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Underhood temps

I was waiting to see if someone would bring up the rain. I have to go out and cover mine when it rains, the water drips directly down onto the air cleaner, I'm worried it will follow the stud into the throttle body. The manufacturer recommends suspending a drip pan under the louvers to move the water out of the way, but that struck me as way too much work and something that would surely come loose and end up in my belt drive...They do move a lot of heat out of the compartment, though, you can see it and feel it when the fans kick on, it's like an outside defroster when it gets cold. I've never really driven much in the rain, I try to avoid it becasue the rest of the cab leaks, too. Probably have to put some tin foil over the louvers or something.
 
If you have to remember to apply covers on your cut up hood in case of rain/snow, then why not just run with no hood and then put the hood back on? Anybody have links to the science behind ventilated hoods? There is way more open area to the underside of the engine bay then there is to the top through small slots. I understood the Roadkill style to have as much to do with speed/air pressure as having the air go up vs. down.
 
If you have to remember to apply covers on your cut up hood in case of rain/snow, then why not just run with no hood and then put the hood back on? Anybody have links to the science behind ventilated hoods? There is way more open area to the underside of the engine bay then there is to the top through small slots. I understood the Roadkill style to have as much to do with speed/air pressure as having the air go up vs. down.
For me, I think no hood looks terrible.
Plus I wouldn’t want the sun baking directly on it. Also don’t want tweakers having direct access to copper. Heat rises.
 
That was the purpose of the air dam that came from the factory. It created an area of low pressure under the car, and the heated air from the engine bay was drawn under the vehicle and away. We discovered that adding louvers to the hoods on some of the cars at work actually raised the temps while they were rolling, but lowered them if they were parked and idling. The mechanics said that it ruined the airflow that was designed with the electric fans to flow across the engine and out under the car. But with the removal of the airdam, the changing of the shroud, fan, inner fenders and lifting the truck, I don't think that type of detailed engineering is going to apply to most k5's.
 
That was the purpose of the air dam that came from the factory. It created an area of low pressure under the car, and the heated air from the engine bay was drawn under the vehicle and away. We discovered that adding louvers to the hoods on some of the cars at work actually raised the temps while they were rolling, but lowered them if they were parked and idling. The mechanics said that it ruined the airflow that was designed with the electric fans to flow across the engine and out under the car. But with the removal of the airdam, the changing of the shroud, fan, inner fenders and lifting the truck, I don't think that type of detailed engineering is going to apply to most k5's.
Makes sense, the only airdam most of us have left is the windshield!
 
Electric fans...

To be fair, I don't do crawling in crazy heat, but electric fans aren't governed by engine speed like the mechanical are.
Oh definitely, I prefer electric fans for the trail rig.

I don't have any problem remembering to cover the louvers. The bigger problem I have is laziness and not feeling like doing it. Actually what I've forgotten is to take them off before driving away. The magnetic sheeting isn't going to "stick" well enough to survive highway speeds but they don't get blown off in the wind.

I started out swapping hoods, putting a solid hood on in the winter, but again the laziness bug strikes and I'm not overly motivated to keep swapping hoods. Especially not when I have an easy solution to cover the louvers. It's not terrible if they don't get covered as they are located above the valve cover and header area. I just figure it doesn't hurt to keep them covered as much as possible.

I probably wouldn't have installed louvers if not for ending up wheeling when it's nearly 100°. I also keep maintaining the dream of having AC and I think the louvers will help with that too.
 
I probably wouldn't have installed louvers if not for ending up wheeling when it's nearly 100°. I also keep maintaining the dream of having AC and I think the louvers will help with that too.

Are there problems associated with underhood heat in those temps? I really don't know. Is it related to carbs?
 
It probably contributes to heat soak, and hard starting. Being PNW guy your temps are probably much lower than ours. Even the humidity helps.
 
It probably contributes to heat soak, and hard starting. Being PNW guy your temps are probably much lower than ours. Even the humidity helps.

Do the mini starters have the same issues in hot weather? I'm sure I've been out and about in ~100 temps, but I'm not normally crawling along, so the circumstances almost certainly aren't the same. I'm just wondering what EFI and the mini starters due to alleviate those issues?

I don't fondly recall the big old starter dragging under load when it was nice and warm, but haven't had that experience since going to the mini.
 
Heat soak can effect the electrical cranking circuit. For carbureted engines is more of boil the fuel in the bowl when doing quick stops for beer and smokes type situation
 
Are there problems associated with underhood heat in those temps? I really don't know. Is it related to carbs?

Anything that will keep things cooler is a plus in my book. I figure if you can keep the engine bay cooler, it's going to help keep the people space cooler.
 
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