Got some questions.

1. What are the functions of the hood lining and is my car better off without it?

It seems to me that it just holds in heat and dirt.

2. Are the "vents" on top of the Z28 hoods functional or merely cosmetic. It seems like they could be made functional (if not already), to help vent heat from the engine bay and thereby allow cooler air to flow in.

1. that hood lining protects that stuff on your hood..what is it called.. paint. just get a new one like i did, it was about 35 bux and it looks good now.

2.cosmetic.. that would be cool to make them functional.

The hood lining is made to cut out sound.
yeah i also think they do trap hot air if its
ripped just take it off, not much louder without it
And ive seen the hoods that are blocked in the wannabe be cowl style induction. factory blocked em except on the firebird turbo models "granted ive only seen the hoods is junkyards no motor so i dont know how the air cleaner setup works. if you have one of those
style hoods just pull the plastic offthe cowl pice and buy a cheap 10$ open element cleaner . it will prabably get more air from that than the stock air cleaner.

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85 Camaro RS 350/350 stealth intake, holley street avenger 670
true dual exhaust. "ButtStang killer"
82 firebird 305 all original - the cat and smog crap."All show No go"

dont you think it would hurt the paint on the hood?

I tore the stuff off my hood after the pro flow air cleaner was sucking all the 16 years worth of dirt out of it. I have had no problems except I can hear the 4bbl open louder and the carb sucking air at wot. Not much a problem though. I also repainted my car about a month before said "modification" and there has been no heat damage to the paint.

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Livin the hot rod dream, one day at a time.
lg4
slp muffler
pro flow air cleaner
performer intake
more to come

I swear that stuff is there to fall in the engine while your working on it. Sound deading is just a fringe benifit. Just take it off if it's torn, no big deal. The paint wont get hurt, it gets hotter than that on hot days with the sun beating on it for 8 hours while your at work.

If you try to make the louvers in the hood functional you need to put some extra bracing on the underside to stiffen up the hood.

Wheras the louvers on the IROC hoods are apparently cosmetic, the ducts on the TA hoods are actually serving an aerodynamic purpose. They relieve some of the pressure from the top front curve of the hood and direct it outward at the cowl area. This creates a minor vortex which also helps suck some of the air away from the cowl area and around the windshield. The effect is very minimal, however, and the ducts should have been a lot bigger to be really effective. Of course, this all goes down the sewer when the headlights are opened.

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Later,
Vader
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"I'm'a do Things My Way - It's My way or the Highway."
Adobe Acrobat Reader

1 to protect the paint on the hood from heat-soak.

2 cosmetic only.

I made the ducts in my 1983 Z28 fibreglass hood functional, it actually seems to help out on the highway, more cold air hits the air cleaner (I have an edelbrock open element) I did have one small problem with it though, during a rain storm, my car was parked under a tree branch, and water poured straight down the branch, down my carb, down the intake, and into the cylinders. I broke two starters trying to compress water. The people on this board helped me get the LG4 back to life..... bastards! (I wish the LG4 would just die)

The purpose of the stuff is to disintegrate and fall down the back of your neck while you are working on the engine. I removed mine a couple years ago, no problems at all.

I have seen louvers converted to a functional device. This was at the national gathering. The guy had sliced away slots in the steel beneath the louvers, made corresponding slices in the plastic, and voila he had a wonderful path for hot underhood air to escape. It looked like it would do a great job at helping to keep the engine bay cool. He told me that on hot days he could see the heat shimmer coming through the new vents. He did have to do some minor fabrication underneath the hood to hold the new perforated louvers into place properly.

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89 IROC with lots o' stuff

-=ICON Motorsports=-

The paint on my hood looks like hell and I'm not getting it painted for a while, so I guess I'll take the liner off. If you get a baked on paint job I don't see how the engine heat could mess it up. I am going to work on making the louvres functional. Thanks for the info.

what about when it rains with vents in your hood??

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90 IROC 5.7l (L98)
ram air, K&N's, air foil,Flows

LIKE A ROC

Ahh... The reason GM stopped making cease(cross)-fire injected motors with 'real' louvered hoods. They fill up with water and......

I have one on my 88 camaro though. I mean a factory fiberglass hood with kewl looking ducts....

Not really much lighter than the steel hood I took off though!



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'88 Camaro RS 2.8L
'88 Formula 350 (Too many mods to list...)

well the answer is

1. to annoy the **** out of you by falling down
2. keep the heat in the engine bay to create extra unessecary heat.
3. to fall and flake off and get tiny particles on and in the engine.


all in all.....take it off its not at all nessecary!!!!

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89 firebird formula

356 10.5:1compression
comp cams xe262 cam
performer rpm intake
#1405 edlebrock 600
sportsman 2 heads 64cc 2.02/1.60 valves 200cc intake runner
msd 6al
h.e.i. proform 50,000 volt vac. advance ditributor
700r-4 with 3.08 first gear and 3.23 posi 7 5/8 rear end.
b trans shift kit(will kill shifts...suck dong!!)
shorty heddman hedders with custom 3" pipe y-pipe back(no damn cat!) with 40 series flowmaster!


future mods: 406 roller REALLY REALLY REALLY RADICAL!!!!!

I've heard another reason for it (and yes, mine's out too, with no ill paint effects). It's there to act as a "fire blanket" in case something breaks into flames under the hood. Supposedly the wide plastic clips that hold the hood liner to the hood will melt, and drop the liner on top of the engine like a blanket. Makes sense, I guess.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

If a device IS needed to protect the hood paint, there must be something a lot more practical that won't fall apart and hold in all that dirt.

As far as making the louvres functional, it would take some careful planning to do it right. A good design, besides allowing hot air to be vented, would include a way of preventing water to get in (design of a mechanism that would make it possible to close the vents). It will take some time, but it can be done.

Definatly not true with the hood paint. My car was painted 6 years ago and the hoods fine.

My other car has 3 years on the paint and looks fine (With hedders none the less)

I didn't use extremely fancy paint. Just synthetic base/clear enamel.

No change in color, no flaking, nothing!

Paint your hood black and set it in Tucson noon sun. Maybe they should put the insulation on the outside of the hood to protect the paint!



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'88 Camaro RS 2.8L
'88 Formula 350 (Too many mods to list...)

all of that BS about your hood lining protecting your paint is crap, Have you ever let your car set in the sun all day and then take the temp on the hood? Its hotter befor you even start the car. Take that stuff off and live with the noise and it will keep it off your back when your working on it to. I ripped mine off when I got my car and my paint is in great shape.

The salesman on my old lady's 94 said the hood blanket would melt and smother a fire if one occured. Of course he was a salesman.

If you must worry about hood damage and sound i suggest that you go into kmart and buy a 30$ qt of herculiner. paint that on the bottem of your hood and if you have any left over or want to spend a 100$ on a gallon undercoat your whole car that stuff works just like rhyno liner. and it realy stops rust and helps to keep the sound down.
dont use that duraliner crap its just like a 3$ can of undercoat, comes off when scrached or wet.

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85 Camaro RS 350/350 stealth intake, holley street avenger 670
true dual exhaust. "ButtStang killer"
82 firebird 305 all original - the cat and smog crap."All show No go"

Did you see the one Dynomat makes? It's in the Summit catalog for about $100, but looks damn sharp. It's specifically a hood liner, with a mirror-like aluminum covering. If I had a show car, I'd definately put that on.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!