Had anyone converted the fake hood louvers on the flat 442 hood (not the W25 hood) to be functional? Either for heat extraction/ventilation or as a fresh air intake source. I really like the look of the flat hood over the W25 hood (as Joe P has stated, there are more cars today with W25 hoods than ever left the factory with them) but I would like to make the vents functional.

As a cold air intake, the rear half of each louver is situated above the brake booster and the HVAC suitcase making it impossible to fit an air box below, but the front half of each louver has room below that could be opened up as in air intake. There are about 23 fins in each louver; If I cut a 1/8" slot in 12 of the fins, each slot would be approx. 5' long; that would create a net opening of 7.5 square inches, 15 square inches total counting both louvers.

Any thoughts on this? Is the net opening too small? Crazy idea? Not worth the effort?

Rodney


This is the flat "442" hood with the fake louvers.


This is the back side of the cast louver. Using a 4" grinder, I would cut 1/8" slots in 12 of the fins to make them functional. I would have to cut a hole in the hood as well to allow airflow into the engine bay.

 

I wouldn't do it to an original set unless they're already messed up.

 

Please remember that those are ornamental and previously there was nothing there at all. That is not a good position to draw air into the engine compartment as it is neither facing forward nor at the cowl. Your fresh air inlet is back at the windshield on the cowl for your HVAC. I think cutting a hole in the hood will dump hot air into your vent inlet. This happened to a rig of an offroad guy who cut functional louvers right before his air inlet and got hot air through the dash vents due to that.

 

I would agree. The base of the windshield is a natural high pressure area (Chevy was on to something with their Cowl Induction hood) and the fresh air intake for the ventilation is lower pressure, hence GM “Astro Ventilation” system. If you open up the ventilation to the engine compartment, I’m betting it will get hot as hell in the car, assuming you don’t pass out from the engine fumes.

If you want cold air induction, there are much better ways to go about it.

 

They are too close together and too short to grab any real air. In addition, you would have to make a tray with a drain to keep rain water out of the engine compartment. The other issue is the lack of strength of the individual fins once you open the area up.

 

What Koda said. The flat part of the hood is actually a LOW pressure area. Functional louvers there would suck air out of the engine compartment. The leading edge of the hood (like the W25 scoops), the front of the car (like the earlier W30 O.A.I. setups), and the base of the windshield (like the 69 Camaro cowl induction) are the three highest pressure areas on the car at speed. Most musclecar "ram air" setups were decorative, not functional.

 

I added the under-bumper OAI scoops to my Starfire with 2 4” air inlet tubes to the dual snorkel.

Much fun as the covid-era project was, I’m not sure it made much difference in power or economy.

Just in case you’re convincing yourself that it’ll make a difference.

Chris

 

You could always leave them off for a short stint. They tape some short pieces of yarn around the openings to see what the air is doing like they did in FORD VS FERRARI. Could be kind of fun, send pictures.

 

Winner!

 

This works great for me. Cowl and 2 engine vents. Real world testing. No hot air or smells coming in from vents.