constant thickness and will make releasing the part from the mold much easier. It will also give you a tool on which you can make several copies of your part for resale if you are so inclined. Fibreglassing is a wonderfully creative and satisfying process once you get the hang of it. Some of the supplier's sites have some really excellent material to download to explain and show you the processes involved (e.g. www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com) and u-tube sites that show you how. Have fun.

 

This first attempt is rarely ever great. I would have completely started over again, but I'm a slight perfectionist.

 

awesome mod dude, ram air effect on your fipk=


i wonder if you picked up a couple ponies with this maybe 1-2????

 

looks good! reminds of this guy's car

 

That looks great. Awesome job!

Do you find that it makes wind noise at highway speed?

 

HS2K.RLS I will be doing some heavy reading on the material you provided me. Thanks a lot.



Perhaps. Anything performance wise would be a bonus for me. My goal, due to my location, was to simply help reduce 'heat soak', get rid of the (in my opinion) ugly and oversided stock box, and utilize the hood vents. Although, I will be getting it dynoed soon to prove and/or disprove another ongoing theory of mine. That's for another post though.


Nothing that I can hear in the cabin. I am actually more worried about it catching to much air and adding extra unwanted stress on the hood latch or potentially bending the hood itself.

When I was younger I had a hood of an 84 firebird come up onto my windshield while I was driving. Perhaps I am a bit paronoid about it all though..

 

hood pins aren't too hard to install... you can use them aswell as your latch if you want to lol

 

awesome, may have to try this for mine, should work for sos chargers too!

 

I like it! If your worried about Hood definitely use some flush mount Hood latches in addition to the OEM Hood latch.when I had my carbon Hood on my prelude I has all three(2 locking Hood pins and the OEM as well