Opening OEM Grille Cells With Router Technique — For Maximum Air Intake Flow

[jmagnus87]

Those Cowl hoods are cowl induction hoods. They are designed to let outside air into the engine bay for carbureted cars, and do not let hot air out.

These ones here that are pointed to the windshield?

edit:looks like there's a tiny bit of mesh there, i figured the whole back of that cowl would be wide open

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[mavisky]

These ones here that are pointed to the windshield?

edit:looks like there's a tiny bit of mesh there, i figured the whole back of that cowl would be wide open

Yes. While air will escape while sitting still, that is a high pressure area at the base of the windshield which will force air into the engine bay and not pull air out. Back in the day you'd then seal the carburetor to the bottom of the hood and that would feed your engine cold air from the base of the windshield vs hot air from inside the engine bay. This is the original cold air intake.

 

[svttim]

I appreciate what you say. But I avoid discussions about aerodynamics because I believe pretty much all of us 6g participants don't have the empirical data, or means to measure it, or the experience to apply it.

I think front end lift only comes into play at higher speeds, and even then I'd rather have slight understeer than oversteer. If I put a true wing on my car, I'd need a pro driver to determine the optimum angle. And so forth.

I think if more air is truly brought in, then it MUST also exit somewhere and I suspect that much air exits under the car behind the belly pan. IOW, a little closer to the C.G. of the car.

I started designing side hood vents that go behind the OEM vents. That keeps the hood stripes unbroken. I think it was @NeverSatisfied that posted a short video of how these had more airflow that his central vent. In summary, the desire for engine cooling with vents is more important than aero balance to me. And as I said, so far my cooling is just under control. Hence why I continue to procrastinate on this.

Take a look at the GT350 Grill and the GT350R grill from 2016 to 2018. That's data. It obviously means enough to Ford to close off the R grill. That being said, how many drivers here will know the difference? But overheating is worse than loosing a little aero. Not an argument just a statement

 

[GTP]

Take a look at the GT350 Grill and the GT350R grill from 2016 to 2018. That's data. It obviously means enough to Ford to close off the R grill. That being said, how many drivers here will know the difference? But overheating is worse than loosing a little aero. Not an argument just a statement

Agree 100%.

Daytona is so far from me that I will likely never do a track day there. But I do hope to get on track at Road America next year. Maybe Watkins Glen someday.
These tracks have speeds sufficiently high that well-balanced aero could be a good thing.

 

[GTP]

Here are a couple photos of my first grille. I will exchange it for the second one this week.

The first photo shows the near fully cutout pony area.

The second photo highlights that the cells were not full depth. (Compare this end section with the cells in the center section.) I used a saw-off-the-back-with-a-coping-saw method. Not enough control.

 

[djcodeman]

nice clean mod. I've done a handful of these and usually just use the dremel, but nice write up.

 

[mavisky]

Here are a couple photos of my first grille. I will exchange it for the second one this week.

The first photo shows the near fully cutout pony area.

The second photo highlights that the cells were not full depth. (Compare this end section with the cells in the center section.) I used a saw-off-the-back-with-a-coping-saw method. Not enough control.

May want to put some black vinyl in that pocked behind the passenger vent to darken that area that's normally hidden. I had to do this in a few spots on my old GT500 when I wen to a more open grille on it. You can use black vinyl or black plastidip which is what I used with some masking.

These angled pieces were originally silver as well as the portions by the brake ducts.

They would have been clearly visible behind this black billet grille I had.

 

[GTP]

May want to put some black vinyl in that pocked behind the passenger vent to darken that area that's normally hidden.
...

I have a matching pair of VT Big Mouth ducts, driver and passenger sides. The orange matches my car very close.
Kyle, you're helping too much!

 

[mavisky]

I have a matching pair of VT Big Mouth ducts, driver and passenger sides. The orange matches my car very close.
Kyle, you're helping too much!

Didn't even know those were a thing as the GT350 has that from the factory on the driver's side to feed the air intake.

Does the passenger side feed anything other than the fuse box?

 

[2morrow]

Didn't even know those were a thing as the GT350 has that from the factory on the driver's side to feed the air intake.

Does the passenger side feed anything other than the fuse box?

My 16 GT has the same on driver side

 

[GTP]

Didn't even know those were a thing as the GT350 has that from the factory on the driver's side to feed the air intake.

Does the passenger side feed anything other than the fuse box?

VT introduced a fake scoop for the passenger side soon after they offered color options. So then people could have color symmetry.

The back end of the passenger side is blanked off. So I cut it out to, again, send just a few more square inches of air intake to the upper corner of the rad stack. I also relocated my exterior temp sensor there.

 

[S550HPP]

Take a look at the GT350 Grill and the GT350R grill from 2016 to 2018. That's data. It obviously means enough to Ford to close off the R grill. That being said, how many drivers here will know the difference? But overheating is worse than loosing a little aero. Not an argument just a statement

Oil handles 80% of cooling if I recall correctly from Pennzoil corp training in Houston.

 

[Crew4991]

That Camaro grille is much smaller though.

LOL I think maybe those that want that "airflow" should just remove the whole damn front end.
This thing looks ready for the track... and also ready so suck up all that highway debris...

While we are talking about hilarious mods, why not modify that Mustang badge so that it looks more like a dog scooting its dirty ass across a rug.

+200hp for that mod.

 

[GTP]

Oil handles 80% of cooling if I recall correctly from Pennzoil corp training in Houston.

And exposing the secondary oil cooler to more air was my goal.

 

[S550HPP]

Definitely a good move and very nice workmanship looks OE

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