I've had my amp down in the rear compartment, and I have a locking hatch cover, so it's kind of closed off. I live in Dallas, so we get some pretty decent heat here. What are my options for cooling this off? How hot can the ambient air get? Is there a formula for the area of air against the amount of heat?

If I needed to, I was going to installing some cooling fans around the amp to keep the air moving, but since it's a closed off space, I wasn't sure if it would just recycle the heated air through the amp, adding to the heat.

 

you could always mount 2 fans into the cover. (suck and blow) That's what i'd do. If you hate seeing them maybe they could be covered with speaker cloth, but it'd make them almost useless.

 

Since it's not in a visable place, I don't mind what it looks like. Where can I get some small and flat fans? My amp is pretty short.

 

Your amp should be fine down there. What amp is it? Is it seeing a 4 ohm/2 ohm/1 ohm load. Is the amp bridged? Are the gain set at max?

 

The amp is an autotek ss400.4. It's a multi-channel amp that two channels are bridged to one sub. The specs say that bridged it should be at 4 ohms, but I'm not sure. Can I test it somehow?

Bridged? <-- See above.

Gain? <-- The gain is at 3/4

 

I really don't think it's going to be a problem for you, if it's installed well. Do it and if it starts cutting out when it's 105* in the shade.