Louvers?

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RossDinan6
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Louvers?

Post by RossDinan6 »

I'm out in the garage with a frosty adult beverage looking at the 6. For quite some time I have pondered evacuating heat from under the hood. There is quite a few signs of heat damage from the heat generated by the turbo. I'm tempted to louver the hood old school hot rod style.

Has anyone done this? Opinions (they are like A holes, right)?

The AC upgrade might just be finishing up, so another project couldn't hurt.
Ross
'84 633 Dinan turbo
bpoliakoff
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Re: Louvers?

Post by bpoliakoff »

With the "super structure" under the hood "skin" it seems to me it will limit what can be achieved
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RossDinan6
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Re: Louvers?

Post by RossDinan6 »

You are right about the reinforcement limiting the available area. There is still a fair amount of unreinforced space. Not sure how the style lines carrying back from the kidneys would affect it.
Ross
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Jubilados
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Re: Louvers?

Post by Jubilados »

It doesn’t seem like it would make much difference in under hood temps.
Maybe a little at idle.
But at any decent speed (say over 25-30 mph) there’s a huge amount of air going into the front grill and through the engine compartment. That air is getting vented out through the bottom of the car. It’s definitely not staying in the engine compartment.
LarryM
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Re: Louvers?

Post by LarryM »

I wouldn't do it. [-X

I'm still haunted by the memories of cutting through the hood of my first car, a beautiful 1963 Impala SS, to install one of those fiberglass "teardrop" hood scoops that were popular back in the day. When I think of some of the things we did to our cars back then; hack jobs that seemed a good idea at the time... :oops:

Fast forward 50 years. These days whenever I return home after a drive, I open my hood to let things cool down for an hour or two. Some might consider that overkill, but our cars are becoming antiques and as such deserve special care. Many plastic or rubber parts in the engine bay are becoming NLA so we need to do what we can to preserve them as long as possible.

Anyway, that's my "opinion".
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jps635
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Re: Louvers?

Post by jps635 »

'85 635csi JPS (RA2-66)
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RossDinan6
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Re: Louvers?

Post by RossDinan6 »

I completely forgot about that conversation.
Ross
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sansouci
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Re: Louvers?

Post by sansouci »

Rather than going up into a high pressure area at the scuttle, how about exiting aft of the front wheels. NACA style ducts come to mind. Also look at the 1955 MB 300SL. You might try the wool knitting thread analysis. We did that with tell-tails on my racing boat (J-24 for you sailors) to optimize airflow. Go-Pro can record the results at speed.
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Re: Louvers?

Post by wattsmonkey »

Not sure if I posted elsewhere, but I followed 635Syd's suggestion and had the M manifolds and downpipes ceramic coated by Camcoat in the UK. Exactly as he said, the difference was amazing - it was just about possible to touch the manifold soon after shutting off the engine.

Expensive, but absolutely amazing.
"Most of it necessary; all of it enjoyable." LJKS
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