I installed a bowtie water temp gauge on the windshield pillar but I haven't gotten it installed in the cylinder head yet. The bulb is resting on the driver inner fender and I noticed today that the gauge went to 160-180 plus degrees in town and driving slow. When I was going 45 or faster the gauge would read 150. The under hood temp is very high in my opinion and some kind of vent needs to be installed to get rid of the heat. Does anyone know if the trans am vents on the lower fender work very well or has anyone installed a vent to lower under hood temps?

 

I've 'heard' that removing the rear hood seal will act as a vent of sorts.

JamesC

 

^^^
Done this and it works to a degree, you can certainly feel a lot of hot air escaping up the windscreen.

 

This is on my vert and I have a religious objection to putting the top up. If I remove the hood seal from the cowl area will the heat crawl up the windshield and make me warmer than I already am. Anyone ever put the trans am fender vents on a camaro? Do they work very well? I have some extra vents off of a 1980 Z28 that are functional and they looked very good on the Zs and trans ams back in the day on the second gen cars. Anyone ever see a third gen with those installed?

 

The rear of the hood is a HIGH pressure area when the car is moving... i.e., air is BEING PUSHED INTO that area, NOT being PULLED OUT. Which also means, if you do that, the cooling system will be LESS EFFICIENT at speed, because there will be air getting forced into there by that alternate path, PREVENTING air from passing through the radiator and into the engine compartment.

For an explanation of why people think doing this accomplishes some kind of good, study this phenomenon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance It's basically the common mental trick used by people to "explain away" facts that disagree with their pre-conceived beliefs, as well as how they justify their decisions in retrospect in spite of contrary evidence.

Sounds like your temps are pretty ordinary to me; I certainly wouldn't hack on a car for THAT.

The old 2nd gen vents are at least in a low-pressure zone, and therefore contribute to the flow of air into and out of the engine compartment, instead of fighting with it. However I can't imagine them "looking" "good" on one of these cars... would look extremely out of place. Speaking strictly as someone who had 2 2nd gens at the same time as a 3rd gen, back in the early - mid 80s.

 

I remember reading an article on Vince Piggins (father of the Z28) and the development of the cowl induction hood. They chose that area because of a high pressure area. Nascar also has an opening at the base of the windshield for there air cleaner inlet. The nascar guys do have naca ducts with ducting to remove air from under the car and it is expelled at the sail panel. Which indicates ( I think ) that if air is going over a fairly straight area it pulls against that area but at a sharp angle it piles up and builds pressure. Definately not an engineer but seems to make sense of how a rear spoiler works. The Formula 1 teams are really into air and down force. Those teams spend millions of dollars on the smallest of things. The kerrs system is a battery system that somehow adds 100 hp or so they can employ on a straight away for extra passing power and it is all battery power and is not utilized by the engine system at all as far as I know. Again, not an engineer but very interesting stuff. Wish I was smart enough to know how it really works.

 

I never considered the cowl 'ram' effect when I did this, just the obvious effect of making a hole and letting the heat escape. Underhood temps did drop a little and I didn't notice engine temps getting any higher; then again driving in this city and 'low speed' are pretty much synonymous.

I had not previously experienced any cognitive dissonance by removing the seal (until now ), but will admit I was possibly influenced by a morphic resonance

 

DARN, I'm a therapist (LPC) and can't keep up with that. I have read Freud, Adler, Ellis, Yung, Glasser, (my favorite) and Rogers and Perls and many others but Piggins is still at the top of my list. Sometimes a hood seal is just a hood seal and an idea is good thing to test the T and Z score to see if it was valid or just needing a 12 pack. I thought
(hoped) I would never remember that stuff again after I graduated. I think I am having a flash back or a cranial rectal inversion from the PTSD from my flash back. Straight jacket please!!!!

 

Whatever keeps the noodle limber eh

Sorry abray - just talking ***** on the internets as usual - recovering from yet another operation and have WAY too much time on my hands atm

 

Been there and definately done that with over 100 plus kidney stones. Thats why I try and keep things simple in my life from here (18) on out. Started with my first kidney stone at 18. Had my last one 3 weeks ago. I usually have two or three at once. Thank god for DEMEROL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I keep my cars simple so an idiot like me can screw with them. I keep my guns plentiful so I can shoot what I can't fix. And I keep my payments low because I live in Arkansas which is next to the poorest state in the union. Mississippi is the poorest or so I have been told but if I didn't live in Arkansas I would live in Mississippi or Louisiana. No apologies needed TreeFiddy. You live in Austalia which I would love to hang out in the outback and put a schrimp on the barbie. Get well and send me a picture of what it looks like there including your car. Oh!, I have a wonderful pet Quaker parrot, I believe he is from Australia. He is green on top and grey on the bottom and he is as smart as a 9 year old child. He can talk and sings the Andy Griffith whistle just like the show. He calls the cat and has about a 100 word vocabulary. I want a cockatoo also which I think comes from just north of Australia in New Guinnee and some Asiatic countries.

 

Heh, Oz is full of cockies, esp the sulphur crested type, those guys are LOUD! They hang out in large flocks and take over a whole tree. Make popular talkative pets here too. Those Quaker parrots look like budgies on steroids!

How the hell does one get that many kidney stones!? As long as we're comparing shark stories - had my chest cracked thrice, for arterial bypass, ventricular pump implant, and heart transplant - fun fun, all worked out good in the end. This latest effort is a hernia repair, to fix the previous hernia repair that I managed to blow out again, won't be wrenching for a while

Should get back on-tech I guess, discussion of the metaphysical, medical and avian
probably violates forum rules Need to find a way to use parrots for underhood cooling

 

My family has had kidney stones for generations. Mine are different in that mine are usually small but I make a million of them. I was born with a hernia that they fixed when I was two. I also was bitten by a cat when I was two and had to have rabies shots because they couldn't find the cat. In 2002 I ran out of blood and was in ICU for a while. They thought I had Leukemia but I was bleeding internally from being run over when I was two by my mother taking me to the emergency room and I fell out of the passenger side Jeep door while she was backing up. You know how flimsy they are. It took 36 years for that to evolve into an internal bleeding problem that almost killed me. Had a nice 4 wheeler wreck in 2005 that almost killed me and left me in ICU for a couple of weeks. Almost took my left foot off and bursted my left lung. I have passed stripes of meat while passing kidney stones. The stone gets caught by the ureter and tears off a strip getting clear. You can feel it when it happens. My quaker hovers around the door while I am working on my car waiting for me to come in and play with him. He is not very patient and yells some trying to get my attention. He says all kind of words and whistles Andy Griffith (I do that with him a lot) trying to get me to come in. The heart transplant would worry me but I am sure I will have to have a kidney transplant in 15 years or so since I have hade so much meat go through my water works. Good luck with the hernia. I almost forgot, can you get 9 bolt parts? I have several 9 bolts and need to start acquiring cones and other parts. let me know what you can get and how much. 9bolt.com is very expensive and almost makes it worthwhile to get a ford 9.

 

Whoa I surrender man, you're definitely the king of the recoveries! That is a LOT of crap to have gone through. Just got to drive my TA again today, first time for a couple of weeks, so I'm happy.

Never really researched diff parts; it's the one part of my car that's never given me a lick of trouble in 10 years. I've got a 9-bolt posi, just a 2.77, but all I've ever done is change the oil. AFAIK, the 9-bolt was used in local Commodores thru the late thirdgen period, so stands to reason we'd have a few parts available.

Any Aussies watching - peterc005, Aussie Camaro, AUSIROC etc - any comment on 9-bolt parts?

 

allegedly those 9-bolt parts are still manufactured today. They're still around and all that. The issue is just that they are not imported anymore except by certain specialists with connections.

http://www.spiceraxle.com.au/products.htm#srd

What we have is the Spicer M78. It was actually used in Nissan Skylines for a while and I think it's still used in a lot of the aussie cars.

http://www.gmh-torana.com.au/forums/...-bw-78-to-lhx/

 

It's a great rearend and very well designed. I have several and need to start gathering parts that don't have an extra zero after the price. If anyone knows of a decent parts source to get the cones, etc please post websites, numbers etc. All of my cars have a 9 bolt except one and it has a ford 9. I have three or four extra 9 bolts but they are used and will need parts fairly soon. You can get 391,410 or 513 gears axccording to the link above but no pricing or way to order.