Avanti Cowl Induction Hood and Gas Struts

[Avanti83]

Weather's better, I'm pumped to get going on the 74 Avanti and tired of waiting for my favorite painter to get some free time so I'm moving ahead to prepare for painting the little guy myself. I haven't pulled a paint gun trigger in anger for more than 10 years but I will now.



First steps are to get the cowl induction hood ready and add gas struts to the hood. The body is pretty close to paintable due to the work I put into it last year. It needs a final coat of High Build but it's darn close and one more sanding will make it ready for paint.



Over the last two weeks the hood has made it to initial primer but it needs a lot more smoothing. I like the look but it needs a couple small modifications. I put it on today and added the struts. The struts are from a mid-2000 Jeep Wrangler and the brackets were purchased from the supplier that was mentioned a few days ago in a post. Lift Supports Depot. About $55 delivered to Michigan for all the items.

The hood probably weighs about half again as much as the OEM set up but the struts help lift it and hold it up just fine. I'd like another 5-10 pounds of lift but it's ok. The site says the struts generate 28#s of force so they should be just right for a stock setup.



I also have a pair of 2015 Mustang GT Hood heat extractors setting in the car and looking at the best spots and methods to install them.

[boogieman]

Very interesting. Nice work by-the-way.

[mfg]

Awesome!....Relocate the battery to the trunk (if you haven't already) and you'll offset the additional hood weight.

[Avanti83]

Awesome!....Relocate the battery to the trunk (if you haven't already) and you'll offset the additional hood weight.

Battery's in the trunk as you suggested. The space where it was is perfect for the radiator over flow container.

For posterity, I have the battery on the passengers side with a high amp fusible link in the positive feed line from the local West Marine and a mechanical shutoff.

Bob

[boogieman]

I don't see how the hood extractors would be effective given the only opening in the cowl is sealed to the air cleaner,

assuming you planned to put them on the cowl.

Mounting them to the stock hood, from underneath, they would vent the hot air directly back to the induction system.

[Avanti83]

I don't see how the hood extractors would be effective given the only opening in the cowl is sealed to the air cleaner,

assuming you planned to put them on the cowl.

Mounting them to the stock hood, from underneath, they would vent the hot air directly back to the induction system.

Actually a good point and something I've been pondering for a while. The vents will either be just above the rear of the radiator or in the sides of the cowl portion of the hood. That flow should be much less than the total flow over the hood so dilution may be my friend.

In any case, it deserves more consideration and I like the current look so well I may just ditch the whole heat extraction through the hood concept and vent it under the car. That's another reason I'm interested in MFG's idea. Early data says that the wheel wells may not be the best area to vent the heat but I don't need to slow down the hood finishing and paint to continue that project.

Bob

[boogieman]

Maybe some sort of compartmentalization or separation to let heat rise from under the hood, up through a sealed section and then

through the vents on the cowl. Placed towards the outer sides of the cowl the airflo should disperse the heat away before re-entry

through the cowl rear opening.

Interesting situation.

Nice work so far. Looking good.

[Geoff]

Branching off what boogieman said about compartmentalization / separation- if you were to cut out the air extractor shape in both the cowl layer and the stock hood layer, then fiberglass up the inner edges and mount the air extractors to the cowl layer, you could create a column though which the under hood air could travel and keep the induction air separate.

[boogieman]

Right. Heat rises so will gravitate to the rear of the hood then be drawn out by the boundry layer when moving.