Venting radiator

[peapodf50]

Hello BMW community,
I have been thinking about doing venting in my hood. I know that there have been a lot threads that have been started and discussed on this forum. All have some good information in them.
Anyway, I wanted to run some ideas that I have about how to properly vent the radiator on the E36 with the 6-cylinder. I found this statement on a post and I wanted to see if anyone had actually done this.

"With a stock radiator and no fan, you only have about 3-4" to play with--no room for a gradual flow up to the vent. If you went with a thicker/shorter (height-wise) radiator and tilted it forward with some custom plumbing, you could probably put in a pretty nice duct/vent.

-tammer"


If you would tilt the radiator forward and have it even with the front brace, it would allow for an extra 2" ish inches. That would be about 4-5 inches of airflow space for the vent to work. Would this be enough?

My idea for the hood vent would be to cut the hood and bend down the metal to do a louver style vent. My thought process is that the radiator is now at an angle, so the air is somewhat going toward the hood and the vent is right there to help it on its way. Adding some sheet metal behind the radiator could help the air flow go directly to the hood vent and just be that more efficient.

Please give me ideas on this and of course the cost to do something like this.



What got me thinking about this was when I was on road Atlanta. It was my first time there and the first day my temps were just fine. Right around 200. Perfect for the car needs/wants to run at. On my second day there, I was getting smoother and getting faster and therefore using the throttle and making my engine work more. On the back straight I was moving along and getting some good speed, but my water temps were climb up to 211, not crazy territory, but not ideal temps. I was noticing that the hood was lifting above 120. My thoughts were, the hood is preventing the air to move faster through the radiator and allowing the radiator to be more efficient. My thought was venting the hood would solve this problem. That is when I started to really look into this more in depth.

I would love to see some hood vents that people have done. Please post what you have done.

Thanks for reading this long post

Michael

[JoshS]

Tilting the radiator doesn't change the direction of airflow.


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[TXBDan]

Venting hoods seems to be a recent trend in the last couple years. People have been racing these for 25 years without vented hoods for the most part, so i don't think its strictly necessary. Fun, sure, but it's also easy to screw things up.

Do you have your underbody trays, fender liners, and hood seals in place? Those all play a role as well.

I'd be interested in someone doing some pressure tests with various configs.

[Inflame]

Venting my hood dropped by underhood temps considerably. Though this was also aided by having proper front ducting.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...3#post29144303

I have a V8, not an I6. Quite a bit more oil and heat.

[peapodf50]

I have proper front ducting, so I know this is good to go. I have been looking at stock high horsepower cars, i.e. Zo6, ZR1, any Ferrari and the like. They all have some type of evacuation for the radiator. I'm running about 150WHP more than stock, so my car can definitely benefit form some areo help. At 120+ my hood is shaking because the air has nowhere to escape to. The hood vent that inflame has is in the location that I want, but I would like it to be more stealthy. I would love to see some more picture if anyone would be willing to share.

[eye145]

Home Depot HVAC vent panel cut into strips

[bimerok]

I have proper front ducting, so I know this is good to go. I have been looking at stock high horsepower cars, i.e. Zo6, ZR1, any Ferrari and the like. They all have some type of evacuation for the radiator.

These cars have these vents mostly for downforce reasons. Sure as a side effect it helps with cooling but downforce is number one reason it is there.

I'm running about 150WHP more than stock, so my car can definitely benefit form some areo help. At 120+ my hood is shaking because the air has nowhere to escape to.

Having the hood lifting at 120mph sounds strange and it should not do it. It indicates that there might be problem somewhere else. Either the latches (stock or aftermarket) need to be adjusted or there was some front end damage that was not properly fixed or something else... I see 125-130 at the NJMP track every lap and 140ish at Pocono. My hood stays put all the time.