A friend of my recently crashed his legacy GT, he had bought a hood with a open scoop(fiber glass) that was never installed, he wants to sale me the hood, and said this is better cus the intake air will bypass the hot engine, is this true?
Actually, the intake air will probably help to dissipate underhood heat to a very small extent. The air will flow around the engine to some extent, and this is certainly better than if it “bypassed” the engine. That is the good news.
The bad news is that this may well reduce your gas mileage, since it is going to increase the car’s wind resistance slightly.
And the really bad news is that rain water will enter the hood scoop and will flow over your engine, causing all kinds of electronic problems that could be very expensive to fix. If your car had a hood with a scoop installed at the factory, there would be provisions for dealing with the entry of rain water. This aftermarket accessory is very unlikely to have those provisions.
If you want your car to LOOK fast, then go ahead and install this silly thing.
Just don’t be surprised when you wind up with new problems as a result of it.
It’s difficult to state it any better than VDCdriver did.
VDC you just made a case for the engine covers that many lable “cosmetic”.
I suppose that the modern plastic covers that manfacturers place over their engines may help to reduce water damage so some extent, but almost all of the engine covers that I have seen do have louvers or some other perforations in them in order to allow heat to escape.
One of these engine covers would probably help to some extent with diverting water away from the engine’s electronic components, just as an umbrella with holes in it is probably better than no umbrella on a rainy day. But, if the OP wants to avoid problems, I still think that he should avoid this aftermarket hood scoop.
It won’t be worth it. It wasn’t worth it to install it on his car either. It isn’t better for the reasons stated. The intake air system is designed to provide air that is heated to the correct temperature to help your engine run with enough power when the engine is cold. When the engine is warm and you are happily rolling down the road, the air temperature is a bit cooler. Your car was designed by people who know a lot more about air and intakes than the three of us, so you can save your money.
The only “hood scoops” that ever really worked were called “cowl induction”. Center of the hood scoops are actually in a very low-pressure area and do nothing…