There have been several discussions here on NAM about how to lower tempurtures in the engine compartment. I seen a few, like Misfitoy, that actually put vents in their hood in order to address this.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried cutting out a piece of the passenger side cowl so that it can act like an exhaust vent? It seems to me that this would help. And while it surely wouldn't be as effective as hood vents, it's also a much less extreme solution. Any thoughts?

 

See my galery " hot air extractor" pics. It works! I don't have numbers "a la Dr Phil" but after a comute of 15 miles on I95 you could cook an egg over the grill . This hot air would be traped under the bonnet otherwise, heat soaking everything. The outlet is prety mutch over the exaust manifold, that helps .

 

When car is idling it might let some heat out but I believe the cowl location is better suited for cold air intake not hot air extraction once the car is moving.

 

when the car is moving, the air path designed by MINI ( down and under )is most likely enough, where we need Hot air to get out the most is in stop and go trafic, red lights,and any other idle situation . Hot air rises and any opening on top of engin bay will help, I didn't have the "*****" to cut into my bonnet , but a small opening in the plastic partition is reversible so I whent for it. My plan was to duckt it to my DFIC but I never got to that point. The other thing about it is ,I was looking for a way to seal the passenger side cowl grill to the ram air coming from my driver side cowl scoop so bingo!one stone: two Birds .

 

I "swiss cheesed" my pass side plastic.

3 things I have noticed:

On cold days that side of the window defrosts faster.

After a spirited run there is heat commiong out of the vent

If I spray my IC mister (a lot) I do get water vapor on the pass side of the window.


To me ALL of these show that I AM getting air movement OUT of the vent.

 

IC sprayer vapor on wind shield? Now that's realty wind tunnel for you Never would have thought about it, here I am messing with wool telltails and trying to take pics from the sunroof

 

I looked long and hard at opening that side up but what kept me away from it is that you are pre heating your brake system by letting the heat in there . All of the metal brake lines meet up in that area . It might be nothing but out here in Cali I have enough problems keeping my brakes cool . As for underhood temps , I agree they are outragous. Our Aerogell EXhttp://www.m7tuning.com/parts/produc...2a2f775ec22a72 does a nice job of reducing them but if you want to go all the way you can do something like this ( see below )

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I thought about the brake line issue. If I decide to vent the passenger side cowl I will also get some heat insulation to protect them (i.e. some type of Thermotec / Cool It product).

As a side note (not to get off topic), are the ducts in your areo bumber being used to cool the brakes?

 

Randy: the car looks fantastic! I really like Joel's exit scoop.
btw, Todd from TCE has warned against ducting air to the brake rotors in such a way as to unevenly cool them. I've never seen a duct for the MINI that *doesn't* cool unevenly...

 

I love swiss cheese! Low-tech DIY solution, and proven to move air through the engine compartment. I'll have to make mine a flow-through engine bay, too.

 

To answer both Jay and the good Dr. , Yes those are brake ducts. I also talked to Todd and agree that cooling down one side of the rotor might be a bad idea .Mine are not as finished off as some you may have seen and do not extend all the way to the back side of the rotor. I have about a 6 inch tube 3 inches in dia extending thru the inner fender liner aimed at the rotor area. The are not as efficient as the full tube type but they tend to cool the entire area not just one side of the rotor. When the wheels are pointing straight ahead most of the air is blocked but when turned to either direction the flow has a straight shot at the brake assembly area. Does it do a lot, probably not but everything helps

Randy
M7 tuning

 

I have a ceramic-coated header, and now have both M7 Aerogel products, so the topic of heat is taken fairly seriously here.

For those who have removed the bonnet liner, they are already receiving, as far as I can determine, a benefit from venting hot air through the cowl vents. With this pad gone there is almost a 1 inch above the cowl wall to the top of the closed bonnet. Hot air will migrate up, and find its way through this openning, and then vacate again upward through the cowl vents. The hot air that comes-out these vents now, as compared to before when the cowl was sealed with the liner, is noticeable. I also removed the rubber stripping along the top of cowl walls to make the effecive openning well over an inch.

The hot air will / should naturally seek this path, and not want to go in the cowl downward, heating other components. Even if this were to happen, which I doubt, lines and wires can be protected easily with this stuff:

http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?fo...action=product

And seen in use here:

 

Completely OT: what's up with the coilover spring being loose in the upper photo (rear I presume?) Shouldn't the spring be under compression at all times and positions, even with the wheel completely off the ground?

 

You know, I never noticed that before! FWIW, I took these photos (and many more) of Tony Nuzzo's cars a couple years ago at a Grand Am race at Laguna Seca...

Ironically, mine currenly is on jack stands with the rear wheels off as I'm about to lube the rear sway bar (again), and indeed the spring is under compression. I should go back and look at the other photos for hints as to why that might be...

 

Brakes cooling is a two ways deal. Rotor/pad cooling, and caliper cooling.
Rotor cooling works by sucking fresh air from the inboard center of the rotor and expelling it (through centrifugal force) through the edge, thus cooling both sides +/- equaly. Assymetrical cooling apens when one blow fresh air only to the inboard side of the rotor.
Calipers contains piston and fluid. Brake fade and/ or failure occur primeraly from boiling fluid witch compress when it's not supposed to.Then it makes sens to concentrate the air flow to the caliper and the center of the rotor. In a perfect wolrd both rotor /pad and caliper are kept cool on both sides, then give ACON a call,they have a caliper with hollow pistons hollow bridge and CF duct that keeps the caliper cool. Why? My gess is because that's where the fluid gets hot! and that's what you gotta keep cool but we are taking MINIS here, not $2000 carbon rotors needing to last 2 to 24 hrs running track time!
BTW, Maximini, I have been monitoring the temp of the ABS block and lines in the pass.cowl and never felt it at more than ambiant, even after a hard day at Sebring or any day of commuting in South florida.
Now back topic, TonyB I agree and like the idea of simply removing the bonnet liner and seals but what about those of us whith an open top air box anr driver side cowl intake scoop
Intersting how passenger side cowl vent cooling can drift into brakes cooling

 

It sounds like the cowl venting can be achieved by removing the rubber seal stripping without having to remove the bonnet liner or "swiss-cheesing" the cowl wall. I'll have to pop the bonnet and see when I have time. If so, it could be left off for the normal stop-n-go (bake)commutes and replaced for track days.

 

I have also thought of using this passenger side plastic cowl wall to vent hot air to alleviate heat soak but maybe using a 2 - 2.5 inches diameter black PVC pipe "snorkel like".

 

from what i can see or better lack of what i see.. im not seeing a lower spring perch or adjustment nuts. This could mean at time the shot was taken they were spun all the way to the bottom why they were working on it. IF you look at the far one.. you dont see the perch or the spring which would suggest its at the proper spot just above and out of sight

 

Why I let this subject irritate me I have no idea but here goes for like the thousandth time.

If you open a path between the engine bay and the cowl area you are allowing engine heat and potentially toxic fumes into your HEVAC system. The pickup for the HEVAC is in the cowl area. That is what the opening is there for. To induct fresh air.

So if you want to drive around in a stinky hot car and pretend you are a race car driver be my guest but please don't pass out from CO poisoning and kill me.

 

wow lmao since popping #4 some time ago i can attest to this as fact . the stink that would come into the cabin after shutting the throttle quickly after a boost was remarkable . as i put a 4" hole in the drivers side to the air box ; i assume it's backing into the cabin here . i do like the vent thing carbonized made though. i'd like to see him go a step further and add a fan for assist and a soil pipe (tube) for draining water . something like an elbow with a fan in it and a drain . just my .02

 

We know that, that's why I am thinking of maybe a snorkel type pipe that ends at the very near top and right end of the grill. Just a thought, if it stinks, we can always remove and patch.

 

Perhaps we can make an opening and wire up a computer fan to suck out hot air from the passenger cowling area? I have a few of them lying around my room just wondering if i can put them to good use. Would it be do-able?

 

I would venture to say that it would be tough to rig up. Is a computer fan even powerful enough to do anything?

 

Carbonized, I'm really interested in your cowl ram intake setup. Is that home-brew, or something that's commercially available?

 

Yes it's totaly home brewed , it is the first shot and could be fine tuned. Anybody feel free to "take it from there"

oops I thaught you where asking about the hot air extractor , the cowl scoop was also home brewed, it is v2, and MinSpeed as the molds.