Some may remember, I had an Evo8 hood vent plopped on the hood of my car, as I v-mounted it and needed a vent. Quick, easy, functional, cheap... yep! So I thought.



Turned out, it was cheap, ugly, and completely pointless. Since it sat flat on the hood, and the hood is at an angle (not parallel to the ground like some think) disaster struck. Not really. It just created an area of high pressure at the vent, which was enough to block the flow of air going through the intercooler from the duct work. So, that had to go.

I got an aluminum hood (that first one was steel ) this time and fabricated up a new vent from aluminum sheet. Since I can't weld, and all I can get locally is super thin 0.020" sheet aluminum, I did what I could with what I had.







So please, be as brutally constructive as necessary. I think it'll do. Looks decent enough, and seems like it will function pretty well. I haven't tested it yet, but I'll find out tonight how much lower the intake temps will be. It would get around 120F with the Evo vent, and not much higher with just the aluminum hood.

I'll wash it when the paint dries.

 

I like it, and want to do something like this behind my radiator.

Only thing i would change is the seams on the outside, top edge of the vent. Could have been done cleaner.

Overall i like it though.

 

Looks good and is functional. I like it.

Let's see what the vmount looke like!

 

I think it looks awesome plus you built it yourself! I noticed your in GA I wouldn't mind seeing it in person do you go to any of the meets around?

 

Thanks! I know the pics kind of suck, but it's just SO bright outside. With the garage door shut, there's not enough light to get a better picture. Anyways, if you can see in the picture, there is 1/8" flat aluminum, 3/4" wide that's riveted to the top part of the vent. I did that for 2 reasons. One is structural support, and 2 is because I didn't know what to do with the unfinished edge. I don't work sheetmetal very often, so my cutting methods were a little primitive. I started with using tin snips. Effective, but makes awful edges. I tried an angle grinder. That's kind of like using a chainsaw as a craft knife. Then, I realized I had cutting wheels on my bead roller, and that made everything better. However, I had already cut most of the sheets. It was a learning experience, but I think I did alright for a first shot.

Thank you! I just snapped some current vmount pics. The ones I've been pimping out are a little old by now

This one shows the subtle opening I cut through the S4 trim, then painted the yellow plastic back to black. Hard to notice at first



The cooling panel is made from Lexan. Lowe's racing




Thanks! Depends on where in GA. I'm heading out to a meet in Jacksonville, FL tonight. I'm not sure if there are any in the southeast area around Brunswick, St. Marys, Waycross. If you know of some, let me know

 

I don't know of any around there. I usually find small meets that are just crap im kind of losing faith in my area. Thinking of checking out the old guys meet though

 

Is the ShineAuto vent really THAT expensive? I'm sure it works, but you really need a time attack or mad max themed car to justify that .....raw apperance. In all honesty ducting makes a MUCH bigger difference than the vent, so you could have left the the hood stock and retained most of the benefit.

 

$250 approximately. Not worth it to me. I weighed the cost/benefit and determined that a few hours working with aluminum and this as the outcome was better than spending that kind of money on something that looks pretty. This vent functions... so much better than anything I've tried. I did add a lot of ducting to that intercooler. I put some stainless steel panels in there to attempt to direct airflow a bit more, but the intake temps with that (and coolant temps too) would still climb. The solid hood with the insulation removed would just not allow enough air to flow.

It's definitely not permanent though. If I ever do get enough cash saved up, I'll probably hit up a vendor to get a nice looking hood to match the rest of the nice car. For right now, it's functional, and that means a lot more to me.

The numbers are in though, and I'm quite pleased. Before with ambient temps between 75-80F, intake temps regularly soared above 120F, even reaching 135 at times. I tested the car Saturday and NEVER got intake temps above 110F, and that was with an ambient temperature of 90F.

 

looks good, i just think it looks too aggressive if the rest of the car is stock body. Maybe spray paint it

 

I agree. I painted the frame to help it blend with the car better. I wasn't sure how it would have turned out if I painted the whole thing. I was afraid of fisheyes, because it's pretty hard to make sure you get every little bit of grease and oil off bare metal before painting, especially something with that many angles. Only one way to find out though

 

Looks great. Gives me ideas for mine as I née to start budgeting better