HOW TO raising bonnet (cooling engine bay)

Hoodzy · Post by **Hoodzy** » April 24th, 2007, 5:02 pm

would they allow this in a race??
thats really only where I could see this being a benefit as it makes ur car look busted up and of course unsafe.

IRISHmx-3 · Post by **IRISHmx-3** » April 25th, 2007, 5:31 pm

yea they do! was at a track day the other day!
i already have a performance light weight aliminium rad ordered! for whoever mentioned it!

Hoodzy · Post by **Hoodzy** » April 25th, 2007, 6:53 pm

if I wanted engine cooling capabilities striclty during arace wouldnt taking the hood off be good enough or would that cause too much drag?

Red Rocket · Post by **Red Rocket** » April 25th, 2007, 8:12 pm

n2ogsze wrote:Yeah, and you can also fart on a first date, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

LMAO, almost fell of my chair.

Tropical Emerald 1993 · April 26th, 2007, 3:08 pm

Hoodzy wrote:if I wanted engine cooling capabilities striclty during arace wouldnt taking the hood off be good enough or would that cause too much drag?

now that's even more original

Post by **Mooneggs** » April 26th, 2007, 3:37 pm

I think Nd4SpdSe said it best...

Nd4SpdSe wrote:Besides, the thermostat won't really let you run the engine cooler anyway. Just get a cooler thermostat if you want it to run cooler, even some water wetter. Could always get a better rad, or even a front bumper with a larger air intake to move more air across the radiator, or a hood with a functional scoop of some sort

I'm sure mod is just as useful at Homer Simpson's speed holes...

Hoodzy wrote:if I wanted engine cooling capabilities striclty during arace wouldnt taking the hood off be good enough or would that cause too much drag?

Well I suppose while you were at it you could take off the doors and hatch then you would be 300 lbs lighter too! LOL but you would definately have some drag then and more than likely they wouldn't allow you to race

IRISHmx-3 · Post by **IRISHmx-3** » May 2nd, 2007, 1:27 pm

[quote="Mooneggs"][/quote] hey what coplour is your car it looks savage!

Post by **Mooneggs** » May 2nd, 2007, 2:07 pm

They are both primer black done with spray cans by yours truly

tehbrookzorz · Post by **tehbrookzorz** » May 2nd, 2007, 2:57 pm

Raising the hood is an interesting idea but I really do doubt the safety in a frontal impact. Perhaps it could be toughened a bit by creating some spacer plates between the mounting surface of the hood and the hinge, which would also make it look a bit less ghetto. I wonder if the gains in power would suffice to offset the undesireable gains in wind resistance due to the greater angle of the hood. It would be plowing into the air with greater resistance, and don't you only gain 1hp for every 4 degrees celsius or so cooler your intake charge is? Just thoughts.

OROutdoors · Post by **OROutdoors** » May 2nd, 2007, 6:55 pm

The easiest way I know of to temporarily increase the capability of removing heat from an engine bay is to turn the heater on full blast. It'll pipe that heat right out of the bay and into the cab. Drink lots of water and sweat it out. You'll have a cooler engine bay, (still) cool looking hood, and have that hot, drippy, sweaty look that just drives the ladies wild.

IRISHmx-3 · Post by **IRISHmx-3** » May 6th, 2007, 8:38 pm

yea turn on the head full! but that reduces the heat but you loose power from having to drive the belts!

im building a road legal track car! so i cant remove the bonnet! anything i do wont be changed when i got back on the road

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » May 7th, 2007, 12:26 am

tehbrookzorz wrote: I wonder if the gains in power would suffice to offset the undesireable gains in wind resistance due to the greater angle of the hood.

You know I never though of that

yea turn on the head full! but that reduces the heat but you loose power from having to drive the belts!

Which belt are you not driving when the heat is off? They're always working, always turning. Mind you some accessories have clutches (like the A/C) and what not, but those belts are always moving regardless, including the waterpump. It's not like your waterpump starts working when you turn on the heat...All you need to do is to move the inside temperature to "hot" which will open the heater case to let out hot air from the heater core. You could turn on the blower to aid on cooling, but that in theory will add an electrical load to the systemm, losing a bit of power, but having the case open definitely helps in itself...something I played with when my rad fan died on my 2 years ago, it was enough for my car *not* to overheat, stuck in traffic, in the middle of summer.

But again, you can make all these tricks to move more air and to cool down your car, but like I mentioned before, your just fighting with your thermostat. Another way to better your cooling is you install a copper radiator. Copper is a better heat exchanger than aluminum, however, it weights significantly more. As well, you could add ducting to direct air to flow over the fins and not around the rad (thanx to moss for the idea).

But the problem is that your just fighting with your thermostat. Like I said earlier, you can get a cooler thermostat. Stock is *I think* 185*C, but you can get a 160*C if i remember right, and I have no reason to believe that the Mx-3's cooling system on a stock motor can't get the temp down to 160. And if you try adding more "cooling tricks" to get it to run even cooler than that, or any temperature thermostat you get, what happens is that the thermostat will just remain closed longer and keep the heat in until it reaches the temperature of the thermostat you got. Unless you get like 5 copper rads, 10 rad fans, 3 waterpumps, and running in freezing temperature in the winter, than maybe you can get cooler than the thermostat will let you, but regardless, it's designed not to let you go any lower than what it's designed to let you.

Even then, cooling beyond the motor's designed runing temperature will decrease combustion efficienty, loose power. Sure, if good to get cold air into the motor, since it's denser, i'll lean out the mixture giving more power, but to cool down the engine itself is overkill and will work in the opposite manner in which your trying to gain performance. As well, the internal components are designed to be runing at a certain temperature as well, especially if you plan on driving it hard. Reason being why any race car gets "up to temp" before they start racing, they dont just get out on a cold motor and star racing, it's bad for the internals, stresses them out.

Your trying to gain performance by cooling your motor by an excess amount, however the cooling tricks suggested are for those who are experiencing cooling (overheating) issues because they done performance modifications that are causing the car to run hotter (bored out, turbo, supercharger, etc), trying to get the motor to run back down in it's normal running termperature.

You want your car to be a race car, but that kinda of hobby isn't cheap, yet your doing cheap ricer mods with no benefit whatsoever. I think you need to do some research on cars, specifically your own and understanding them first before jumping into such a project.

projectmx · Post by **projectmx** » May 8th, 2007, 10:29 am

i've actually seen a few cars at the track with this mod... this isn't a real aesthetic mod for shows... but for hard days at the track this wouldn't be a bad idea just to allow extra cooling in the engine bay then drop it back down to normal at the end of the day

IRISHmx-3 · Post by **IRISHmx-3** » May 8th, 2007, 12:56 pm

my car is a track car! well project track car! hope to have it ready come september ish!

racer3v · Post by **racer3v** » May 15th, 2007, 10:27 pm

Did you notice any type of performance difference after doing this mod?

MX-3.com

HOW TO raising bonnet (cooling engine bay)

Is that worth it