Functional Hood Scoop?

[wyorunner]

I was reading an old poll on the hood scoop and how people like or dislike it. Well anyone ever seen one functional or read about one. Thanks for the info. Ive been debating on trying to make one but i just dont have the time right now. Also would all the guys and gals out there that have a scoop like to see an aftermarket mod to make it functional.

 

[Jeff Kleb]

I am not totally positive, but isn't the diesel version of the 4Runner that is sold in foreign markets (Latin America, Caribbean, etc.) equipped with a "functional" hood scoop?

I know there is at least one person on this board who has a diesel 4Runner......so hopefully he can enlighten us.
:girl:

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Opening up the scoop on our engines just invites crap and road debris to collect on the engine and doesn't nothing for performance.

According to somebody who had an engineering background did some research on the 4Runner and concluded that there is a vacuum created as air goes over the hood and just doesn't allow enough air in the scoop to generate anything anyway. You'd have to moutn the scoop at the leading edge of the hood to create enough pressure to make a difference.

 

[mole177]

i opened my scoop up.

no extra debris than normal. been open since about 1 year now.

any performance? no
any cooler? no
any extra dirt? no

open hood scoop, yes.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

i opened my scoop up.

no extra debris than normal. been open since about 1 year now.

any performance? no
any cooler? no
any extra dirt? no

open hood scoop, yes.

So,still essentially a waste of time?

 

[dheeter]

I wonder if anyone has made a custom intake that hooks up directly to the scoop. It would be pretty tough to design for opening and closing your hood, but it would be a cold air intake you could off road with. Its not probably not worth it, but just something i had always wondered about.

 

[wyorunner]

see thats what i was thinking about was making something so it would be a cold air intake. but thanks for the input everybody

 

[btaylorbarry]

if what ronmaiden said was true about the vacuum over the area of the scoop, if you were to reroute your intake to make the scoop your primary air intake it might suffocate your engine.

if you were to fabricate a hood with the scoop in the proper location and added a modified intake to fit that it could generate some nice gains.

does anyone know the location of the intercooler on the 4.0 supercharger that would solve this problem? my guess is in front or beneath the radiator.

 

[dheeter]

I really dont think there is a vacuum there because after i wash my car water is pushed out of that cover in there and up on top of the scoop. If there was a vacuum that wouldnt happen,

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Still,there's not enough surface area to provide any pressure increase to "force" air into a ram air setup.

If this was feasible then the aftermarket surely would have jumped on it by now since the scoop has been available for about 10 years now. Even some 4Runner geek would've already done it and proved it worked.

You don't see performance gains from a snorkel so I doubt you'll see any from opening up the scoop.

 

[Linfone]

I think you would need to get an intercooler to fully use the scoop. My Subaru has a scoop which leads to a top mount intercooler.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

If there's a performance reason to open the scoop it would be worth it but there's no proven data that opening up a scoop on any Sport Runner does anything. It might lower under hood temps a little but you won't notice and it any gains would be negated by the extra dirt collecting on the engine making it run a little hotter anyway.

Believe me,if there was some sort of gain I would've already been all over it. I did the deckplate mod and the only noticeable diff is you can hear the intake.

 

[XCdoctaCX]

So I did a little bit of research on this one because a friend was trying to make one for his civic and he is going to try to make one like on here http://www.karlsnet.com/mopar/ramair.shtml . The results seem pretty compeling and I am considering doing it. I think I'll try locating it behind the valence bumper or maybe on the sides of it. I'm just a little concerned about blowing something up but I'll do some more research to see if this is valid. If any one else undertakes it, please post pics and results.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

I wouldn't compare our quite efficient 3.4s (24 valves and DOHC really assists breathing and less parts moving) to an '80s Dodge 2.2 which obviously was hampered by poor intake design.

I'd like to see real results in gains and not just by somebody's butt-o-meter justifying the cost and work.

The 3.4 has now been around for well over 10 years and the only mods I've seen gains from are intakes and exhausts short of SCing and those might net 11-12hp to the wheels.

I'm not trying to poo-poo people's efforts but it seems were trying to beat a dead horse for a negligible gain in ponies and MPGs but I'll be the first to applaud some efforts that really show improvement.

 

[XCdoctaCX]

Well I think I'll try it either way. Total cost is less than 15$ and my friend is going to do it first but I have to get a new cat. on first priority anyways. Know of any good cat conv or the reason for the price difference between a magnaflow and anything else I'm finding? Sorry to take this thread on a tangent

 

[Ulfr]

Actually, the original hood scope is just a BS.
To make it work you'd need to turn it around and get yourself an intercooler (and a turbo for some power gain...).

The diesel versions that have TDI sometimes have this scoop available (altho' it's usually mounted in the front beneth the hood, to make some kind of an air tunnel to the I/C)
I'm not sure 'bout the newer gens but the 2nd gen only had that second option.

I've only got the TD, but intercooler will be added later, and then I'll prolly mount a hood scoop for it, which is open in the front!

It's pretty pointless to have a hood scoop for more power gain if there's not intercooler beneth it.
Might add abit to the coolin' tho' I doubt it'd make any difference!

Hope this clears anything up.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

There are naturally aspirated applications that do have functional scoops but most existed in the '60s but the last gen Camaros and TransAms did have a functional scoop that was directly fitted to the intake.

 

[Ulfr]

There are naturally aspirated applications that do have functional scoops but most existed in the '60s but the last gen Camaros and TransAms did have a functional scoop that was directly fitted to the intake.

Ofcourse, ofcourse, but we're talkin' 'bout 'runners here.

In the Trans-Ams and Camaros the air intake is on top of the engine (the only place it should ever be! IMHO), but in engines that have the air intake behind the front light.... like in the 'runner there's absolutly no point in it, never!
UNLESS fitted in a correct position, and with some changes on the air intake.
But in an offroader like the 4runner, it's rather bad to have that kind of system, because of all the water and dirt it could gather into the air filter under off-road drivin' (at least those who *actually* offroad like it's meant to be offroaded!)

And, we're still talkin' bout the hood scope bein' placed in the middle!

 

[034RUNNER]

I don't think it's really worth it to make it functional. I don't think stuff will really get in there (nothing much does on my Cobra) but if it doesn't do anything and all you're getting out of it is saying "it's open"....so what? Unless you have a reason to, meh.