ill start off by saying that ive already completed the vents, and that they are ####in badical.

what i set out to do a long ass time ago was to do a (near) free mod to get my oh-so-hot engine bay better ventilation. after seeing this picture of an impreza coupe's vents, i thought to myself, "hey, self, why don't i cut some holes in my hood?"

project hood vents begun.

i took a long time researching different types of hood vents. most of the time i would end up with commercial hood vents that go over big ass stoves. the place with the most knowledge were subaru sites and www.roadraceengineering.com who had quite a few drop in plastic ones. all of those didnt suit me though. $90 for a chunk of plastic and then i had to paint it...plus, i didnt want to #### up any of the internal ribbing.
an idea had come, and it was good. i drew this up in photoshop.
i would just cut a couple of holes in the sheetmetal part, stick on some rubber trim, and put a screen on the bottom of it. simple, worked good, and the two vents pictured would be right above the exhaust manifold and the radiator.

after that my clutch promptly exploded, and i took a month off to fix that, two flatspotted tires, and put in my new fmic.

today, about 3 months later me and a buddy said, "hey, lets cut some holes in that hood".

so we did.

here i am grinding the tinsnipped corners down to less sharp, getting the round corners perfect

heres my buddy josh puttin on the rubber moulding.

it came from carquest. a package of two of em about 3 ft long each costed $3. i think it was door trim or something.

whatever it was, home depot and lowes didnt have it, and both claimed such a thing didnt exist. it did, for cheap, and even came with silicone squirted in the middle.

next we painted some chicken wire crap i got from lowes for another $3 gunmetal gray, and screwed it on the bottom. i painted a lot of the big, hideous scratches over with it too.

one more teaser...here's a close up. looking down you can see the upper radiator hose to the left, the radiator towards the bottom, and the exhaust manifold cover in the upper right corner.

and the final result

so the big question- is it functional?

im guessing yes. after turning the car off, you can feel heat being sucked out of the convection cycle down there for hours afterwards. this is definately leaps and bounds past removing the trim piece by the cowl.
as an added bonus, when its raining and water gets on the exhaust mani cover and turns to steam, it comes up out of the vents and looks really ####ing evil and cool.


$6 dollars and 5 hours of work later, im quite proud of it. feel free to copy and do it to yours too, just give credit where credit is due and be sure to link me to some pictures of how you did it.

You should make a walkthrough and email/post it for luda in the walkthough forums for people to follow.


Dam good work bro, dam good.
Only differnece in me and you is i woulda used tried to actually make like a drainage to the sides a little bit. For cruisin around you could always add a skoop on top to let em get more air in but i think it would look really bad and not attractive for your car at all.

But if your out racing then i think thats what i would do.

Very very nice, looks good and is functional. Always good to see some original projects

good job man, its functional and looks good too

daybe i would do it if i had an extra hood lying around.

awesome job...it's good to see some originality.

SWEEETTTTTT!

where did you screw the chicken wire? did you drill holes in the ribs?

That is sweet. I would love to attack that. Are there any suggestions in hind sight for easier steps, or do you feel that the process is damned near perfected?

That is sick bro. I was even scared to drill thru my hood for my hood pins. Now thats over and done. And was a sinch. Im going to tackle this. Nice! Ill start on a template today!

Nice

not bad... I just might do that. Nice cheap alternative to a vented hood.

thats looks hot... I am too scared to cut into my hood though. What did you use to cut the holes out?

Jester

Dumb question, given the heat that our Engine Bays produce and the fact that water will have direct access to the engine now that it has the vents... any possibility in this causing cracks due to contraction/expansion caused by the dircet contact of cool water with hot metal?

^^

Nah, hes got on the exhaust manifold cover so he would actually be fine. The temps in there would actually evaporate that water before it sat there long enough to do anything i think.

its hott

and redgs im me or pm me

Originally posted by nutshot
That is sweet. I would love to attack that. Are there any suggestions in hind sight for easier steps, or do you feel that the process is damned near perfected?

Click to expand...

Not really, this was one of the first (and only, mind you) little projects I've done where everything seemed to just...well...work!
Just remember to make your template, print it out to the correct size, then trace out with sharpie around it.

Originally posted by sids
SWEEETTTTTT!

where did you screw the chicken wire? did you drill holes in the ribs?

Click to expand...

i drilled really small holes in the ribs, then shot in very short wood screws with washers at angles.

Originally posted by UVaJester
thats looks hot... I am too scared to cut into my hood though. What did you use to cut the holes out?

Jester

Click to expand...

i started with a dremel tool and a masonry cut off bit. doesnt work worth a shit, and paint starts to bubble kinda.
here's the method: plunge a couple holes in there with a big bit and your handy drill. this is the hardest part, because you're basically unable to go back after this is done. once you find the courage to do this, get out your trusty tin snips and get to work. cut gradually larger and larger holes until you are an eighth inch from your sharpie line on the inside. whatever you do, do not bend up and down on the sheet metal with your tinsnips, because you WILL deform the shape. just hold the snips exactly level for each cut, take your time, make small cuts, and make your hole gradually larger and larger. after that, get out the die grinder, or dremel in lieu of that, and go your last eighth inch.

Originally posted by neuralracing
Dumb question, given the heat that our Engine Bays produce and the fact that water will have direct access to the engine now that it has the vents... any possibility in this causing cracks due to contraction/expansion caused by the dircet contact of cool water with hot metal?

Click to expand...

i have some thermo-tec header wrap i got from summit on my stock exhaust mani, and my metal cover on over that. if anything cracks its going to be that, but it gets about the same temperature as my valve cover, so i doubt i'll get any damage. just rad steam
they're further up than the vents on the evolution. the three problematic things in the engine bay are the alternator, ignition system, and crank angle sensor. these three things are all far away from the vents.

if i have enough requests i might just make the template again for everyone. the first one up there isn't what i used.

i forgot to mention- when the cuts are complete and you start to do your carquest door trim stuff, get a screwdriver and pry down the few spots where the underside ribbing is in your way. it will actually clamp down on the trim afterwards and hold it for you.