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Opinions of this cowl hood?

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Xtremjeepn

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This was on my crew cab when I bought it. It is a custom made cowl hood made by???? All steal and currently a bit warped(nothing that a bit of bondo won't fix).
What do you guys think? Cool enough to fix and keep or should I trade it off for a staight stock one???

l_b647c21ee89ae9e57f387a056a01f08f.jpg
 
I dig the cowl hoods... and should help with a little bit of cold air breathin' (assuming it's functional... sure looks like it) if you have an open element type intake. Nice high air pressure at the bottom of the windshield will force colder air into the sucking engine.
 
i like the cowl hoods, im thinking about cutting mine and making it a cowl hood. but im thinking about it to let extra heat out, trying to keep my 454 cooled down
 
I think cowl hoods look ridiculous on trucks, but it is just a personal preference. They seem to be really popular in the "Redneck" regions of the PNW I have noticed.
 
I thought I was gonna get one when I first started looking for my chevy. Then the more I looked at my buddys truck with a 4" cowl the more I realised I wanted to keep my stocker.

They look good but seem to scream I have a lifted truck AND a cowl hood look at me!
 
smalltowncowboy said:
i like the cowl hoods, im thinking about cutting mine and making it a cowl hood. but im thinking about it to let extra heat out, trying to keep my 454 cooled down
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While you're driving, air should flow into the cowl hood due to flow moving from high pressure area (bottom of the windshield) to lower pressure area (engine bay).

While you're stationary, if you have open air element, air should also flow into the engine bay (lower relative pressure in engine bay due to open intake)... but if you have a stock intake setup, a cowl hood should let hot air out.

Either way, I would expect the engine to run cooler/better/somewhat more power.
 
I like that style of cowl hood. Maybe a bit too tall though. Is it 4"? I like the 2" better. Just seems sleeker.;)
 
Just as an FYI for the original poster, if you are thinking about this from a performance aspect, without an actual seal between the cowl and the air cleaner, you likely will get 0 performance gain.

There isn't going to be low pressure at the base of your windshield at speed if you've got a non-functional cowl hood. Air rushes into the engine compartment at a much higher velocity, through a much larger opening, and either has to go down or straight back, straight back being path of least resistance short of the motor being somewhat in the way.

Now, with a stock hood, the cowl seal prevents most of the air from escaping that direction, so no airflow out, depression at base of windshield/end of hood=pressure.

IMO...non-functional cowl=poser (except on engines that can't clear a stock hood :)), functional cowl=cool.
 
Yeah sorry, can't see pics here.

I think that's pretty cool then. :)

This probably falls into the thread in the garage about stuff being functional, but most people don't know what they are looking at anyways. So basically, it's a cowl hood, either they like it's looks or not, but it's your truck, so it only really matters what you like!
 
dyeager535 said:
Just as an FYI for the original poster, if you are thinking about this from a performance aspect, without an actual seal between the cowl and the air cleaner, you likely will get 0 performance gain.

There isn't going to be low pressure at the base of your windshield at speed if you've got a non-functional cowl hood. Air rushes into the engine compartment at a much higher velocity, through a much larger opening, and either has to go down or straight back, straight back being path of least resistance short of the motor being somewhat in the way.

Now, with a stock hood, the cowl seal prevents most of the air from escaping that direction, so no airflow out, depression at base of windshield/end of hood=pressure.

IMO...non-functional cowl=poser (except on engines that can't clear a stock hood :)), functional cowl=cool.
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What you're saying makes sense to me Dyeager... however... consider this:

There is relatively HIGH pressure at the bottom of the windshield (at speed)... nearly comparable to that at the front bumper. This due to the air velocity slowing down in those two locations.

The air pressure at the bottom of windshield could be substantially higher than that in the engine bay. This would tend to draw air into the engine bay (through the cowl opening) at speed. I believe it would overcome the tendancy of the air that flows through the radiator to exit through the cowl opening. But I'm wrong all the time... and rather enjoy being shown why I'm wrong 'cause that's how I learn best.

Any way you slice it... an enclosure that cuts off the intake from the rest of the engine bay (build into the bottom of the hood) and open to atmosphere only through the cowl opening would be best.
 
You know the air coming out the back of the hood is going to be *roughly* the speed of the vehicle (obviously less due to obstruction) so pressure at the cowl would have to be quite strong to overcome the volume and speed of air trying to get out.

His is functional though, so no disagreement that it's going to see some pressure.
 
For it to be functional, wouldn't it need to seal against the air cleaner housing? I'm bad with the years and models, but I know that GM (and others) did a fair amount of work to make the late '60's cowls truly functional.

IMHO these hoods amount to little more than looks, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but functionality is probably close to zero.
 
Factory GM went with all sorts of elaborate air cleaners and what not.

I believe on this hood, the manufacturer smartly just incorporated all the sheet metal into the hood, so when you close it, the air cleaner fits through the hole in the underside of the hood, what the cowl feeds.

I could be wrong, but that's how I understand the original posters statement.

I was wondering if maybe this was a goodmark hood, IIRC they are the steel cowl hood guys, most everyone else is fiberglass. I remember a few people had Goodmark hoods for their cars, said they were pretty well made. Probably not cheap.
 
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I have a reflexxion steel cowl on mine, its 2.5 or 3" tall, it looks just like the goodmark, it has all the factory bracing on the underside of hte hood so it isnt actually functional in the aspect that you can seal it to the intake, but it does let heat out. I can tell you that cause the area behind the cowl always defrosts long before the rest of the windshield.

I think it looks cool, also gives a good place to stick my 496 badges ;)

 
I like the look of cowl hoods myself. whether it be poser like or not. There's always something someones gonna criticize. Here's my brothers truck. nonfunctional hood but like k20 said it lets heat out and defrosts better.



And to answer your question i'd keep it til you can find a good one. Make it a metal too cause fiberglass ones have never lined up for me
 
dyagear is dead-on. I've seen racecars that slowed down when they first put the cowl hood on because the air rushing thru the engine compartment actually fought with the carb for air. If you watch Horsepower TV, they went thru the same thing on the Nova they built. OTOH, if you seal it to the hood so the cowl can feed it, it works great.
 
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