Removing the windshield cowl for better cooling? Thoughts?

[Sam4]

laminar. lam in ar. la min ar. laminar. You can explain it to me, but you can't understand it for me......

 

[The Cuzi]

Honestly you're overthinking this. The car is not that sensitive to airflow at least something as small as that inlet, this isn't a full fledged race car or F1 car. The air entering the engine bay would likely slam into the engine/everything and disperse around. At that point as pointed our above you're just introducing more air and essentially creating drag. You could try to create an exit somewhere, but that doesn't mean the airflow is there. Proper race cars are ducted for this very reason. The air inlet runs off of the high pressure from the front of the car providing a wall and the resulting engine intake providing negative pressure (the turbo pulls in air).

Here's what you'd really want with that idea. There is an inlet in the bumper to the radiator . Both the lower opening and the twin openings in the center.

The inlet passes air over the radiator fins to provide thermal dissipation and then a duct/ramp behind the radiator creates a path for the hot, energized (and expanding) air to diffuse into. This path ultimately exits via a vent through the hood.
(Not an Integra, but here's an example of proper ducting)

Here's the hood vent. Notice it's kinda forward, as there's only so much room to before you run into the engine block.

This is over-simplified however you get the idea.

Thank you, fantastic write up. Exactly what I was looking for.

 

[theblue]

^that is only true if you do nothing to channel the air where you want it to go. Most of the vented hoods really dont do squat at high speed.

the windshield is the most massive channel-er after the nose of the car. it's going to force air into the engine bay if there is no cowl there. you'd need something massive to prevent that. as you duct air from the front as in the images a couple posts up and vent correctly well before the windshield you can gain down force and cooling that increases with speed. A good OEM example of this is the C7 corvette.

 

[PunkST]

Did we forget about the exhaust tunnel and the massive low pressure zone under the car?

Look at the naca duct on an evo 10. That setup uses the exhaust /propshaft tunnel as its air exit. You dont need anything huge. A later post i mentioned leaving the upper cowl section in place and only adding a duct in the lower half if you dont feel like cutting the hood. That space should still be a high pressure zone when the car is moving.

 

[ron@whoosh]

not sure how beneficial but my orange car no longer has AC, a cowl, wipers, wiper motor, washer reservoir, etc
looks pretty clean

 

[M-Sport fan]

not sure how beneficial but my orange car no longer has AC, a cowl, wipers, wiper motor, washer reservoir, etc
looks pretty clean

Pure drag race, or DRY open tracking car?

 

[ron@whoosh]

Pure drag race, or DRY open tracking car?

neither
light weight and quick is the goal
working on some custom turbo bits now
about time I have a proper demo car

 

[the duke]

neither
light weight and quick is the goal
working on some custom turbo bits now
about time I have a proper demo car

http://www.nerocam.com/SCC_TAP.asp

Chicks dig convertibles.