96 Camaro Air Vents

[pinball-1]

I was just wondering if it would be possible/safe to cut those small air vents out, as they are fake, and then put a grill type thing over or behind it. This way it would actually be open and not a little piece of plastic with some holes in it. Would this be safe for the engine and other parts of the car inside the hood?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Dustin

[98 3.8]

Cutting that out couldn't cause the engine any damage. Lots of hoods have open vents on them without any problems.

[pinball-1]

Ok, but I have another question also that I forgot to ask. Would it be ok to cut that liner that goes on the inside of the hood? I'm guessing its for heat protection...right? If I cut that, which I would need to do, would that ruin the paint if the engine got to hot?
Thanks again.

[Earnhardt132000]

Most aftermarket hoods do not come with that liner. So I'm guessing it wouldn't effect it that much...

[asdf1234]

Those vents aren't open for a reason. GM did testing on them and realized that air flowing through them at highway speeds and such affected the air flow to the radiator, causing the car to overheat or run too hot in hot weather conditions. And also, if its raining, i'm sure you wouldn't want water flowing onto your hot engine, so if you do cut out the vents, make some baffles.

[BiH]

Originally posted by asdf1234:
Those vents aren't open for a reason. GM did testing on them and realized that air flowing through them at highway speeds and such affected the air flow to the radiator, causing the car to overheat or run too hot in hot weather conditions. And also, if its raining, i'm sure you wouldn't want water flowing onto your hot engine, so if you do cut out the vents, make some baffles.

why would they affect the flow to the radiator :rolleyes:

[HokieBird]

They could affect flow to the radiator because air is being forced into the engine bay behind the raditor and changing the charateristics of how air is moving through the engine bay there for affecting how the air would flow through the rad.

I would be worried about water getting on coil packs also...

[asdf1234]

Originally posted by BiH:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by asdf1234:
Those vents aren't open for a reason. GM did testing on them and realized that air flowing through them at highway speeds and such affected the air flow to the radiator, causing the car to overheat or run too hot in hot weather conditions. And also, if its raining, i'm sure you wouldn't want water flowing onto your hot engine, so if you do cut out the vents, make some baffles.

why would they affect the flow to the radiator :rolleyes: </font>[/QUOTE]Do a search on this, it's been discussed quite a bit, but not recently. I didn't come up with that conclusion, GM did. It's a lot easier than you'd think to screw up airflow to the radiator. I have my air dam just slightly blocked by my intercooler and I run WAY hotter than I used to, but only on the highway over 60mph when the air dam really affects the airflow.

Also, these tests were run in really harsh conditions, such as in a desert out west where the temperature is like 110*. People living in cooler climates might not have the problem at all.

[pinball-1]

Ok thanks for the info. I guess I wont do that now, I though it would be kinda cool because it just looks to fake, which it is. But if it might mess up my car I wont.
Thanks for all your info!