changing my hood scoop..... any advice?

[twitch]

Currently I have a hood scoop on my T4R. Of course, it does nothing other than create drag. What I was thinking is getting a hood that has a reversed scoop to suck air out of the engine compartment. I also was thinking about adding some insulation to the exhaust pipes to help with the cooling.

What do you think of this. Is there any performance benefits to this modification?

For a little history, I run a 96 4runner 4x4 v6. I just put a brand new crate long block motor in it last month and a new radiator this month. Tomorrow I am installing a transmission cooler in it.

I would like to get the most out of my engine I can and the best fuel mpg I can. During all the radiator trouble I was having, I noticed how hot it gets under the hood. That is what got me to thinking about the insulation and hood scoop. K&N performance filters are not an option due to the extreme environments the truck is exposed to. The open filter would be a liability.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[RamThis]

To reduce your underhood temps, send your exhaust manifolds in to HPC Coatings and have them coated in Hi-Per Coat. I plan to do this to my Ram as well when I get my other car running and can have my truck down for a couple weeks. A friend had his headers done and you can go take it for a drive, and park in the driveway, and you can grab a header tube bare handed within a few minutes, and even running it's hot, but it wont boil your skin off like a plain metal surfaced header tube.

 

[Casper]

if your going to take the manifolds off and ship them out for coating, it would be in your best intrest to have them extrude honed as well.

 

[nserpa9248]

or, why not getter better, aftermarket ones?

 

[RamThis]

or, why not getter better, aftermarket ones?

That would be good too, but they'd still need to be sent in to be coated, unless there are any brands that are marketed already coated and ready.

 

[Casper]

No one makes aftermarket headers or manifolds for either the v6 or v8 4runner...so modifying your OEM ones is as good as it gets right now.

 

[kimboy]

how much drag does the non-functional hood scoop create? Not much in my opinion because air still has to go around it, the windshield and around the roof of your vehicle. If you want to remove or exhaust the air from the engine bay, you'd have to have more air pressure in it than whats on the outside. (high to low), which would probably not be worth the modifications your thinking about.

 

[Jacobzky]

open the hood scoop and you have enough outlet to let the hot air out.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

The scoop isn't really hurting performance but opening it up sound like a good suggestion as stated above if high temps are a concern.

I'm not sure the cost of headers or coating the stock manifolds is worth the trouble vs the gains you might see. As long as you aren't overheating then you are fine but saomehow getting a little cooler air into the intake might be worth looking into.

 

[mole177]

my scoop finally caught a bee!

other than that, no extra dust in the engine bay.