I was thinking about if there was a way to make the IROC louvers functional in some way. I know with TPI they aren't going to be ram air, but maybe for some added cooling.

What about taking them off then taking out sections of the metal, or the whole area the louvers are on and putting another piece of metal that can be made to manually slide into place again when u don't want things to get through there. Its like a cooling duct that can be used when u want to use it or something. I don't know, just a crazy idea, but theres been crazier on here!!

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89 RS

STILL Looking For:
An 87 IROC-Z28 350 TPI




[This message has been edited by IROCZTWENTYGR8 (edited September 03, 2001).]

 

Has anyone ever tried this? Is his idea so far fetched or possible?

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86 Camaro Black SS Coupe, T Tops, ASCD Daytona Twin Turbo hood, Flowmaster, Custom Paint, Dunlop Road Kings S/R tires, Wheel Country Directional Chrome Wheels,new charcoal & gray interior including seats and door panels, new carpet and headliner, complete front end suspension rebuild, new Valve seals, and more mods to come
'91 RS 5.0 TBI = Waiting to be modded, but has all of the toys inside.

http://www.angelfire.com/sports/niterider/86camaro.html
Morgan_Andre@hotmail.com

 

I'm not sure how to do it, but that would be a neat idea.

 

Yeah, I'm just not sure how some1 would go about it. They would actually do something then besides look good.

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89 RS

STILL Looking For:
An 87 IROC-Z28 350 TPI

 

That sounds like you could get it to work.

Ive always wanted the ram air hood but if i have it and an open element in the rain, i don't know what i'd do.

I think if i ever get the hood then i will cut the wholes out and make some kinda electronic flaps to open and close when i throw a switch. Does this sound like it could work? not to steal irocz thunder or anything

 

C'mon someone must have done something similar?

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'86 IROC ZZ4
Holley 750 dp, Shorty Headers, BW POSI 3.27 rear, Southside sfc's, Probuilt 700r4, Hurst Dual Gate Shifter.
Best Run 13.8 @ 100mph- far more to come!
London-England (Brothers In Arms)
British Firebird/Camaro Site

 

there's a guy Bruce, aka SwayZe who did it to his 89 iroc. Haven't seen him around in a while tho. He lives in kentucky, and he used to post here a lot way back in the day.

it was pretty nicely done.

 

i was thinking of doing that to my 83 z28 hood, replacing the slots with stainless steel and hooking it up to a choke pull or something that would open and close them while driving, never got around to actually doing it though. I dont think it would be that difficult with a little immagination.

 

The original IROC race cars had functional louvers in the hood, and I think something along the lines of the race car would be easiest and most practical.

Basically you'd have two options. You could make a fiberglass hood using your original hood with the louvers installed as a mold, or else remove the louvers from your metal hood, cut out the areas where the louvers attach, build a surround pan the shape of the hole, weld metal louvers to the wall of the pan, then weld the pan to the hood. The pan could either be just a "cookie cutter" shape to have something to weld the louvers to, or it could be a box with drain holes (to attach drain hoses) and a functional opening to attach ram air hoses. Or even one big cowl induction pan for both louvers that makes a round air cleaner functional if you have TBI or carb.

 

You could replace your hood with one from an 82-83 Z28 that orginally had cross fire injection. All LU5 (x-fire) Z28s from those years had functional hood air induction flaps in the louvers AND the hoods were made of Sheet Molded Compund not steel. It is the hood style below (top right corner).

 

The picture isn't working, but I know exactly what you're talking about. While I like both hoods, I like the IROC-Z hood better, thats why I would like to find a way to make the louvers functional for added cooling when u want it to be.

 

lance, i have been thinking about your idea to make the louvers functional. what if you flipped the direction of the louvers around, so they worked like the flaps from the 82-83 LU5 hood? then you could come up with an electric solenoid way to activate them, say for example, after more than 2/3rds throttle, the louvers spring up to duct air right into the air cleaner (i'm thinking one of those k&n xtreme air lids would work great here!). now if you're running fuel injection, this could possibly be used for cooling the intake plenum?

 

I've heard that the air pressure on top of the hood is not condusive to drawing air in, but is better suited to sucking it out. That is why cowl induction hoods were invented. Either the cowl or a ram-air snorkle pointing forward work best. I don't know if your plan would work good or not, others more knowlegeable would have to answer that one.

 

If you're only doing it for cooling, you could spend lots of time and creativity and make the louvers work, and the next guy over who only removed the rear weatherstrip will still cool better than yours.

 

Would be nice to say they are "functional," you know, that they actually do something besides look nice.

 

An IROC I was going to buy 5 years ago had them. It was a 350 Black IROC and the louvers were operational. They had used the stock louvers, cut away the metal in the hood that wasn't required and made an alloy l shaped device for the under-hood side with mesh stopping leaves and things falling on to the tpi unit. Back then I was pretty naive and thought it was a factory job, it looked that good! It can be done!!!

 

COOL!! I would have liked to see that!!

 

making them functional would be so cool, if I only could think of an easy way

 

As the S.A.S would say "He who dares, wins!" It will involve cutting in to your hood whilst maintaining the structural rigidity and mounting areas for the louvers. Then 'simply' cutting along occassional lines in the crease areas. Not the whole way across just maybe half the way. The next step of the louver maybe cut the other side thereby maintaining its strength. The difficult part will be making it look finished, which is why the version I actually saw was so good.

 

I posted my idea for this thing I came up with for the 82-84 Z hoods. Unfortunatly there was not engough cleanance for my open elemnt too. My idea was to make two hoses that attactch to the openings that go back by the distributer and loop back up to the back of the air cleaner (open elemnt, carb, TBI only)....creating a "V" shape. At the tip of the V's would be a hole with hoses attached to drain water. Then when you pop the hood your wqhole engine is in view (for those of us with nice looking bays ) and it would also pull in loads of air. As I said I diden't have enough room, but that's probubly becouse I have a 1" air cleaner spacer, Edelbrock intake, and carb. If I got an offset cleaner (eliminating the need for the 1" spacer it might work.

-Matt